Some Biogeographers, Evolutionists and Ecologists:
Chrono-Biographical Sketches

Bray, William L. (United States 1865-1953)
botany, forestry

Photo courtesy of the Torrey Botanical Society.

William Bray's life was a fairly typical one for a successful academician; after teaching in high schools in Iowa and Missouri for several years he proceeded through an academic program in botany and forestry, receiving his Ph.D. in 1898. He then rapidly rose through the ranks at the University of Texas over a ten year period, and moved on to Syracuse University, where for many years he was both head of the botany department and dean of the graduate school. Meanwhile, he pursued a course of research in the areas of phytogeography, forest resources in Texas and New York, plant adaptive strategies, pest species, and plant ecology.

--born in Burnside, Illinois, on 19 September 1865.
--1889-1891: takes courses at Cornell University
--1893: A.B., Indiana University
--1894: M.A., Lake Forest University
--1896-1897: studies with Adolf Engler in Germany
--1897-1907: teaches at the University of Texas; rises to rank of full professor
--1898: Ph.D., University of Chicago
--1904: publishes his Forest Resources of Texas
--1904: wins a Grand Prix for a tree specimens exhibit at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition at St. Louis
--1907: made head of the botany department, Syracuse University
--1911: organizes the Agricultural Division at Syracuse
--1915: publishes his The Development of the Vegetation of New York State
--1918-1943: dean of the graduate school, Syracuse
--1932: retires as head of the botany department, Syracuse
--dies at Syracuse, New York, on 25 May 1953.

--New Handbook of Texas, Vol. 1 (1996).
--Who Was Who in America, Vol. 3 (1960).
--Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club, Vol. 82(4) (1955): 298-300.