John Erdmann Kuser, 82,

John Erdmann Kuser, 82,
A resident of Princeton, died Monday,
August 25 surrounded by his family.
Kuser was born in New York City to John Louis Kuser, Jr., and Olivia Sturtevant Erdmann and raised in Bordentown and Titusville, New Jersey.  He lived in Manhattan for several winters with his grandmother and grandfather, the well-known surgeon John Frederic Erdmann, where he attended both The Buckley and Dalton schools.  Preparing at The Millbrook School, he entered Princeton University at age 16, interrupting his studies to serve in World War ll as Lieutenant JG in the US Navy, serving in the Mediterranean and Caribbean as a landing boat  officer.  After the war he returned to Princeton, graduating magna  cum laude in chemistry with the Class of ’46.  Following graduation he worked for twenty-three years in the chemical industry for Interchemical Corporation and Tenneco.  In 1971 he decided to pursue his avocation, forestry, and enrolled at Cook College,
Rutgers, receiving his Masters degree in 1976 in Horticulture and Forestry.  He earned his Ph.D. from Oregon State University in 1980 in Forest Science.  Returning to New Jersey, he began to teach at Cook College, Rutgers, retiring as an Associate Professor of Forestry in 2001.
Mr. Kuser was a member of the New Jersey Academy of Science, Sigma XI (a scientific research society of North America);  the
Society of American Foresters;  and the International Society of
Arboriculture.   He published numerous articles on forest genetics throughout his teaching career.  In 2000,  he compiled and edited the "Handbook  of Urban and Community Forestry in the
Northeast", which has become the standard text for teaching urban forestry. 
Mr. Kuser served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Stonybrook-Millstone Watershed Association;  was a member of the Princeton Township shade tree commission;  a member of the Princeton Township deer committee,  serving on the Mayor’s ad hoc committee and then Chairman  of the deer committee environmental commission.   He was a director of New Jersey Forestry
 Association;  was a member of the Forestry Advisary Committee- Pinelands Commission;  a member of NJ DEP Community
Forestry;  and was appointed to the NJ Fish and Game Council by Governor Whitman.
He was a gardener, fly fisherman, and hunter.  For him, the
outdoors represented the greatest mystery and he took solace from it all his life.
He lived with a rare neurological disease for the last five years of his life.  As his last act as a scientist he agreed to have his brain
autopsied to further research this disease.
He was predeceased a year ago by his wife of 55 years, Eleanor Will Kuser, and is survived by his three daughters:  Olivia, of San Francisco;  Caryl of Princeton;  and Eleanor of Santa Barbara;  and one grandson, Emilio, also of Santa Barbara.
Burial is private.
Donations may be sent in John’s name to Morris Arboretum, 100 East Northwestern Avenue, Philadelphia,  PA, 19118.