Before his death on April 18, 2014, Professor Carl Chuey discussed with his brother (Jim Chuey) how best to support the research work at WSU. An additional endowment was established in 2014 in honor of Professor Carl Chuey. This additional fund was established by the American Dahlia Society (ADS) and by the Scheetz-Chuey Charitable Foundation, to honor Professor Carl Chuey.
Carl F. Chuey was a professor of biology at Youngstown State University for over 47 years. He became the Curator of Youngstown State’s Herbarium and guided it to contain one of the largest collections in Ohio, over 100,000 plant species. He was a fern expert and the YSU collection included over 20,000 species of ferns. Dr. Chuey had broad technical interests and was involved in a number of professional organizations, including the Ohio Academy of Science, the American Fern Society, the American Society of Plant Taxonomy, the British Pteridological Society, and the Lighter Than Air Society.
His brother, Jim Chuey, was an enthusiastic dahlia gardener and Professor Chuey inevitably got caught up in Jim’s hobby of growing and showing dahlias. They were instrumental in establishing and in providing leadership to the Mahoning Valley Dahlia Society, which has become an active, effective, and successful Dahlia Society in Ohio.
He and Jim eventually collaborated on the hybridization of dahlias, including one in particular named after their mother, Marcella Louise. In that process, Professor Chuey became concerned with the vexing problems associated with dahlia viruses. His technical expertise as a biologist allowed him to follow and understand the research work at WSU. He developed great respect for the dahlia virus research project there and he anticipated that the work might one day make it possible for all gardeners to enjoy dahlia gardening without the difficulties associated with viruses.
Uses and Purposes
The distributions from this fund will be used to establish and support the Carl F. and James J. Chuey Endowed Chair for Dahlia Research and Development in the College of Agriculture, Human and Natural Resource Sciences (CAHNRS) and to support the Carl F. and James J. Chuey Dahlia Resource Center at WSU. At the outset, the research projects and scholarly work should focus on how best to identify, control, or eliminate virus in dahlia gardens. In the longer term, the work should evolve toward the development of dahlias with virus tolerance and virus resistance and toward broader support of the hybridization and growth of dahlias.
The key purpose for the Resource Center is the communication of both the virus work and the broad knowledge and expertise developed by and known to CAHNRS that would be practically useful for dahlia gardeners. The Resource Center should also evolve to become a source for clean dahlia stock for as long as dahlia suppliers and consumers need it. The Endowed Chair and the Resource Center should be responsive to the broad priorities and perspectives of the American Dahlia Society. For as long as Mr. Jim Chuey maintains an active interest in growing dahlias, he will be apprised of important developments in the project and will be given early priority access to research findings in order to take advantage of those developments in his dahlia hobby.