Donald Culross Peattie (1898–1964)

Scientist, Author. In his era, he was regarded as the most read nature writer in America. In 1922, he graduated as botanist from Harvard University, then did field work in the Southern and Mid-West United States, for the US Department of Agriculture, (1922-24). He was a nature columnist for the Washington Post, (1925-35). As a geographer, he traveled the country, studied the many characteristics of nature and wrote almost forty volumes of his discoveries. Some of his best known books are on North American trees to include “Trees You Want to Know” (1934), “The Road of a Naturalist” (1941), “American Heartwood” (1949), “A Natural History of Trees of Eastern and Central North America” (1950) and “A Natural History of Western Trees” (1953). He died at age 66 in Santa Barbara, California.