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“It ain’t necessarily so” – A favored mantra recited by R. K. Trench in the context of “received truth,” or established beliefs; and the title of his unfinished autobiography. Professor Robert (Bob) Kent Trench’s research career brought together multiple disciplines in the study of mutualistic symbioses that are crucial to understanding the physiology, ecology, and co-evolution of metazoan and protist associations, many of which are beneficial to the Earth’s biosphere. Through the development and use of complementary techniques, he pioneered important discoveries about metabolically coupled interactions between “plants” and animals. Having grown up in Belize (formerly British Honduras), his journey in academia started at the University College of the West Indies (UCWI) on the island nation of Jamaica, then proceeded to the University of California, Los Angeles (USA); Oxford University (UK); and Yale University (Connecticut, USA). He was a longtime faculty member in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology at the University of California, Santa Barbara (Figs. 1a–f). Over the course of his life (August 3 1940–April 27 2021), he recognized that many things presented as fact were often accumulated dogma. His direct application of the scientific method ultimately helped to change these misconceptions. By deconstructing established ‘beliefs,’ he greatly improved our understanding of several mutualistic symbioses, and many of his insights and hypotheses published decades ago remain at the forefront of intense investigation to this day.