Professor Emeritus and vegetable breeder Henry M. Munger died Aug. 25 at Kendal at Ithaca. He was 94.
According to his profile in the Seedsmen Hall of Fame, Munger introduced more than 50 varieties of cucumbers (including the ‘Spacemaster’, ‘Poinsett’, ‘Tablegreen’ and ‘Marketmore’ lines). Half of all carrots sold in the U.S. and Europe can trace heritage back to Munger’s discovery of a wild plant with pink-petaled flowers instead of white that turned out to be a rare male-sterile variety key to hybrid carrot seed production.
There will be a memorial service at Kendal at Ithaca on Saturday, Sept. 18, at 2 p.m. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Munger’s memory to Cornell’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, 274 Roberts Hall, Ithaca, NY 14850; or to United Way of Tompkins County, 313 N. Aurora St., Ithaca, NY 14850.