Herbert Louis Mason

Director of the Herbarium, Emeritus

Herbert Mason joined the Berkeley Department of Botany in 1925, and served there continuously until his retirement in 1963, the last twenty-two years as professor of botany and director of the herbarium. He was born in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, on January 3, 1896, one of a pair of identical twins who were the eighth and ninth children of Thomas and Harriet Mason. His interest in botany was developed as a child through his mother's enthusiasm for gardening and her informal teaching about plant life.

The twins entered Stanford University from high school, but volunteered for World War I, and were stationed at an army hospital at Beaune, France. Returning to Stanford after the war, Herbert received the A. B. in 1921. He obtained an M.A. from Berkeley in 1923, and then taught during 1923-1925 at Mills College, an institution for which he retained a life-long affection. Summers, he worked for the Carnegie Institution of Washington, first assisting in F. E. Clements' altitudinal transplanting program in Colorado (subsequently transferred to California) and later hunting fossils in the John Day formation of Central Oregon with R.W. Chaney.

Mason's initial appointment at Berkeley was that of an associate in W. L. Jepson's Phenogamic Laboratory, where he acted as a back-up for Jepson's instructional duties, in view of Jepson's failing health. In 1931, Mason married Lucile Roush, a fellow Stanford graduate and Berkeley graduate student who was working on coralline algae with W. A. Setchell, and was in charge of elementary laboratories. Both Herbert and Lucile were awarded the Ph.D. degree the following year. His thesis, which dealt with western American Tertiary paleobotany, was administered by a committee comprising W. L. Jepson (chairman), R. W. Chaney, and C. L. Camp. Mason was named instructor and assistant curator in the herbarium in 1933, assistant professor and associate curator in 1934, associate professor and curator in 1938, and professor and director in 1941, the position he held until attaining emeritus status in 1963.

Mason was affiliated with a number of professional and conservation organizations during his career, and served as president of the Western Society of Naturalists, the Western Section of the Ecological Society of America, the Regional Parks Association, the California Botanical Society, and the American Society of Plant Taxonomists.

The sixteenth volume of Madrono is dedicated to Herbert, with an excellent photograph taken by Marion Cave. He appears bright and inquiring, just as we like to remember him.

Lincoln Constance and Robert Ornduff (excerpt from the original CDL archived article here.