LINDSAY, MORRIS

Posted by Cathy Gowdy on Tuesday, August 29, 2006 at 05:20:09 :

San Francisco Chronicle
Friday, July 19, 2002
A-27

LINDSAY, Dr. George E. - Retired Director of the California Academy of Sciences, passed peacefully away at his home in Tiburon on July 16th of congestive heart failure at the age of 85. He is survived by his step-children: Geraldine Morris of Alameda, Diana Morris of San Francisco, Austin Morris of Novato, Jane-Leslie Morris-Williams of Oakland, and Charles Morris of Tiburon. A Memorial Service will be held at the California Academy of Sciences on Tuesday July 23rd at 6PM. Donations in his honor can be directed to the California Academy of Sciences.
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San Francisco Chronicle
Saturday, July 20, 2002

Dr. George Lindsay -- Academy of Sciences director, biologist
by David Perlman, Chronicle Science Editor

Dr. George E. Lindsay, a noted biologist and executive director of the California Academy of Sciences for nearly 20 years, died of congestive heart failure at his Tiburon home on Tuesday. He was 85.

During his tenure from 1963 to 1982, Dr. Lindsay presided over many major changes at the museum and research center in Golden Gate Park. He oversaw the creation of Cowell Hall, the academy's dramatic entrance area that was completed in 1969, where the mounted dinosaur skeleton now awes visitors, and which also houses the academy's biodiversity resource center.

Wattis Hall, the major venue for temporary exhibits, was inaugurated under his direction in 1976, and the hall now holds the academy's major exhibit entitled "Skulls!" He was also responsible for the Meyer Fish Roundabout, which has intrigued thousands of children and adults since it opened in 1977.

In addition, Dr. Lindsay helped launch the docent program in which community members are trained as guides to explain the exhibits that dramatically display varied aspects of the natural world. That program was founded in 1970 by Geraldine Kendrick Morris, an academy trustee who married Dr. Lindsay two years later.

"During his time as director, he took many important steps to reach out to the community and to make the academy a more interesting and vital institution, "

J. Patrick Kociolek, the current executive director, said Friday. "Through his vision and leadership, he elevated the stature of the institution and brought it into the modern era."

As a scientist as well as a museum director, Dr. Lindsay combined two specialties: the classification of desert cacti and also of the whales and dolphins of the eastern Pacific Ocean and Baja California.

George Edmund Lindsay was born in Pomona (Los Angeles County) in 1916, and worked after high school on a Southern California lemon farm he had inherited.

During World War II, he served as a combat cameraman, flying on bombing missions with the Ninth Air Force in Europe. He earned the Air Medal with three clusters and the Bronze Star, attaining the rank of captain. After the war he entered Stanford University as an undergraduate and received his doctorate in botany there in 1956.

Before his death, Dr. Lindsay had requested that donations in his memory be made to the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA 94118-4599.

A memorial service and reception will be held at the academy on Tuesday at 6 p.m.