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IN MEMORIAM
WILLIAM L. BRAY
William L. Bray, professor of biological
sciences, died May 25, 1953. He was 87.
Professor Bray was born on September
19, 1865, in Burnside, Illinois. He received a bachelor's degree from
Indiana University in 1893, a master's from Lake Forest University in
1894, and a PhD from the University of Chicago in 1898. He also studied
botany at the Royal Botanical Garden in Berlin.
Dr. Bray taught at Lake Forest University.
He joined the faculty of The University of Texas at Austin in 1897.
He directed the institution's botany program and carried out extensive
research on Texas flora. He published significant studies, including
"The Ecological Relations of the Vegetation of Western Texas" (1901),
Forest Resources of Texas (1904), The Timber of the Edwards
Plateau of Texas (1904), "Vegetation of the Sotol Country in Texas"
(1905), Distribution and Adaptation of the Vegetation of Texas
(1906), and The Mistletoe Pest in the Southwest (1910). Professor
Bray's efforts to establish a balance between the exploitation and conservation
of natural resources resulted in a plan entitled "A Forest Working Plan
for the Long Leaf Pine Lands of Texas" (1903). One of his projects,
an exhibition of 130 specimens of Texas trees, was awarded the grand
prize from an international jury at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition
in St. Louis in 1904.
In 1907 Professor Bray accepted a position
at Syracruse University, where he taught until his retirement in 1943.
<signed>
John R. Durbin, Secretary
The General Faculty
Biographical sketch prepared by Teresa
Palomo Acosta and posted on the Faculty Council web site on January
18, 2001. Additional biographical sources can be found in the Barker
Texas History Center and the New
Handbook of Texas, Texas State Historical Association, 1996.
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