Inoculum 63(3) - Mycological Society of America

ployment and who have been MSA members for 15 years or
more. There is no membership fee for Emeritus members although
there is a reduced fee for access to Mycologia. If you
are interested in becoming an Emeritus member, please contact
me directly at msasec01@yahoo.com.
Deceased Members: We are saddened to hear of the passing
of Erast Parmasto, an Honorary Member of MSA. Historian
Ron Petersen has information about Dr. Parmasto’s career later
in this issue. We were also sorry to learn, belatedly, of the passing
of B.T. Lingappa, Dexter H. Howard, and Marjorie Anchel.
Reminder: Renewing your MSA membership is easier than
ever! Just log in to the MSA website at http://www.msafungi.org.
There is now an email reminder system available if you
have forgotten your MSA user id or password.
REMINDER: MSA Directory Update: Is your information
up-to-date in the MSA directory? The Society is relying more
and more on email to bring you the latest MSA news, awards
announcements and other timely information. To ensure that
4 Inoculum 63(3), June 2012
you receive Society blast emails and the Inoculum as soon as it
comes out, and so that your colleagues can keep in touch,
please check the accuracy of your email address and contact information
in the online directory. This can be accessed via our
web site at www.msafungi.org. If you need assistance with
updating your membership information, please contact our Association
Manager at Allen Press, the always-helpful Kay Rose
at krose@allenpress.com.
Please do not hesitate to contact me about MSA Business or any
questions that you may have about the Society. In recent years
we have suffered an alarming decline in membership and it
would be wonderful to reverse this trend. The first step is for
everyone who is currently a member to renew for the upcoming
year. And don’t forget to recommend MSA to your amateur or
professional colleagues who are interested in fungi – be they
pathologists, geneticists, ecologists, or people who just like to
wander around in the woods. There is room in MSA for all!
MYCOLOGICAL NEWS
Erast Parmasto, 1928-2012
The MSA has lost one of its honorary members, Erast
Parmasto of Tallin, Estonia.
Erast was an academician of the Academy of Sciences
of Estonia and expert in biosystematics, especially in the taxonomy
of Hymenomycetes and statistics of spore production
and measurement. An outstanding student in Estonian
schools during World War II, Erast thereafter became a student
of Apollinari Bondarzew in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg),
thereby establishing a promising foundation on which
to build a career, were it not the early days of the “Cold War”
and difficult communication outside the Soviet hegemony.
By 1972, Erast was elected a member of the Estonian Academy
of Sciences, at the beginning of a career spent at the Institute
of Biology of the Estonian Academy of Sciences in
Tartu, Estonia.
Like many of his age and geographic location, Erast
lived through the days of Germany occupation, followed by
years of Soviet Russian domination. During the latter
period, it was almost impossible to gain recognition be-
yond the “Iron Curtain,” but Erast persisted in publishing
(always correctly in Russian) scientific papers, including
several major monographs and, when possible,
putting them in the hands of workers outside the Russian
hegemony.
A personal note: I first met Erast in Stockholm,
Sweden. He had been invited to join a foray to the
Swedish north, and we spent hours on the train from
Stockholm to Umeå. Although we plied him with questions
about conditions in Estonia, he would not answer
directly, implying that “the walls have ears.” Even on
the ferry he would not comment on such things. At last
we reached our destination near the Norwegian border
—Jessie A. Glaeser
MSA Secretary
msasec1@yahoo.com
and the following morning we climbed a nearby hill and rested
on a large rock, where Erast, as was his habit, lit a cigarette.
There, surrounded for many meters by nothing by nature,
he offered, “Now I will tell you about conditions in
Estonia.” And they were grim but revelatory to those of us
working in freer, less ideological circumstances. Only relatively
recently did life become appreciably more comfortable
for science in the Baltic States.
Author of over 400 scientific papers, an obituary with
photos is available at http://erast.ut.ee/ErastParmasto/. He is
survived by his wife and scientific collaborator, Ilmi. Erast
will be remembered affectionately for his dry wit (necessary
for survival in his lifetime) and careful attention to scientific
detail. He mentored numerous younger colleagues who will
carry on with the benefit of his experience.
MSA Auction Items
—Ron Petersen
University of Tennessee
The MSA auction (Wednesday evening, July 18) is one of
the major fundraising efforts of the society. All donations to the
auction, silly or serious, are very welcome. If you plan to donate
an item (or items) to the auction, please bring them with you
and drop me an e-mail to let me know what you are bringing. If
you don’t plan to come this year but still would like to donate,
please send items to the address below.
—Karen Hughes
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Hesler Biology Building Rm 330
University of Tennessee, Knoxville 37920