James S. Pringle ’58

James S. Pringle ’58, Ph.D., passed away in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, on September 3, 2024. Jim was born in Danvers, Massachusetts, and grew up in Laconia, New Hampshire. At Dartmouth he majored in botany and was active in the Church of Christ College Fellowship. After graduation he earned an M.S. at the University of New Hampshire and a Ph.D. at the University of Tennessee. In 1963 he became a plant taxonomist and the first full-time scientist at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Hamilton, Ontario, where he remained throughout his career. Through the years Jim named or updated the taxonomy of 88 species, mostly in the gentian family. In 2004 a newly described gentian tree native to the Andes was named in his honor and in 2015 another gentian native to the Himalaya was named for him. Jim’s research took him to Mexico, Belize, Peru, and Britain, among other places. He was also an adjunct professor at McMaster University and conducted naturalists’ workshops at Queen’s University. Jim is survived by a sister.