(23 January 1915 – 22 June 1995)7
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Herbarium (NCU) has cataloged approximately 40 vascular plant specimens and 25 bryophyte specimens collected by Frances K. Foust Lombard. All bear her maiden name, Foust. It is odd that we have found no mycological specimens collected by her, despite the fact that she studied under Dr. John Nathaniel Couch and wrote her thesis on organisms considered at that time to be fungi. Most of the specimens she collected date from 1937-1938, and all were collected within North Carolina. As our cataloging continues, it is likely that more specimens collected by Ms. Foust Lombard will be found. NCU’s vascular plant specimens can be found at sernecportal.org , and our bryological specimens are cataloged at bryophyteportal.org .
The only other herbarium found to have vascular plant specimens collected by Ms. Foust Lombard is the New York Botanical Garden Herbarium (NY); they are duplicates of specimens at NCU. The Harvard University Herbaria database of botanists notes that Frances Foust Lombard’s herbarium (ca. 1,071 specimens) and types are at the Center for Forest Mycology Research at the Forest Products Laboratory (CFMR) in Madison Wisconsin.8 Other herbaria curating Foust Lombard’s mycological specimens include Fort Lewis College (FLD), Miami University (MU), State University of New York (SYRF), United States National Fungus Collection (BPI), and Virginia Tech University (VPI).
left: Xanthorhiza simplicissima specimen collected by Frances Foust
in 1938 while she was a student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Specimen curated by NCU.
Frances Katherine Foust was the daughter of W. L. and Mary G. Foust of Asheboro, Randolph County, North Carolina. She had two older brothers, Sam and George, and five younger sisters, Martha E., Donna L., Mary W., Ruth, and Sarah K. The family lived on Foust Street, and W. L. Foust’s occupation is listed as “Operator, Coal Yard.” 4 Sarah Foust, fourteen years younger than Frances, is listed as co-collector on several specimens at NCU.
Frances Katherine Foust earned an A.B. in Education at the Woman’s College of the University of North Carolina (now the
University of North Carolina at Greensboro) in 1936. As an undergraduate she was a member of the Speaker’s Club, the Botany Club, the Zoology Field Club, the Day Students’ Advisory Board, and the Education Club.2
In 1937 Foust began graduate school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the laboratory of mycologist Dr. John Nathaniel Couch. In 1937 Ms. Foust described Rozella allomycis Foust which had been found in soil collected from “Battle Grove, across the road from Coker Arboretum, Chapel Hill, N.C. [North Carolina], October 5, 1936… This organism is not only a new species but is the first recorded parasite on the genus Allomyces.”1 Once considered a fungus, Rozella is currently incertae sedis (“of uncertain placement”) within the Protozoa. Ms. Foust earned a Master degree in 1938; the title of her thesis was “Studies on Rozella and Pleolpidium.”
The 1940 census lists Frances K. Foust “lodger” as living on Park Road NW in Washington, D.C. and her profession as “Supervisor, WPA [Works Progress Administration] (CCC) [Civilian Conservation Corps].”5
In 1941 she joined the United States Department of Agriculture and specialized in the identification of Homobasidiomycetes, wood-decaying and wood-inhabiting organisms.8
At age 29, on 26 July, 1944 she married Earl Joseph Lombard (b. ca. 1911) in the District of Columbia.6
Frances Foust Lombard spent most of her career at the Center for Forest Mycology Research in the Forest Products Laboratory of the United States Department of Agriculture in Madison, Wisconsin. [photo at left: Frances Foust Lombard at work in the Center for Forest Mycology Research at the Forest Products Laboratory (USDA) in Madison, Wisconsin8 ]
Taxa named by Frances K. Foust Lombard (incomplete list):
Rozella allomycis Foust. Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society 53(1): 197-204. (1937).
Coryneum asperulum Lombard & Davidson. Phytopathology 36: 775-777. (1946).
Gloeodontia columbiensis Burt ex Burds. & Lombard. Mem. New York Botanical Garden 28(1): 17. (1976).
Phellinus kawakamii Larsen, Lombard, et Hodges. Mycologia 77(3): 345-352. (1985).
Phellinus fragrans M. J. Larsen & F. F. Lombard. Mem. New York Botanical Garden 28(1): 131-140. (1976)
Polyporus lowei Burdsall & Lombard. Mem. New York Botanical Garden 49: 147-151. (1989).
Phellinus tropicalis M. Larsen et Lombard. Mycologia 80(1): 72-76. (1988).
Meripilus sumstinei (Murr.) M. Larsen et Lombard. Mycologia 80(5): 612-621. (1988)
Meripilus lentifrondosa (Murr.) M. Larsen et Lombard. Mycologia 80(5): 612-621. (1988)
Taxa named in honor of Frances K. Foust Lombard:
Laeticorticium lombardiae M. J. Larsen & Gilb. Holotype collected by Frances Foust Lombard (FP-101261-T) at Kemp Biological Station in Oneida County, Wisconsin in 1973 (CFMR).
Frances Katherine Foust Lombard died on 22 June 1995 in Dane County, Wisconsin.7 She is buried in Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Silver Spring, Montgomery County, Maryland (photo of grave marker below).9
PUBLICATIONS:
Foust, Frances K. 1937. A new species of Rozella parasitic on Allomyces. Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society 53(1): 197-204.
Foust, Frances K. 1938. Studies on Rozella and Pleolpidium. M. A. Thesis, Dept. of Botany, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Rose, Dean Humboldt, Frances Foust Lombard, Richard Wiebe, Harold Thurston Cook and Janina Nowakowska. 1945. The Technical Literature of Agricultural Motor Fuels: Including physical and chemical properties, engine performance, Economics. U.S. Department of Agriculture. [incomplete citation]
Lombard, Frances F. and Ross W. Davidson. 1946. An undescribed Coryneum on an Italian Cypress. Photopathology 36: 775-777.
Foust Lombard, Frances. 1947. Review of Literature on Cinchona Diseases, Injuries, and Fungi. Issue 9, Biographical Bulletin, U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Duncan, Catherine Gross and Frances Foust Lombard. 1965. Fungi Associated with Principal Decays in Wood Products in the United States. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service. [incomplete citation]
Gilbertston, R. T., Frances F. Lombard, and E. R. Canfield. 1975. Gum guaiac in field tests for extracellular phenol oxidases of wood-rotting fungi and other basidiomycetes. USDA Forest Service Research Paper FPL269. U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service Forest Products Laboratory, Madison, Wisconsin.
Larsen, Michael J. and Frances F. Lombard. 1976. Phellinus fragrans sp. nov. (Aphyllophorales, Hymenochaetaceae) associated with a white rot of Maple. Memoirs of the New York Botanical Garden 28(1): 131-140.
Burdsall, Harold H., Jr. and Frances F. Lombard. 1976. The genus Gloeodontia in North America. Memoirs of the New York Botanical Garden 28(1): 16-31.
Berry, Frederick H. and Frances Foust Lombard. 1978. Basidiomycetes associated with decay of living trees. Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Northeast Forest Experiment Station. Volume 413. [incomplete citation]
Lombard, Frances F. 1983. A cultural study of Piptoporus soloniensis (Aphyllophorales, Polyporaceae). Mycologia 75(4): 723-727.
Larsen, Michael J. and Frances F. 1983. Fibroporia angulopora, a new species (Aphyllophorales, Polyporaceae) associated with brown-rot of Pseudotsuga menziesii residue in western Oregon. Mycologia 75(4): 623-627.
Eslyn, Wallace E. and Frances F. Lombard. 1983. Decay in mine timber. Part II: Basidiomycetes associated with decay of coal mine timbers. Forest Products Journal 33(7/8): 19-23.
Scheffer, Theodore C., Barry S. Goodell, and Frances F. Lombard. 1984. Fungi and decay in Western Redcedar utility poles. Wood and Fiber Science 16(4): 543-548.
Lombard, Frances F. and Michael J. Larsen. 1985. Phellinus bicuspidatus (Hymenochaetales, Hymenochaetaceae), a new species associated with sap rot of oak in Louisiana. Mycologica 77(1): 55-61.
Larsen, Michael J., Frances F. Lombard, and Charles S. Hodges, Jr.. 1985. Hawaiian Forest Fungi. V. A new species of Phellinus (Hymenochaetaceae) causing decay of Casuarina and Acacia. Mycologia 77(3): 345-352.
Eslyn, Wallace E., Terry L. Highley, and Frances F. Lombard. 1985. Longevity of untreated wood in use above ground. Forest Products Journal 35(5): 28-35.
Larsen, Michael J. and Frances F. Lombard. 1986. New combinations in the genus Postia Fr. (Polyporaceae). Mycotaxon 26 (July-September): 271-273.
Aho, Paul E., Gregory M. Filip, and Frances F. Lombard. 1987. Decay fungi and wounding in advance Grand and White Fir regeneration. Forest Service, Vol. 33(2): 347-355.
Filip, Gregor M., Catherine A. Parks, Kenneth W. Seidel, and Frances F. Lombard. 1987. Incidence of decay fungi in stumps of two thinned western larch stands in northeastern Oregon. United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, Research Note PNW-RN-468.
Larsen, Michael J. and Frances F. Lombard. 1988. Studies in the genus Phellinus. I. The identity of Phellinus rickii with notes on its facultative synonyms. Mycologia 80(1): 72-76.
Larsen, Michael J. and Frances F. Lombard. 1988. The status of Meripilus giganteus (Aphyllophorales, Polyporaceae) in North America. Mycologia 80(5): 612-621.
Burdsall, Harold H., Jr. and Frances F. Lombard. 1989. Polyporus lowei, a new species from the Great Lakes Region. Memoirs of the New York Botanical Garden 49: 147-151.
Larsen, Michael J. and Frances F. Lombard. 1989. Taxonomy and nomenclature of Phellinus weiri in North America. IN: Proceedings of the 7th international conference on root and butt rots; 1988 August 9-16; Vernon and Victoria, BC, Canada. International Union of Forestry Research Organisations (IUFRO) working party S2.06.01. Victoria, BC, Canada: Forestry Canada, Pacific Forestry Center; 1989; pp. 573-578.
Lombard, Frances F. 1990. A cultural study of several species of Antrodia (Polyporaceae, Aphyllophorales). Mycologia 82(2): 185-191.
Larsen, Michael J., Frances F. Lombard, and Joseph W. Clark. 1994. Phellinus sulphuracens and the closely related P. weirii in North America. Mycologia 86(1): 121-130.
SOURCES:
1. Foust, Frances K. 1937. A new species of Rozella parasitic on Allomyces. Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society 53(1): 197-204.
2. Dunnagan, Rachel, ed. Pine Needles 1936. Yearbook of the Women’s College of the University of North Carolina. Greensboro, North Carolina. (Page 32).
3. Thorp, David J., ed. 1938 Yackety Yack, Official Yearbook of the Carolina Publications Union, Chapel Hill, N.C. Volume XLVIII. (Page 221).
4. Year: 1930; Census Place: Asheboro, Randolph, North Carolina; Roll: 1714; Page: 8B; Enumeration District: 0001; FHL microfilm: 2341448. Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2002. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of Census. Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930. Washington, D.C.: National Archives & Records Administration, 1930. T626,2,667 rolls.
5. Year: 1940; Census Place: Washington, District of Columbia; Roll: T627_566; Page: 10B; Enumeration District: 1-407. Source Information: Ancestry.com 1940 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Original Data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940. Washington, D.C.: National Archives & Records Administration, 1940. T627,4,643 rolls.
6. Ancestry.com. District of Columbia, Marriage Records, 1810-1953 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016. Original Data: Marriage Records. District of Columbia Marriages. FamilySearch, Salt Lake City, UT.
7. Ancestry.com. Wisconsin Death Index, 1959-1997 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc., 2007. Original Data: Wisconsin Vital Records Office. Wisconsin Death Index, 1959-67, 1969-97. Madison, Wisconsin, USA: Wisconsin Department of Health.
8. Wise, Madelon. 2014. Lab Notes: News from the Forest Products Laboratory. Women’s History Month: FPL Remembers Frances Lombard. https://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/labnotes/?p=2986 accessed on 5 December 2017.
9. Find A Grave. Frances F. Lombard, Memorial ID #142550518. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/142550518/frances-f-lombard accessed on 5 December 2017.