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Grace E. “Betty” Lotowycz
Betty Lotowycz, 1988
Born	May 8, 1916 Manhattan, New York City
Died	April 8, 2016(2016-04-08) (aged 99) Louisville, Colorado
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Vassar
Scientific career
Fields	botanist and aviator
Institutions	Plant Fields Arboretum

( – April 8, 2016) was an American botanist.

Biography

Grace E. “Betty” Lotowycz was an American botanist who .....

She received a degree in botany from Vassar College in 1938 and then joined the Experiment in International Living, a student-exchange program climbing in the Swiss Alps. She joined the staff of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden as a curatorial assistant and as an editorial assistant at Life Magazine.

Lotowycz was a founding member of the Long Island Botanical Society and lifetime member of the Torrey Botanical Society. In 1962, she began working at Planting Fields Arboretum, where she established the herbarium of preserved plants that currently numbers about 10,000 specimens. She retired in 1984 after 22 years.

Private life

At the beginning of WWII, she learned to fly and joined the Women Airforce Service Pilots for which she received a Congressional Gold Medal at a White House ceremony in 2009. In 1946, Lotowycz married Wladimir “Bill” Lotowycz, and lived with him and their young family in Damascus, Syria, from 1947-1949 before returning to New York. Lotowycz is survived by her four daughters, five grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Publications

At the age of 88, she co-authored a book, ‘‘Illustrated Field Guide to Shrubs and Woody Vines of Long Island’’ with Barbara Conolly.