The College of Arts and Sciences wishes to recognize one of its friends, Carolina Distinguished Professor Dr. Patricia J. DeCoursey for her long-standing commitment to the College and to the W. Gordon Belser Arboretum. This unique property serves as an outdoor field classroom and laboratory for University of South Carolina undergraduates and as a metropolitan site for conducting a broad spectrum of educational outreach programs.

Dr. DeCoursey’s relationship with the University of South Carolina started in 1966 when her late husband accepted a position in the Biology Department as Assistant Professor of Physiology. Dr. DeCoursey, a noted researcher herself, served in various positions until 1970 when she was appointed a Research Associate in the newly formed Baruch Institute. In 1975 she competed for a tenure track position in the Biology Department and was appointed Associate Professor to cover the Animal Behavior and Behavioral Physiology Courses; at that time she also set up a research laboratory in Chronobiology (Biological Rhythms).

“My love of natural habitats started in my earliest toddler years, when my family lived off the land in the wilderness of northern Wisconsin and in the Boundary Waters Park (Quetico Canoe Wilderness) of southern Ontario, Canada,” recounts Dr. DeCoursey. “My passion for nature inspired me to undertake graduate training at Cornell University and the University of Wisconsin in behavioral ecology, and then to study the behavioral and physiological adaptiveness of animals in their natural habitats.” During her University PhD program, she quickly singled out the area of daily temporal (time-oriented) behavior and physiology of mammals, a part of the Chronobiology field called ‘Circadian Rhythms or Biological Clocks.’ Her research from 1955 to the present has revolved around neural mechanisms of daily timing (the “how” or proximate questions of biology) tightly bound to questions of evolutionary development of these circadian rhythms (the “why” or ultimate questions). “These difficult latter questions, of course, led me to pristine habitats not contaminated by human influence, and that in turn fortified my love of wilderness sites, arboreta, wild life sanctuaries, national parks and other nature preserves. I was greatly impressed by the clarity of unambiguous answers about evolutionary questions that could be gained from teaching and research in these virgin tracts.”

Dr. DeCoursey recalls, “The great need arose in 2006 for an outdoor ecology field laboratory for our 1,371 Biological Science majors at the University of South Carolina. The last weed field near Columbia suitable for Ecology labs was taken over for a new building and our classes reluctantly tried the Historic Horseshoe. Something had to be done!” The 10-acre Belser property had been deeded as a gift to the Biology Department in 1959; because of the great topographical diversity of the Belser Tract, it seemed an ideal site for restoring 10 representative biomes (plant communities) of the Eastern Temperate Rain Forest Ecosystem in which Columbia is located. The forest had deteriorated by 2006 into a degraded, dying woodlot. The restoration task would be challenging but it would be possible.” Dr. DeCoursey added that Dean Mary Anne Fitzpatrick’s support of the Arboretum with funding, publicity, and good counsel has certainly increased her commitment to keep on working towards a permanent plan for the Arboretum’s preservation.

Dr. DeCoursey explains that her role as professor includes elements of teaching, research, and service to the University of South Carolina and to the general scientific community. In this regard, she has served on numerous national funding panels such as the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the US Office of Technology Assessment; she has been awarded many NSF grants for her research laboratory and has served in setting up the major scientific society in her field, ‘The Society for Research on Biological Rhythms’ and its Journal, ‘The Journal of Biological Rhythms.’

Since beginning work on the restoration of the Belser Arboretum in 2006, Dr. DeCoursey has put her magnificent intellect, her personal financial resources, and thousands of hours of physical labor into making the Arboretum a valuable teaching and conservation outreach facility. Some of her accomplishments at the Arboretum include planning and creating a trail system, eradicating kudzu and other non-native species, and establishing seedling plant nurseries for growing several thousand cost-free plants for restoring the plant communities. She has also organized the building of the Caroline Belser Grimball Outdoor Classroom and the creation of a small ecology museum at the Arboretum, and much more. Currently she is diligently working to build an Endowment for perpetual care of the Arboretum by a permanent manager.

For her commitment to the University and the Belser Arboretum, the College of Arts and Sciences wishes to recognize Dr. Patricia J. DeCoursey as the October 2010 Friend of the Month.

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