Gordon Herriot Cunningham, CBE, FRS[1] (27 August 1892 – 18 July 1962) was the first New Zealand–based mycologist and plant pathologist.
[2][3] In his life, he was a boxer, motorcyclist, gold prospector, farmer, horticulturist, forestry worker, and Gallipoli veteran.
joined the Biological Laboratory staff at the Department of Agriculture in 1919 as a mycologist, and began a systematic survey of plant diseases in New Zealand.
He made major contributions to plant pathology in New Zealand, especially with therapeutics and naming of pathogens.
[4] In 2004, Landcare Research named the rooms hosting the New Zealand Fungal Herbarium at its Auckland site the GH Cunningham Mycology Suite in his honour.