As Dr. Peter H. Raven was retiring from his transformative tenure as president of the Missouri Botanical Garden in 2010, Arnold Donald, then chair of the board of trustees, called him “a global icon.”
“Deservedly so,” Donald told The St. Louis American. “He built this institution to the point where the top people in the world in this space would salivate to be able to lead it, and that’s because of him, his legacy and what he has built here.”
Raven died Saturday at age 89. Tributes from St. Louis and around the world continue to pour in.
“Dr. Raven, a revolutionary, globally recognized botanist and environmentalist who transformed the Missouri Botanical Garden, was also a humanitarian and a staunch advocate for social justice and racial inclusion,” said St. Louis American Publisher Donald M. Suggs.
“Importantly, he was responsible for the inspirational George Washington Carver Garden that honors the life and achievements of the extraordinary Black plant scientist.”
Suggs added that beyond his brilliance, Raven had a natural levity that brought smiles to the faces of friends and confidants.
“The erudite Dr. Raven also had a keen sense of humor that often, impishly, bordered on the irreverent,” Suggs said.
June McAllister Fowler, chair of the garden’s board of trustees, said Raven “didn’t simply lead the garden; he redefined what it could be.”
“His vision elevated it to a world-class institution while deepening its roots in St. Louis.”
Michael McMillan, president and CEO of the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis and a former Missouri Botanical Garden trustee, said Raven will be missed by the entire St. Louis community.
“Peter Raven helped transform the Missouri Botanical Garden into a globally respected institution that attracts visitors from all over the world,” McMillan said. “His work is recognized locally, nationally and internationally.”
Time magazine named Raven a “Hero for the Planet” in 1999. He frequently warned that the loss of biodiversity was one of the central threats of the modern age. He shared his thoughts with The American in 2010.
“We are trashing biological diversity at such a speed we have to go back 65 million years to when the dinosaurs disappeared to find a time when biological diversity was disappearing so rapidly,” Raven told Chris King, then The American’s managing editor.
“So, the Garden’s role is really important in helping to build sustainability and conserve biological diversity, which is what everything we do is ultimately based on. All our food and many of our medicines are based directly on biological diversity, as well as environmental functions like moderating the flow of water, absorbing toxins, and preserving topsoil.”
Raven was born in Shanghai in 1936 to Walter and Isabelle Breen Raven. He earned his doctorate from University of California, Los Angeles in 1960 after undergraduate studies at University of California, Berkeley. Early fieldwork in Mexico studying folk taxonomy helped shape his lifelong interest in the relationship between people and plants.
Before moving to St. Louis, he spent nearly a decade as a professor at Stanford University.
“He was among the most influential botanists of the past century. Over a career that spanned more than six decades, he combined taxonomy, evolutionary biology and conservation into a coherent body of work: to understand the diversity of life, and to argue for its preservation with a clarity that was unusual among scientists of his generation,” wrote Rhett Ayers Butler, founder of Mongabay, a website and nonprofit dedicated to raising interest in the natural world.
In 1985, Raven was awarded a MacArthur Foundation fellowship. In 2000, President Bill Clinton presented him the National Medal of Science. China awarded him its National Friendship Medal, the country’s highest honor for foreign citizens.
Raven served on the council of the National Academy of Sciences and later as its home secretary. He also was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of numerous academies worldwide.
Raven served on the President’s Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology and as a trustee of the National Geographic Society. He was also a life member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.
At 35, he was appointed director of the Missouri Botanical Garden. During the next 40 years, he transformed it into a global center for botanical research, building networks that extended across Latin America, Africa, Asia, and other regions.
Under his direction, the garden became involved in major international projects, including the Flora of China, a vast collaborative effort that cataloged more than 31,000 species.
He is survived by his wife, Patricia Duncan Raven; four children, Alice Raven, Liz Raven McQuinn, Francis Raven, and Kate Raven; and four grandchildren.
A celebration of Raven’s life will be held at the Missouri Botanical Garden at a later date. Donations may be made to the garden’s Dr. Peter H. Raven Memorial Fund.