Blanche Evans Dean

Blanche Evans Dean(June 12, 1892 – May 31, 1974) was an Americannaturalist,conservationistand schoolteacher.

Biography

Dean was bornViola Blanche Evansin 1892 to John James and Catherine Evans, the youngest of their twelve children. She was raised on her parents' farm inClay County, Alabama,where she first developed an interest in wildlife. She attended Lineville High School and, after graduating in 1908, began teaching at Hatchett Creek Presbyterian Church.

After deciding to become a teacher, Dean studied education atJacksonville State Universityand later atValparaiso University.In 1924, following her graduation from theUniversity of Alabamawith a degree in chemistry,she became a biology teacher atWoodlawn High SchoolinBirmingham, Alabama.She remained there until 1957, spending a total of almost 30 years teaching in the public school system.She married William Dean in 1939, but they divorced less than a year later; Dean decided to keep her husband's surname.

Dean became a passionatenaturalistandconservationistafter teaching. One of her projects in the 1940s was the campaign to have the U.S. government to declare Alabama's Clear Creek Falls a national park, although the campaign failed and the falls were ultimately incorporated intoLewis Smith Lake.In the 1950s–60s, she helped to found the Alabama Ornithological Society, the Alabama Environmental Council, and the Alabama Conservation Council (then known as the Alabama Conservancy).Additionally, she was involved in the Birmingham Audubon Society, the Alabama Academy of Science, the National Association of Biology Teachers, the American Fern Society, andDelta Kappa Gamma.She established an Outdoor Nature Camp in 1951, which she directed annually for thirteen years to educate teachers and other adults about Alabama's natural history. In 1967, after assisting the Alabama Environmental Council in designating Alabama's first national forest,William B. Bankhead National Forest,she was awarded a prize from theNational Audubon Societyfor conservation education; she was the first person from Alabama to receive such an award.

Dean was inspired to write several books on Alabama'szoologyandbotanyby her frustration with the lack of books available on the subject.She self-publishedLet's Learn the Birds of Alabamain 1957,Trees and Shrubs in the Heart of Dixiein 1961,Let's Learn the Ferns of Alabamain 1964, andWildflowers of Alabama and Adjoining Statesin 1973. Dean died in 1974, aged 88, from complications caused by a majorstroke.

Legacy

In 1975, Dean won the Alabama Library Association's first posthumous Annual Author Award for her non-fiction books. The Alabama Wildflower Society later established the Blanche E. Dean Scholarship Fund and named its Birmingham chapter after Dean.She was inducted into theAlabama Women's Hall of Famein 1985.