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Savile, Douglas Barton Osborne
Douglas Barton Osborne Savile, botanist, ecologist, mycologist (b at Dublin, Ire 19 July 1909; d at Ottawa 1 Aug 2000). After studies at McGill University (1933, 1934), Savile began a career with the federal Department of Agriculture (1936) while studying for his doctorate at the University of Michigan (1939).
His interdisciplinary approach is shown by his wide range of publications on taxonomy, ecology and parasitology of fungi, vascular plants, birds and mammals, including expertise on BIRD FLIGHT. Although his botanical and mycological research encompassed most Canadian provinces and territories, his best-known studies were conducted in the Arctic, with a 3-year interlude in coastal BC, eventually resulting in a monograph, Arctic Adaptations in Plants (1972). A 1962 monograph on the collection and care of plant specimens remains popular with botanists.
Savile rose through various government positions to the post of principal mycologist (1957), becoming emeritus research associate of the Biosystematics Research Institute upon "retirement" in 1975. The Canadian Botanical Association awarded him their Lawson Medal.
