Keck, David D.

Keck, David D. (Daniels) (1903–  ) botanist; born in Omaha, Nebr. He was on the staff of the Carnegie Institution of Washington (1926–50) and a member of that institution's division of plant biology at Stanford University (1929–50). There, with colleagues Jens Clausen and William Hiesey, Keck served as the group's taxonomist in a long-term study of the climatology, morphology, physiology, genetics, and hybridization of western U.S. plants of various elevations. He continued his taxonomic studies at the New York Botanical Garden (1951–58), then became program director of systematic biology at the National Science Foundation (NSF), Washington, D.C. (1958–62), and continued at NSF as division director of biological and medical sciences (1962). His methods of experimental botanical systematics revised many genera of western U.S. flowering plants.