Sunday, March 7, 2021
I was saddened to learn of Dr. Wyatt's death. I was at Wake Forest in graduate school from 1967 to 1969, and R.L. was the instructor in the plant anatomy course I took there. There were two students in the course. R.L. stood up there at each meeting time and made a wonderfully well organized presentation to just the two of us. We felt that he devoted as much time and effort to us as he would have for a class of 30. The same was true for the laboratory component. I came out of his course feeling like I was a pretty good plant anatomist. I cannot say the same for every course I ever took -- maybe not even most of them. I was also privileged to go on one of R.L.'s famous field trips to eastern North Carolina where we got to see -- among other things, Venus flytraps and many other insectivorous plants.
Besides class time with R.L., we graduate students were on occasion welcomed into his home. The Biology Department was a small but very cohesive group. R.L. was a major component of that group. I very fondly remember him, his pipe, and his many contributions to a marvelous graduate experience.
With deepest sympathy to all those who knew and loved him.
David Parrish
Professor Emeritus
Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences
Virginia Tech
Blacksburg, VA
