Centenarian and Purdue University Botanist Sam Postlethwait on the Celery Bog Nature Area

"Every morning, Sam wakes up and looks out his window at the three different ecosystems before him: the prairie, the woods, and the celery bog."

April 17, 2018

On this day, Sam Postlethwait, a retired Purdue University botany professor, turned 100.

His apartment overlooks the Celery Bog Nature Area.

Every morning, Sam wakes up and looks out his window at the three different ecosystems before him: the prairie, the woods, and the celery bog.

On his walks, he documents what he sees with a Nikon camera, creating booklets filled with photos collected through the years.

He says,

It is incredible that we have this right here in our city, and the only way you can understand this treasure is by a routine walk.

And then you see life.

You see life starting and you see life continuing and you see life ending, and you begin to understand living things interacting in nature.

Sam taught freshman botany for 35 years at Purdue. He was married to his wife Sara for 69 years. When she died in 2010, they had lived by the Celery Bog for almost a decade. Sam reflected on his life there, saying,

To have had eight years here with my Sara has just been wonderful.

A spider's life is not much different than ours, If I live, something has to die.

We cannot live without things dying.