E. Yale Dawson

Elmer Yale Dawson (March 31, 1918 – June 22, 1966) was an American botanist, phycologist, taxonomist, ecologist, and naturalist writer of natural history articles and books for avocational naturalists, for youth, adults, and seniors. He popularized science of studying nature and natural history via writing books and articles on topics ranging from cacti in California and the United States, to seashore plants and marine algae, desert plants, salt marsh wetlands, and beyond, into topics of Anthropology, including ethnohistory and ethnobiology of Native American Indian culture in the Gulf of California.

E. Yale Dawson
BornMarch 31, 1918
Creston, Iowa
DiedJune 22, 1966(1966-06-22) (aged 48)
Red Sea
NationalityAmerican
EducationUniversity of California
Scientific career
Fields
InstitutionsUniversity of Southern California
Beaudette Foundation
Charles Darwin Foundation
Smithsonian Institution
San Diego Natural History Museum

Biography

Dawson was born in on March 31, 1918 in Creston, Iowa to Elmer Clarence Dawson and Mabelle Davidson Campbell. The family moved west to Los Angeles County, California, residing in a home in the City of Long Beach as a boy and during his teen years, just a few blocks from the Pacific Ocean. He grew cacti in the family backyard, and even salvaged a large Saguaro Cactus from near the Colorado River, where a new dam would soon flood the habitat and drown this cactus. The Saguaro was brought in a truck to their home in Long Beach, where the Saguaro lived for several years, before succumbing to the high coastal humidity and too much rainfall for the roots.

In 1940 he received his bachelor's degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and in 1942 his Ph.D. from the same institution. After serving in the United States Army, he became a research associate for the Allan Hancock Foundation, a division of University of Southern California for 10 years, 1945 to 1955. He was appointed professor of biology at USC in 1956, a position that he held till 1964. From 1958 to 1962 he worked as research director of the Beaudette Foundation, a division of Biological research. He was director of the San Diego Natural History Museum from 1963 to 1966;[1] in 1964, he became secretary of the Charles Darwin Foundation, located on the Galápagos Islands.

He drowned on June 22, 1966, while diving for seaweed in the Red Sea near Hurghada.[1]

Legacy

He devoted his life to a study of cacti since his youth, and then as an adult, he added the study of benthic marine algae, particularly Rhodophyta that grow in tropical and subtropical Pacific. He published books about algae, cacti, and succulents.[2]

References
  1. Engstrand, Iris; Bullard, Anne (1999). Inspired by Nature: The San Diego Natural History Museum After 125 Years. San Diego Natural History Museum. p. 152–153. ISBN 0918969042.
  2. "Biography". Smithsonian Institution Archives. 1934–1966. Retrieved April 21, 2012.
  3. IPNI.  E.Y.Dawson.
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