Dr. Charles Edwin Bessey was born on May 21, 1845, in Milton, Ohio.

He was an American botanist who studied at Michigan Agricultural College (1869), at Harvard University (1872), and at Iowa State University (1884). In 1884, he was appointed Professor of Botany and Zoology at the University of Nebraska and became its Head Dean in 1909. He also served as Chancellor of the University of Nebraska from 1888 to 1891 and again from 1899 to 1900. He served as President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1911. He introduced to the United States the systematic study of plant morphology and the experimental laboratory for botanical instruction on the college level. In 1880, he was invited to become the botanical editor of the American Naturalist, a position he kept until 1897.

He died on February 25, 1915, in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Serge Bessière was born in Marseilles, France, November 21, 1913. He was a pianist, composer, and conductor. He died March 4, 1983, in Marseilles, France.

The Bethune Foundation, first known as the Bethune Memorial Committee, was established at a meeting of Dr. Norman Bethune's former friends, colleagues and admirers held at McGill University. The objectives were to perpetuate and expand his memory among Canadians by drawing attention to his humanitarian contributions in Canada, Spain and China. The first Chairman was Hazen Sise who was with Dr. Bethune in Spain where he organized the first successful mobile blood transfusion service during the Spanish Civil War. The Honorary Chairman was Dr. Wilder Penfield, Director of the Montreal Neurological Institute.