Zentmyer started his career as a forest pathologist at both the USDA and Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, where he studied the biology and control of white pine blister rust and Dutch elm disease. Later he became a world authority on Phytophthora as he studied avocado diseases at the University of California, Riverside. He established many new concepts, including chemotaxis, chemotropism, and heterothallism. He also implemented biological control methods and determined the bases for their effects. Zentmyer served as APS president in 1966, was elected a fellow of the society in 1968, and received the APS Award of Distinction in 1983. He was also elected to the National Academy of Science.
(Submitted for publication in July 2008.)
