O. F. (Orator Fuller) Cook

Born in Clyde, New York, in 1867, Orator Fuller Cook Jr. studied at Syracuse University and stayed on briefly as an instructor after graduating. In the 1890s he traveled repeatedly to Liberia as an agent of the New York Colonization Society and also taught there, experiences that shaped his long interest in tropical plants and agriculture.

Cook later built a long career with the United States Department of Agriculture as a botanist, entomologist, and agronomist. He became known for research on cotton and rubber cultivation, and his writing ranged widely across genetics, evolution, geography, anthropology, and other fields.

He is often remembered today for coining the term "speciation" to describe the formation of new species. That mix of fieldwork, crop science, and ambitious scientific thinking made him an unusual and energetic figure in early twentieth-century American science.