Don Meadows

Who was Don Meadows?

Don Meadows was an historian, scholar and bibliophile specializing in the American West.

Born in Shoals, Indiana, his family moved to Orange County, California in 1903. Serving in the United States Naval Reserve during World War One, he graduated from Pomona College and earned his M.S. in Ecological Studies from the University of California, Berkeley. Meadows taught high school biology, and worked as a field supervisor for a biological survey of the Channel Islands, and Park Naturalist at the Big Basin Redwoods State Park and Calaveras Big Trees State Park. His collections of moths and butterflies of Catalina Island was one of the most important and comprehensive to date. Feralia meadowsi is an endemic moth to the islands and was named in his honor.

A founding Director of the Long Beach Natural History Museum, he also serve on Board of Consultants for Rancho Los Cerritos Museum and taught California history at Orange Coast College. He retired to Yuba City, California in 1985.