4 entries.
Milo VanLandingham Kral
wrote on May 3, 2025
Thank you for making this web page in honor of my Dad. We only knew him in our way,
Robert Haynes
wrote on April 17, 2025
I just learned of the passing of Bo Karl. I first met Bob while I was an undergraduate student at Louisiana Tech in 1964 or 65. I was taking an agronomy course and was required to make a grass collection. There were a few grasses in my collection that I had difficulty identifying. I was told by my general botany professor to talk with Sr. Karl. He could identify them. That began a life long friendship. I never studied under Bob but we kept in touch regularly. After I received my doctorate degree and began teaching at The University of Alabama, he and I regularly visited each other and traveled together, culminating in a three week Nicaraguan trip. We met several times after his retirement and move to Cairo. We, along with several other Alabama botanists, published a check list Alabama plants. It is certainly sad to hear about his death. He lived a long, fruitful life.
Lara D Berkley
wrote on March 27, 2025
Oh no!! Bob (Dr. Kral to me back then…) was also my professor / mentor/advisor at Vanderbilt from 1986-90. He took our very small Systematic Botany / Dendrology classes on such fun and educational field trips and labs. The middle-of-the-woods pop quizzes and index cards, tromping through fields and riding in stinky rental vans all over TN…so many memories. We had an incredible camping trip to Cape San Blas, FL, where we learned about so many interesting species. I still have my Dendro notebook – it's remains a treasured resource 30+ years later. As students, we also had meals at their home in Nashville. Their yard was instantly recognizable as the only one with remaining/restored natural vegetation! He was one of the primary reasons I'm in the conservation / landscape architecture field. We kept in touch over the years via letters – I still have a few. Later, when Bob and Mabel moved to Cairo, GA, my husband, son, and I went to visit them for supper in their home. I was sad to hear that he had to move the herbarium collection from Vanderbilt to B.R.I.T., but glad to know it is in good care. To the family – surely you know how quietly impactful Dr. Kral was in so many students' lives. He was kind, full of amazing knowledge, and a wonderful teacher and mentor. I'm SO sad to hear of his passing! Thank you for providing a place for people to share their memories. Now I will go searching for some of his namesake sedges…(among many other species…)
Frank Witherspoon
wrote on February 18, 2025
Bob was my professor in Systematic Botany and Dendrology at Vanderbilt in the late '60s. That's only about 15 years after he was a POW, of which I was not aware. The designation "mentor" was not a thing then, but he was certainly my mentor. I spent many hours in the herbarium lab with him mounting plant material, even after I was working on an MS at MTSU. After I was in med school in Memphis, I had dinner in Bob and Mabel's home many times when I was back in Nashville. We kept up with each other for years, but I never made it to Cairo to see him. Of all of the dozens of teachers that I've had in my life, Bob is the one that I consider the best, and he was my favorite. He was a great teacher and a great man.