Social Security Death Index
Name: Hugh N. Mozingo
SSN: 175-22-0266
Last Residence: 95821 Sacramento, Sacramento, California, United States of America
Born: 23 Apr 1925
Died: 10 Jan 2004
State (Year) SSN issued: Pennsylvania (Before 1951 )

Reno Gazette-Journal (NV) - January 27, 2004
Deceased Name: Hugh Nelson MOZINGO
Hugh Nelson Mozingo, a distinguished University of Nevada, Reno professor, died at his home in Sacramento, CA on January 9, 2004.

He was born in Monogahela, PA on April 23, 1925.

He was a biologist before he knew the meaning of the term, roaming the hills of western Pennsylvania as a teenager collecting salamanders and frogs. He received his BA and Masters Degree from the University of Pittsburgh and earned his Ph.D. in Botany at Columbia University in New York City in 1950.

He married his lovely wife, Katherine, and began his teaching career at colleges in Tennessee and Florida, and subsequently at Michigan State University. In 1959 he joined the faculty at UNR.

Over the next twenty-five years a generation of students enjoyed his course in Botany with digressions into the Big Bang Theory, subatomic physics and the Cosmos. He introduced electronmicroscopy to the University. Field trips that Hugh, Dr. Ira LaRivers and Dr. Fred Ryser, Jr. made into the far reaches of Nevada were legendary. He was Chairman of the Department of Biology 1971 - 1976 and was Curator of the Herbarium.

He was world renowned as an authority on Lichen and Mosses of the Great Basin region, traveling to Russia and Japan in his scientific capacity. He was listed in the 38th and 39th Editions of "Who's Who in America." Hugh and the late Margaret Williams were the founders of the Northern Nevada Native Plant Society and they coauthored "Threatened and Endangered Plants of Nevada" under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Interior. Hugh authored "Shrubs of the Great Basin" for the Max C. Fleishmann series on Great Basin Natural History published by the University of Nevada Press.

After forth-five years of marriage his cherished Kitty died. Afterward, Hugh moved to Sacramento where he could grow exotic plants that could not survive the harsh climate of Northern Nevada.

He requested no funeral or memorial service. He will be greatly missed.