Charles Maurer

Published on December 13, 2018 9:32 am MT
Updated on February 1, 2019 10:44 am MT

Charles L. Maurer attended the Colorado School of Mines from 1956 to 1958. He then transferred to Colorado State University (CSU) in 1958 and earned a B.S. in Agronomy in 1961, followed by a M.S. in Botany and Plant Pathology in 1963.  Charles worked for Coors Brewing Company for nearly 30 years before retiring. He then worked for the EPA’s National Enforcement Investigation Center at the Federal Center in Lakewood, Colorado as a quality control consultant for 14 years.

Charles is married to Ruth A. Maurer, who attended CSU from 1957 to 1963. Ruth earned her B.S. in Physical Science in 1961 and her M.S. in Mathematics in 1963. She earned her Ph.D. in Mineral Economics (Operations Research and Statistics) from Colorado School of Mines in 1978. Ruth taught in the public schools for several years before working on her Ph.D. She retired as a Professor Emerita in Mathematical and Computer Sciences from Colorado School of Mines in 1996. She was a visiting professor at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point for two years and also spent a sabbatical year teaching in northern Sweden. She has taught, and continues to teach, mathematics at several online universities since she retired from Colorado School of Mines.

Charles is an active member of the Colorado Native Plant Society as well as a Native Plant Master and a Native Plant Master Trainer.  In 2015 he generously helped support publication of the first edition of Assistant Curator Jennifer Ackerfield’s Flora of Colorado and then in 2016 – 2018 generously supported Madeline Maher’s floristics study that is entitled “A floristic inventory of private and public lands in southwestern Gunnison County, Colorado.”  Madeline graduated with her master-of-science degree in December 2018.  During Charles and Ruth’s visit to participate in Madeline’s thesis defense in August 2018 they chose to generously provide a $158,000 endowment to the CSU Herbarium.  In recognition of this generous endowment, the CSU Herbarium was officially re-named the Charles Maurer Herbarium Collection in December 2018.

The purpose of Charles’ and Ruth’s endowment is to expand student participation in, improve, grow, and expand the user base of the Charles Maurer Herbarium Collection. The endowment is used to:

  1. Help grow the size of the Charles Maurer Herbarium Collection.
  2. Improve curation of specimens in the Charles Maurer Herbarium Collection.
  3. Improve facilities for users (including students, members of the general public, and online users) of the Charles Maurer Herbarium Collection.
  4. Support fieldwork by curators of the Charles Maurer Herbarium Collection as well as fieldwork by undergraduate and graduate students who contribute specimens from the regional flora to the Charles Maurer Herbarium Collection.
  5. Support undergraduate students who participate in the Charles Maurer Herbarium Collection internship program.
  6. Support outreach by students and curators of the Charles Maurer Herbarium Collection.

Charles and Ruth Maurer’s property in Gunnison County

 

Madeline Maher, Charles Maurer, Ruth Maurer

 

Madeline Maher collecting Clematis with Charlie Maurer

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