Background
Degener, Otto was born on May 13, 1899 in East Orange, New Jersey, United States. Son of William and Marie Ludovica Keampf (von Baldenstein) Degener.
Degener, Otto was born on May 13, 1899 in East Orange, New Jersey, United States. Son of William and Marie Ludovica Keampf (von Baldenstein) Degener.
Bachelor of Science, Massachusetts Agriculture College, 1922. Master of Science, University Hawaii, 1923. Postgraduate, University Massachusetts, 1924—1925.
Doctor of Science (honorary), University Massachusetts, 1952. Postgraduate, Marine Biological Laboratory, Columbia University and New York Botanical Garden, 1951—1952.
Intending to spend a year as a tourist, he arrived in Hawaii but decided to stay. He received his Master of Arts from the University of Hawaii in 1922 and his Doctor of Philosophy from Columbia University. He taught Botany at the University of Hawaii from 1925 to 1927, and was the first naturalist for what are now Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and Haleakala National Park.
In 1932, Degener started the first book on Hawaiian plants published since that of William Hillebrand in 1888.
lieutenant was titled Flora Hawaiiensis, and published in several volumes over his lifetime. Amy B. H. Greenwell assisted in some of the volumes, and left her property as a botanical garden.
He collected over 36,000 different species and preserved some 900 threatened and endangered plants. His specimens were left to the New York Botanical Garden.
The tree Degeneria vitiensis, which he discovered in Fiji in 1942, is named after him.
He died January 16, 1988 in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Member of American Association for the Advancement of Science, Hawaiian Botanical Society, American Museum Natural History, National Parks Association.
Married Isa Irmgard Margarete Elisabeth Hansen, January 10, 1953.