Reid Venable Moran

Reid Venable Moran
San Diego Natural History Museum Curator of Botany Reid V. Moran. (Photo: San Diego Natural History Museum Research Library)
Born	June 30, 1916 Los Angeles, California, United States
Died	January 21, 2010(2010-01-21) (aged 93) Clearlake, California, United States
Alma mater	Stanford University (B.A.) Cornell University (M.S.) University of California, Berkeley (PhD)
Scientific career
Fields	Botany
Institutions	San Diego Natural History Museum
Author abbrev. (botany)	Moran
Military career
Allegiance	United States
Service / branch	United States Army United States Army Air Forces
Service years	1942–1946
Rank	Second lieutenant
Unit	515th Bombardment Squadron
Battles / wars	World War II Big Week World War II in Yugoslavia
Awards	Distinguished Flying Cross

Reid Venable Moran (June 30, 1916 – January 21, 2010) was an American botanist and the curator of botany at the San Diego Natural History Museum from 1957 to 1982.^[1]

Moran was the world authority on the Crassulaceae, a family of succulent plants, and in particular the genus Dudleya, the subject of his Ph.D. dissertation. He named at least 18 plants new to science — some in that family and some not — and published many papers elucidating relationships within the Crassulaceae. As a mark of the respect he earned among his peers, more than a dozen plants have been named for him. Jane Goodall described Moran as "a sort of living myth in botanical exploration in Baja California and the Pacific Islands of Mexico," citing specifically his analysis of the environmental impact of introduced species (especially goats) on the flora of Guadalupe Island.^[2]