Rex Kuchel

Rex Kuchel (RDOen, 1939) was in the second ‘batch’ of students in the ‘new’ Oenology Course at Roseworthy after completing two years of the RDA. He was subsequently awarded a BSc with honours in plant physiology from The University of Adelaide in 1942. 

Rex was appointed as Microbiology Lecturer at the College in 1943 and Agricultural Biologist in 1946, then put in charge of the Oenology Course in 1948. In 1957, Rex was granted two years leave of absence as Vine Industry Consultant in Cyprus.

After a distinguished association with Roseworthy Agricultural College lasting 27 years, Rex took up an appointment as Botanist in the then State Herbarium, at the Adelaide Botanic Garden (ABG) in 1962 until his retirement in 1978. 

For the next five years Rex was a forensic consultant to the South Australian Police Department in relation to illicit plants and botanical evidence in criminal matters.  Rex had earlier liaised with the Police Department by collecting botanical material and giving evidence based on these data in criminal trials, and in 1969 presented a paper on “Plant Ecology and its application to the Forensic Sciences” at the first Forensic Science Conference in Melbourne. 

Rex Kuchel was the 1973 recipient of the ROCA Award of Merit.