Mystery Picture 091220

Today's mystery picture is less mysterious than some, but there is still plenty that remains unknown. Written on the picture was the following: "Zohary, Stebbins, HCS Mt. Conness 1953". I do not know Zohary or Stebbins or why they were with Grandpa on Mt. Conness in 1953. Do you know?


UPDATE

Andrew provides information about the background in the comments.

Check out http://www.danielzohary.com/. It mentions both Zohary and Stebbins. Mount Congress is on the Norwegian island of Svalbard.

Thanks, Andrew! A quick Google search for Stutz and Zohary returns 500+ hits, so Grandpa and Zohary must have quite the history.

Also, I would not have guessed that Mount Congress is in Svalbard, in part because I had never heard of Svalbard! It looks cold, but it would make sense nowadays -- from a certain point of view -- for a botanist to visit Svalbard because it houses the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, the "doomsday" seed bank to protect plant diversity should some large-scale calamity occur.

Alas, the real explanation is not nearly as interesting as that. I rechecked the photo and, through old eyes and smudged ink, I now believe it says Mt. Conness, which is in California. I have corrected the initial post but am leaving Andrew's comments so that the next time my wife asks me when I have ever admitted to being wrong I can direct her to this entry!

Ellen writes in the comments that she spoke with Grandpa about this picture.

I asked Grandma about Zohary and Stebbins. We know, of course, that Stebbins was an outstanding internationally known geneticist and Grandpa's mentor while he was earning his Ph.D. at Berkley, California. But I didn't know who Zohary was. Grandma said that Zohary was a Jewish student who studied with Grandpa. His wife was also jewish and had a name that nobody could pronounce, so Grandpa nicknamed her "Deborah" and it caught on for everybody else. Zohary eventually went back to Jerusalem after he graduated and did undercover work (spy) for the Jewish government. Grandma said, "maybe I shouldn't say that because he might get in trouble." I reminded her that this all happened over 50 years ago. He's probably not even alive any more.

Thanks, Ellen! As Andrew pointed out, there is a web site for Daniel Zohary: www.danielzohary.com. I do not know whether he is still alive -- the site does not say that he passed away, but perhaps it has not been updated -- but he was named the Distinguished Economic Botanist for 2003 by the Society for Economic Botany.