Alfred Linn Bogle, professor emeritus of plant biology, died peacefully at home in Durham on Tuesday, Dec. 4, at age 81. He had recently been diagnosed with a brain tumor.  His family was with him as he passed away, asleep in bed that afternoon.

A memorial service and life celebration will be held on Thursday, Dec. 27, 2012, at 2p.m. at the Community Church on Main Street in Durham. In lieu of flowers please consider a donation to the Durham Public Library.

Linn, as he was known for most of his life, was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on October 20, 1931, the third of four children of the late Francis and Edna (Gotwols) Bogle. The family moved to Philadelphia in 1938 where he attended grammar school and high school. After one year of college, he joined the Navy during the Korean War, serving as a meteorologist stationed in the Aleutian Islands. Following the Navy, he completed his bachelors and masters degrees in botany at the University of Washington in Seattle.

In the summer of 1957, Linn served as a graduate assistant on a summer botanical field course in northeast Washington, Idaho, Montana and British Columbia. On the field trip he met Margaret (Maggie) Powers, a fellow botany student. They were married in 1961 in New Delhi, partway into a year-long research and plant collecting trip across Asia. He ultimately received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota, and did a post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard’s Gray Herbarium. In 1970, now with two young sons, the family moved to Durham where he joined the UNH faculty. He taught at UNH for 29 years, with his research focusing on systematic morphology and anatomy of angiosperms. He retired in 1999, though he continued research work on the Hamamelidacae (witch hazel) family, and had recently begun serving as chair of the retired faculty association.

He was a voracious reader and collector: natural history volumes, prints, postage stamps, and vintage Dixieland jazz records. He enjoyed travel, including recent trips to China, New Zealand and Alaska; genealogical research; classical music; the Durham swap shop; a standing biweekly lunch with other retired faculty; good company and a good meal. Always a loving husband and father, he had also delighted lately in being the doting “deedah” to a young granddaughter and grandson

Linn is survived by Maggie, his wife of 51 years; his two sons Bruce, who lives in Hong Kong, and Scott, who lives in Durham with his wife Heidi and their two young children Hannah and Peter; family in the Philadelphia area including his brother and sister-in-law Francis and Kathleen Bogle; his sister Carol Sealy; his sister-in-law Helen Bogle; and many other extended family members and longtime friends.

A memorial service and life celebration will be held on Thursday, Dec. 27, 2012, at 2p.m. at the Community Church on Main Street in Durham. In lieu of flowers please consider a donation to the Durham Public Library.