Mary E. White, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

Mary E. White

Australian paleobotanist and author

Date of Birth: 05-Jan-1926

Place of Birth: South Africa

Date of Death: 05-Aug-2018

Profession: botanist, non-fiction writer, conservationist, paleobotanist

Nationality: Australia

Zodiac Sign: Capricorn


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About Mary E. White

  • Mary Elizabeth White (5 January 1926 – 5 August 2018) was an Australian paleobotanist and author.She was born in South Africa, grew up in southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and received a master's degree in paleobotany from the University of Cape Town.
  • She married Bill White, a geologist; the couple came to Australia in 1955.
  • White worked as a consultant for the Bureau of Mineral Resources in Canberra until the 1980s; she also consulted on a part-time basis for mining companies.
  • In 1975, she was hired as a research associate for the Australian Museum; she established a collection of 12,000 specimens of plant fossils for the museum.White began writing large format, well illustrated science books after her husband died in 1981.
  • She was the author of: The Greening of Gondwana – The 400 Million Year Story of Australia's Plants (1986) The Nature of Hidden Worlds – Animals and Plants in Prehistoric Australia and New Zealand (1990) Muttaburrasaurus: An Australian Dinosaur in Its Time and Space (1990) – with Robyn Muche (Illustrator) Time in Our Hands – Semi-precious Gemstones: Keys to the Geological Past (1991) After the Greening: The browning of Australia (1994), received a Eureka Prize Listen...
  • Our Land is Crying (1997) Running Down: Water in a Changing Land (2000), which was shortlisted for a Eureka Prize Earth Alive! From Microbes to a Living Planet (2003)White received honorary doctorates from four Australian Universities, plus the Riversleigh medal in 1999 for "excellence in promoting understanding of Australian prehistory".
  • In 2010, she received a Lifetime of Conservation award from the Australian Geographic Society.
  • She was awarded the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science's Mueller Medal in 2001.
  • In 2009, she was made a Member the Order of Australia (AM) for "service to botany as a researcher and through the promotion of increased understanding and awareness of the natural world".In 2003, White purchased a large forested property, Falls Forest Retreat, approximately halfway between Taree and Port Macquarie in New South Wales; she established a covenant to protect the land and preserve its biodiversity.
  • In 2013 she sold the property but with the covenant it can never be disturbed. In her later years White suffered from vascular dementia and a stroke and went to live with her daughter and her daughter's husband between in Bundanoon, New South Wales between 2014 and 2016.
  • In 2016, following another stroke she moved to a nearby aged-care centre.
  • On 5 August 2018, White was found dead in her room at the Warrigal aged care complex.
  • Her daughter, Barbara Eckersley, has been charged with her murder; at her bail hearing, her barrister maintained that his client had the "belief that the aged-care centre weren't able to deal with Dr White's agitation and pain".

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