Philip V. Wells

Mr. Wells died Friday, Oct. 29, 2004, at his home. He was cremated.

He was born April 24, 1928, in Brooklyn, N.Y., the son of Philip V. and Florence Ceceilia Lennon Wells. He received a bachelor’s degree, with honors, in biology in 1951 at City University of New York Brooklyn College; a master’s in botany in 1956 from University of Wisconsin, Madison; and a doctorate in botany in 1959 from Duke University.

Mr. Wells served in the U.S. Army as a research associate at Fort Detrick Biological Warfare Laboratories, Crops Division, from 1951 to 1953. He was a research fellow at Duke University from 1955-1958. He was an instructor at University of California in Santa Barbara from 1958 to 1959, a resident ecologist at Nevada Test Site, U.S. Atomic Energy Commission from 1960 to 1961, a research associate at New Mexico Highlands University from 1961 to 1962, a professor of botany at Kansas University from 1962 to 1971, acting director at Botanical Garden and visiting associate professor at University of California-Berkeley from 1966 to 1967, a professor of botany and of systematics and ecology at KU from 1971 to 1998, and professor emeritus of ecology and evolutionary biology at KU from 1998 to 2004. He published “The Manzanitas of California: Also of Mexico and the World” in 2000.

He married Anke M. Wells. She survives, of the home.

Other survivors include a son, Philip “Axel” Wells, Woodstock, Ga.; three daughters, Jacqueline Wells, Austin, Texas, Theresa Satcher, Keller, Texas, and Mary Caputo, Oakland, Calif.; two sisters, Joan Wells and Doris O’Hara, both of Brooklyn, N.Y.; and a granddaughter.

The family suggests memorials to Philip V. Wells Ecological Research Fund, sent in care of Capitol Federal Savings, 1046 Vt., Lawrence 66044.

Online condolences may be sent at www.rumsey-yost.com.