Leo Roy Tehon

[[File:Leo Roy Tehon.jpg|thumb]] '''Leo Roy Tehon''' (21 June 1895 – 5 May 1953) was an American [[mycologist]] and [[plant pathologist]]. He worked in the [[Illinois Natural History Survey]] from 1921 until his death.

== Life and work == Tehon was born in [[Delmont, South Dakota|Dumont, South Dakota]], the son of Irish immigrant Patrick John and Nebraska-born Bertha May Whittier, a relative of the poet [[John Greenleaf Whittier]]. The family was poor and after the early death of his father Leo worked in the railways to pay for his schooling. He went to school in [[Sturgis, South Dakota]], [[Deadwood, South Dakota|Deadwood]] and [[Fremont, Nebraska]]. He went to Fremont Normal School and Gregg School, Chicago before going to the [[University of Wyoming]] to receive a BA in 1916. The classes of Aven Nelson attracted him to botany. He studied botany at the [[University of Illinois]]. In 1917 he taught botany at [[Arsenal Technical High School]], Indianapolis. He married Mary Viola Bruner in 1918 and they had two children. He served in the infantry in 1918-19 before returning to Illinois where he worked as a plant pathologist in the [[United States Department of Agriculture|US Department of Agriculture]]. He was involved in [[Berberis|barberry]] eradication programs. Barberry was an alternate host of wheat rust. In 1920 he received an MA from the University of Illinois and in 1921 he joined the Illinois Natural History Survey. He received a doctorate from the University of Illinois in 1934 after working under [[Frank Lincoln Stevens]]. From 1947 he was also a professor of plant pathology.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Shanor |first=Leland |date=1955 |title=Leo Roy Tehon: 1895-1954 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3755670 |journal=Mycologia |volume=47 |issue=4 |pages=597–601 |issn=0027-5514}}</ref> He described several plant-pathogenic [[fungi]]<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Tehon |first=L. R. |date=1939 |title=Two New Fungi on Legumes |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00275514.1939.12017372 |journal=Mycologia |language=en |volume=31 |issue=5 |pages=537–543 |doi=10.1080/00275514.1939.12017372 |issn=0027-5514|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Tehon |first=L. R. |last2=Daniels |first2=Eve |date=1925 |title=Notes on the Parasitic Fungi of Illinois—II |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00275514.1925.12020479 |journal=Mycologia |language=en |volume=17 |issue=6 |pages=240–249 |doi=10.1080/00275514.1925.12020479 |issn=0027-5514|url-access=subscription }}</ref> and their control.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Tehon |first=Leo R. |date=1951-12-21 |title=Fungistatic Potencies of Some Fluorinated p -Benzoquinones |url=https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.114.2973.663 |journal=Science |language=en |volume=114 |issue=2973 |pages=663–664 |doi=10.1126/science.114.2973.663 |issn=0036-8075|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Tehon |first=Leo R. |date=1933 |title=Notes on the Parasitic Fungi of Illinois |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00275514.1933.12020664 |journal=Mycologia |language=en |volume=25 |issue=4 |pages=237–257 |doi=10.1080/00275514.1933.12020664 |issn=0027-5514|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Tehon was interested in the history of the pioneers and played the violin. He also studied Italian, translating a work of [[Giovanni Targioni Tozzetti|Tozzetti]] on fungi. He was active in the Boy Scouts movement.<ref name=":0" />

== References == {{reflist}} == External links== * [https://archive.org/details/pleasurewithpla00teho Pleasure with plants] (1949) * [https://archive.org/details/fieldbookofnativ1942teho Fieldbook of native Illinois shrubs] (1942) * [https://archive.org/details/peachyellowsinil21teho Peach yellows in Illinois] (1929) * [https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/items/45933 A Preliminary Report on the Common Bacterial and Fungous Diseases of Crop Plants in Illinois (1924)] * [https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/items/73536 Rout the Weeds] (1939) * [[hdl:2142/73346|The Drug Plants of Illinois]] (1951) * [[hdl:2142/102156|Reconversion for Peace: A Report of the Natural History Survey Division for the Year 1945-46]] (1946) * [[hdl:2142/45902|Epidemic Diseases of Grain Crops in Illinois, 1922-1926]] (1927)

{{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Tehon, Leo Roy}} [[Category:1895 births]] [[Category:1953 deaths]] [[Category:University of Illinois Chicago alumni]] [[Category:American mycologists]]