Paul Otto Schallert

Paul Otto Schallert (5 March 1879 – 30 January 1970) was an American physician and botanist active in North Carolina.

Schallert was born in Watertown, Wisconsin on 5 March 1879. He grew up on a farm, and later worked as a carpenter to afford college tuition.^[1] He attained two undergraduate degrees from Marion College, and in 1904 earned dual M.S. and M.D. degrees from the University of Illinois College of Physicians & Surgeons. After graduation, he practiced medicine in Wisconsin before relocating to Winston-Salem, North Carolina in 1910.^[2]

While working as a physician and surgeon in North Carolina, Schallert took up botany. He became a prolific plant collector, and taught the subject at Salem College. In 1943, he served the Army Medical Corps in Seattle, Washington. After the war, he moved to Altamonte Springs, Florida.^[2]

Schallert was an avid socialist. He was a member of the North Carolina State Executive Committee of the Socialist Party and of the Winston-Salem City Committee of the Socialist Party. He was an advocate for the style of medical care provided in the Soviet Union.^[3]

In 1935, Schallert visited the Soviet Union as a representative of the Socialist Party of North Carolina. Following his visit, he published a series of essays titled, "Russia: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow".^[4]

Schallert married his wife, Flora Grace Jackson, on 16 May 1904. They had four children. One of their children, the chemist Paul O. Schallert, Jr., also collected plant specimens.^[2]

Schallert died at the age of 90 on 30 January 1970 while living in Freehold Township, New Jersey.^[5]

The herbarium of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill houses several hundreds of specimens collected by Schallert.^[2] Throughout his lifetime, his personal collected reached 50,000 specimens. The Fort Worth Botanic Garden has archived the Paul O. Schallert Papers, a collection of correspondances between Schallert and other botanists such as Otto Degener.^[6]