Georgia Mason

Who was Georgia Mason?

Georgia Mason was a botanist at the University of Oregon and author of Guide to the Plants of the Wallowa Mountains of Northeastern Oregon, and Plants of Wet to Moist Habitats in and Around Eugene Oregon.

Georgia Mason was born Georgia Mavropoulos in West Orange, New Jersey, the daughter of Greek immigrants. She taught grades 1 through 7 in New Jersey public schools from 1931-1941. It was during this time period that she changed her name to Mason. From 1941 through 1958 she taught science courses to grades 6 through 9.

Mason was awarded a National Science Foundation grant to study for a Master of Science degree at Oregon State College in Corvallis, Oregon. She started classes in 1958 at the age of 49, and stayed in Oregon for the rest of her life.

She began collecting herbarium specimens in 1959 and began focusing on the flora of the Wallowa Mountains in 1960, working in the herbarium at Oregon State College. She served as Acting Assistant Curator of the UO Herbarium in Eugene from 1961–62, during the sabbatical of the curator, LeRoy Detling. In the late 1960s she worked on her specimens from the Arizona State University herbarium.