Don Edwin Ellis (1908-1993), professor, 1940-1973, and head, 1954-1973, of the Department of Plant Pathology at North Carolina State University, was born in Ames, Iowa, in 1908. He received B.A. and B.S. degrees from Nebraska Central College in 1929, and an M.S. in 1932 from Louisiana State University. In 1945 he received a Ph.D. from the North Carolina State College of Agriculture and Engineering, later North Carolina State University (NCSU). He was active in the American Phytopathological Society serving as president and vice president of the Southern Division and was a consulting plant pathologist in North Carolina State University's mission to Peru.

During his years on the faculty Dr. Ellis made significant contributions to the knowledge of vegetable diseases in North Carolina and the South in general. As a result of his work NCSU attained worldwide recognition as a major research and educational center for plant pathology with innovative programs focusing on problems caused by nematodes in tobacco and forest trees.

Professional memberships included the American Institute of Biological Sciences, the Mycological Society of America, the Association of Tropical Biology, the North Carolina Academy of Science, the Mycological Society of America, the Association of Tropical Biology, the North Carolina Academy of Science, Gamma Sigma Delta and Sigma Xi. Dr. Ellis retired from teaching and administrative duties in 1973 after 33 years at NCSU. He died in 1993 at the age of 85.