Home / General Information / People / Gerald Straley (In Memoriam)
Dr. Gerald Bane Straley
1945-1997
The late Dr. Gerald Straley was the curator of collections and a research scientist at the University of British Columbia Botanical Garden.
Gerald was born in Virginia, USA.
His first degree in Ornamental Horticulture was obtained at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia in 1968. He then entered the Ohio University at Athens, Ohio where, in 1974, he gained his M.Sc. in Botany, specializing in taxonomy. In 1976, he became a landed immigrant in Canada. In this year, he entered UBC for graduate studies, and in 1980 was granted his Ph.D in Botany, again specializing in taxonomy.
From 1979 to November 1982, Dr. Straley held the position of Education Coordinator at the VanDusen Botanical Garden. In December, 1982, he returned to UBC as the Botanical Garden's Research Scientist and Curator of Collections. He also had the rank of Adjunct Professor in the then-Plant Science Department and was a Research Associate and Director of the Herbarium in the UBC Botany Department. He supervised graduate students and taught University-level courses on herbaceous plants and adult education courses on a wide variety of subjects, including perennials and rare native plants.
He published numerous articles in both scientific botanical and popular horticultural journals and magazines.
He was the author of several books, "An Illustrated Flora of the University Endowment Lands", "The Rare Vascular Plants of British Columbia", "The Vascular Plants of British Columbia" and "Trees of Vancouver".
"Trees of Vancouver" was awarded the 1992 Vancouver Book Award for the book best promoting Vancouver.
Gerald passed away on December 11, 1997.