Obituary: Martin Beazor Ellis, 1911–1996

Abstract

With the death of Martin Ellis on 8 June 1996, after a short illness, the Society lost a former President and Honorary member, the International Mycological Institute a Chief Mycologist of long and illustrious standing, mycology a twentieth-century pioneer in the study of hyphomycetes, and amateurs worldwide a popularizer of the collection and identification of microfungi. He was certainly no parochial mycologist for he enjoyed an international reputation built not only on admiration for his work and the clarity of its presentation but also his ability in correspondence and by personal discussion and example to help and stimulate others to emulate his high standards. His was a singular mycological life which as far as his published work is concerned initially may have seemed somewhat overfocused on his handsome (as he often put it) hyphomycetes. This belies the talents that he brought to bear on his subject such as a love of languages, a deep understanding and knowledge of nature, an illustrator's eye and the capability of translating this into scientifically accurate but artistic figures, and sheer hard work. He had an ability to organize the whole of his activities so systematically that were he to have been brought up in the computerized age he would have had no problem at all in adapting to it (his comprehensive card indices were a delight to use).