Obituary
Daniel Belk Plyler, professor emeritus of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington
died at his home in New Smyrna Beach, Florida on November 24, 2023 at age 87.
Daniel was born in Gastonia, North Carolina on November 24, 1936 to Thomas Oscar
Plyler and Cora Carpenter Payseur Plyler. He was one of ten children including Betty
Plyler Hewitt, Nell Plyler Stowe, Eileen Payseur Wesson Maxwell, Juanita Payseur
Young, Charles Aaron Plyler, Evelyn Brady, Sue Huffstetler, Frances Anderson, and
Doris McManus. His immediate family includes wife, Irmgard Haller Plyler who
predeceased him, twin daughters, Jennifer Lee Guillot and Debora Faye Nagle, their
husbands, Stephen Scott Guillot and John Charles Nagle IV, grandchildren, Madison
Belk Nagle, Daniel Scott Guillot, Alexandra Anne Nagle, Peyton Lee Guillot and John
Charles Nagle V, all of Orlando and New Smyrna Beach, Florida. Too many to
acknowledge here are more than fifty special nieces and nephews and their children.
Daniel attended public schools in Gastonia and was an active member of Bradley
Memorial United Methodist Church. After graduating from Pfeiffer College in 1959, he
entered the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he earned a M.A. degree
in 1962 and a Ph.D. degree in 1964. While there, he was awarded the coveted William
Chambers Coker Fellowship and he received scholarships from the National Science
Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. In 1962 he was married to his
soulmate, Irmgard (Irme) Haller, of La Ceiba, Honduras in the Henry Pfeiffer Chapel by
then President John Lemacks Stokes.
He first taught biology at Catawba College in Salisbury, NC before accepting a position
at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington (then Wilmington College) in 1966
where he was professor of biological sciences until his retirement in 2003. For several
years, he taught summer courses sponsored by the National Science Foundation at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
During his tenure at UNCW, he served in various administrative positions, including
Chairman of the Department of Biological Sciences, Director of Marine Sciences and for
more than a decade as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. He devoted the
remainder of his career to teaching and research, and taught each year a favorite
course entitled, “Genetics in Human Affairs.” Upon his retirement, he was honored by
the University’s Board of Trustees with the naming of Plyler Drive, a street on the
UNCW campus.
He was active in a number of professional societies and served as president of the
North Carolina Academy of Sciences. An avid environmentalist, he actively supported
many organizations including the Nature Conservancy, the Sierra Club, the Audubon
Society, the New River Project, Friends of the Blue Ridge Parkway, the Appalachian
Trail Conservancy and the Masonboro Island Preservation Society. In recent years, he
devoted much of his time to wildflower photography in and around the family’s Blue
Ridge Mountains retreat near Banner Elk, NC. He also completed a genealogical study
of the “Plyler” surname from 1650 when the Swiss form of the name was “Bleuler.”
His family will gather in Banner Elk, North Carolina to reminisce about happier times
and to share memories of him. In lieu of flowers please make a contribution to the North
Carolina Nature Conservancy at 334 Blackwell Street, Durham, NC 27701 or the
Crossnore Communities for Children at PO Box 249, Crossnore, NC 28616.
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