F. L. (Tim) Timmons was born in Little River, Kansas in 1905 and received a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree from Kansas State University; and his doctorate degree from the University of Wyoming. Dr. Timmons worked for the U. S. Department of Agriculture in Laramie, Wyoming for a number of years. He was National Program Leader (1956) in weed science for the Agricultural Research Service, and had a special interest in aquatics. He surveyed the canals and irrigation projects in seventeen western states. He tallied up the miles of canals and did extensive research with acrolein and xylene for submersed weed control.

Dr. Timmons was recognized by the Weed Science Society of America as a “Pioneer of Weed Science”, a relatively new discipline in the 1950’s. As he neared retirement in 1970, he undertook very extensive project—that of writing a history of weed control for the United States and Canada. His studies took him back thousands of years in relation to primitive agriculture. His story leads us through the ages to about 1969, covering early attempts to use natural materials for suppressing weeds and successively more sophisticated mechanical tools, to the age of synthetic herbicides. This was published in Weed Science in 1970. It is a marvelous bit of writing and should be familiar to weed scientists, old and new. As Dr. Timmons said “Weed control is one of the youngest of sciences, but a relatively old art. It has a heritage worthy of much pride”.

Dr. Timmons retired to Arizona and passed away in 1993.