While attending the prestigious Riverdale Country School in New York City, Korf was placed in charge of his biology class after their teacher joined the military.
"In retrospect," Korf wrote, "I am convinced that this experience had an enormous impact on my future and on my decision to enter the teaching profession.
"[1] At the suggestion of botany professor Loren C. Petry, Korf began studying plant pathology under Herbert Hice Whetzel.
[4] Korf traveled globally over the course of his career, collecting fungi in Belgium, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Finland, France, Hungary, Indonesia, Jamaica, Japan, Macaronesia, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Scotland, Singapore, Sweden, and Taiwan.
This collection is dominated by taxa of particular interest to Korf: Arachnopeziza, Calycella (now Bisporella), Cheilymenia, Chlorosplenium, Dasyscyphus, Hyaloscypha, Hymenoscyphus, Mollisia, Orbiliaceae, Peziza, Rutstroemia, Scutellinia, and Trichophaea.
[6] Korf co-founded Mycotaxon, an international peer-reviewed journal of taxonomy and nomenclature of fungi and lichens, with co-worker Grégoire L. Hennebert in 1974.
While on sabbatical in Japan in 1957, Korf met his wife Kumiko "Kumi" Tachibana, a fine artist specializing in printmaking.
[3] Korf enjoyed the card game Crazy Eights, and is remembered for organizing tournaments at mycological conferences and during holidays on Exe Island.
Korf performed under the pseudonym "Jonah Webster" as a student to hide his "favorite avocation" from professor Harry Morton Fitzpatrick, who disapproved of non-mycological pursuits.