Bill Weber, professor emeritus of biology at the University of Colorado at Boulder and curator emeritus of the CU Museum, was honored with the prestigious Edgar H. Wherry Award of the North American Rock Garden Society.
The award was established in 1973 after a Philadelphia scientist who published books on ferns and Phlox, a favorite group of rock garden plants. The award recognizes "a person who has made an outstanding contribution to the dissemination of botanical or horticultural information about native North American plants."
The award usually is given for a collection of works or a lifetime of literary effort rather than a single work. All works must be backed by scientific concepts and may include those written with a general audience in mind.
Weber has written books on Colorado flora that have been in continuous print in various editions since 1952. These works include "Colorado Flora: Eastern Slope" and "Colorado Flora: Western Slope" of which new editions will be published in spring 2000. Other works include a guide to Colorado mosses, a Rocky Mountain lichen primer, written in conjunction with former CU chancellor and law Professor Jim Corbridge, and two books on one of CU's most eminent scientists, T.D.A. Cockerell, with a third volume awaiting publication.
Weber has traveled all over the world in his research of plants and is considered the world authority on the lichens and mosses of the Galapagos Islands. He was a full-time faculty member of CU-Boulder's biology department from 1946 to 1962 and the University Museum from 1962 to his retirement in 1991.
Because Weber could not attend the society's annual meeting in Banff, Alberta, the award was conferred at the annual meeting of the Colorado Chapter at the Wellshire Inn in Denver in November.