In memoriam: Dr. Ken Cummins

Dr. Ken Cummins

Kenneth W. Cummins, a stream and watershed ecologist formerly based at the W.K. Kellogg Biological Station, died Thursday, June 8, 2023, in San Francisco. He was 90 years old.

Ken was born in Chicago, Illinois on March 28, 1933, to Mary Grace and Charles Cummins. He obtained a bachelor’s degree in biology from Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin, and then went on to complete both his master’s in fisheries and Ph.D. in zoology (limnology) from the University of Michigan.

Ken held several faculty positions during his long career, beginning as an assistant professor of biology at Northwestern University, then as an assistant professor of biological sciences at the University of Pittsburgh. In 1968, he accepted a position of associate professor at Michigan State University in the departments of Entomology and Fisheries and Wildlife. He was a resident faculty member at KBS from 1968 to 1978.

KBS research and collaborations

Cummins and Klug at KBS

While at KBS, he worked with then-colleague Michael Klug on studying food webs in Augusta Creek at the nearby W.K. Kellogg Experimental Forest. Ken focused on invertebrates and Klug on microbes important to the decomposition of leaves and other organic material in streams. Later, Richard Merritt, an aquatic entomologist, joined the team and developed research on stream insects. Ken and Richard Merritt formed a lifelong friendship and working relationship, collaborating on numerous projects, including writing the book, “An Introduction to the Aquatic Insects of North America,” now in its fifth edition.

As part of an obituary for Ken, Merritt wrote, “Ken and I served on graduate student and faculty committees together, wrote papers, chapters and edited a book together, and taught classes in different countries together. During this time I enjoyed his humor tremendously, which included telling bad jokes and writing Ogden Nash-style poems often presented at the end of his research talks.

Ken was an internationally known icon in the structure and function of freshwater ecosystems, and one of the most humble of men I have ever met.”

Ken left KBS in 1978, but continued collaborations with MSU colleagues and others that ultimately led to the development of the River Continuum Concept, which focused on how the factors that control stream invertebrate communities and aquatic productivity vary across a continuum of small streams to large rivers, strengthening connections between aquatic and terrestrial habitats. The River Continuum Concept continues to be an important principle guiding research on rivers and streams, especially in studies aimed at addressing environmental problems in streams and rivers around the globe.

He retired in 2011 from California Polytechnic State University, Humboldt, in Arcata, California. He maintained emeritus status at both Humboldt and Michigan State.

Ken is survived by his sons, Mike, Steve and Paul, and by his wife of 30 years, Dr. Peggy Wilzbach.

A session paying tribute to Dr. Cummins is planned for the 2024 Society for Freshwater Science meeting, which will be held in Philadelphia. Anybody wishing to contribute a video or written statement of a memory of Ken is encouraged to contact Richard Merritt or Marty Berg.