Robert DeWitt Ivey (1923–2013)

[excerpted from Native Plant Society of New Mexico online memorial]
For two academic years he served as an instructor in the biology department at the University of New Mexico. He spent a year in graduate school at the University of Michigan but chose not to continue his studies. After a year at the College of Charleston in South Carolina, he became homesick for New Mexico and by the fall of 1951 was teaching biology at Albuquerque High School. In 1959 he transferred to Sandia High, also in Albuquerque, where he taught biology for the next 31 years.

In 1963, he was designated Science Teacher of the Year for New Mexico by the National Science Teachers Association. The following year, the NSTA selected him as Science Teacher of the Year for Region 7 (a five-state area containing NM). In 1993 the New Mexico Chapter of The Nature Conservancy awarded him with their Aldo Leopold Conservation Award. In 1995 he was given the Sigma Xi award for his dedication to the teaching of science. In Santa Fe in 2003, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson formally recognized his decades of contributions to science and teaching in the state. NPSNM presented him with a lifetime membership in honor of his efforts.