Professional correspondence, departmental notes, memos, and minutes of meetings of the Department of Botany, University of California, Davis.

Dr. Grady L. Webster was born on April 14, 1927 in Ada, Oklahoma. He attained his bachelor’s degree at the University of Texas-Austin and his PhD at the University of Michigan, both in botany. After his PhD, Dr. Webster worked at Harvard University, where he met his wife, Barbara Anne Donahue, a Harvard PhD student. The couple later married in 1956. Dr. Webster moved to Davis, California as he accepted two positions at UC Davis: professor in the botany department and director of the University Arboretum. His notable accomplishments include conducting major research expeditions in Mexico, the Caribbean Islands, Central America, South America, Australia, Hawaii, Pakistan, Africa, and Europe. He collected more than 34,000 plant specimens that are now deposited in major herbaria around the world. Dr. Webster also played a significant role in developing major contributions to the knowledge of and relationships among plants in floras of California, Mexico, Brazil, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Ecuador, and Panama. Dr. Webster served as president of the Botanical Society of America, the California Botanical Society, and American Society of Plant Taxonomists. He wrote four books, more than 100 journal articles, and more than 70 book reviews in his professional life. After his death, his wife Dr. Barbara D. Webster and daughter Dr. Susan V. Webster established the Grady L. Webster Structural Botany Publication Award to honor his life and work in the field of botany. The award was renamed the Gary L. Webster and Barbara D. Webster Award after Barbara passed away in 2018. The award recognizes the most outstanding paper published in the American Journal of Botany in the field of structural and developmental botany. Both Dr. Grady L. Webster and his wife Dr. Barbara D. Webster are remembered for their contributions in the work and history of plant systematics along with the global knowledge of vegetation and were significant contributors in the field of botany. Dr. Grady L. Webster died on October 27, 2005 and is survived by his daughter, professor Susan V. Webster, his son-in law, Hernan Navarrete, and his numerous nieces and nephews.

79.6 linear feet

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