Teddy E. Morelock, university professor of horticulture, 65, died April 18 in Fayetteville. Morelock had earned his Ph.D. in horticulture and genetics at UW-Madison and was well-known in the plant breeding community. He was on hand last summer for the Plant Breeding and Plant Genetics Program’s first field day. An news story on Morelock is available at http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/257926.

“ Teddy was a great friend and partner to many of us and he will be sorely missed,” says CALS Dean Molly Jahn.

Morelock was director of a vegetable crop breeding program that has released many public varieties of southernpea, spinach, mustard and turnip. He taught a vegetable crops course and the graduate-level Genetic Techniques in Plant Breeding course. He has served as major professor to 10 Ph.D. and 21 MS students and was a committee member for over 60 Ph.D. and MS students.

Spinach varieties developed in Morelock’s breeding program have been very successful in areas where white rust is a problem, and Arkansas ‘blood’ is in all hybrids that are sold by private seed companies. The most successful University of Arkansas varieties are ‘Fallgreen’ and ‘F-380’. The southernpea (cowpea) breeding program has released several varieties that have been grown by local producers. The most successful of them is ‘Early Scarlet’ which was released in 1995.

Morelock joined the horticulture department faculty in 1974 as an assistant professor. He had B.S.A. and M.S. degrees in horticulture from the University of Arkansas.