R. V. Moran
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Name
Reid V. Moran
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Dates
1916 - 25 Jan 2010
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Specialities
Spermatophytes, Crassulaceae
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Roles
Author, Determiner, Collector
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Movement Details
United States of America, California, Guam, Mexico
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Notes
Author Notes: Crassulaceae; flora of Baja California
From an email sent out by Sula Vanderplank, 28 Jan 2010:
Dr. Reid Moran (1916 - 2010) was Curator of Botany at the San Diego Natural History Museum from 1957 to 1982. Dr. Moran died January 21 at age 93 in Lake County, California, where he had spent his final few years. He is survived by his daughter, Jenna Moran.
As an explorer of Baja California, he spent much of his time during the 1950s, 60s, and 70s traveling by truck, mule, and boat to the most remote and obscure places of the peninsula and its waters. He kept meticulous and often entertaining field notebooks documenting his travels and his botanical collections. In addition to his research expeditions in the peninsula, Reid gained a devoted following among museum members as a leader of field trips throughout Baja California. Moran’s field notes are available online at http://bajaflora.org/MoranNotesSearch.aspx .
Moran earned his Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley in 1951, after serving as a navigator in the Army Air Corps from 1942 to 1946. His research focused on the systematics of the Crassulaceae (Stonecrop Family), and in the flora of the peninsula of Baja California. He continued to produce significant scientific work for two decades after his official retirement.
In addition to his large body of technical research papers, he wrote the Flora of Guadalupe Island, Mexico and the treatment of the Crassulaceae for the Flora of North America (in Vol. 8, published in 2009), and also co-authored (with Frank W. Gould--"Gould knew the grasses; I knew Baja") the Grasses of Baja California, Mexico, and (with Geoffrey A. Levin, his successor as curator) the Vascular Flora of Isla Socorro, Mexico.
Jane Goodall, in the internet supplement to her recent book Hope for Animals and their World, says he was “for decades a sort of living myth in botanical exploration in Baja California” and called him “a truly dedicated field biologist whose work led to the restoration of an island.” -
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