Stanley A. Cain

From Philosopedia

Cain, Stanley Adair (19 June 1902 - 1 April 1995)

Author of Vegetation of the Great Smoky Mountains (1930), Cain is a naturalist and freethinker who has taught botany at the University of Michigan.

A biography by Charles H. Smith included the following:

Stanley Cain's extensive vita includes a list of involvements and honors too long to individually mention here. His early efforts distinguished him through a series of papers on American plant ecology and geography, including one of the first works making use of the technique of aerial photography (1927). In 1944 he put out the well known text Foundations of Plant Geography. After World War II he became increasingly interested in the conservation of natural resources, assuming a number of important government positions and bringing to the greater public's attention a variety of problems connected with overpopulation and overconsumption. At the University of Michigan he founded the first department of conservation in 1950 and was its chairman for eleven years; after a stint in Washington he was made director of that university's Institute for Environmental Quality. After retiring from the University of Michigan he moved to Santa Cruz, California, where he remained active into the early 1980s.

Cain died in Santa Cruz, California.