Chester Rowell

Marfa | Botanist and Professor

Dr. Rowell was a botanist who taught at Sul Ross State University, Texas Tech University, and Angelo State University. He was a skilled field researcher and known for his tours with students and colleagues to Mexico, Concho Valley, Trans Pecos, and the Big Bend, where he collected specimens for large research herbaria. Concerned about the erosion of native ecosystems stretching from the playas of the Panhandle to the prairies of the Texas coast to the deserts of west Texas, he became one of the founders of the Texas Organization of Endangered Species, a group of scientists and laymen who started tracking and promoting protection of rare species in the state in the 1960s.