Arthur Whistler, ethnobotanist
Wayne Arthur Whistler ‑ an American ethnobotanist, academic and writer – died on April 2, 2020 from Covid-19.
Whistler, an adjunct professor at the University of Hawaii's Department of Botany, was an expert on tropical flora of the Pacific Islands, especially Samoa and Tonga.
Whistler was born near Death Valley in San Bernardino County, California. He earned a B.A. in Biology from the University of California, Riverside, in 1965; an M.A. in Botany, from the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1966, and Ph.D. in Botany, from the University of Hawaii, in 1979. Once he completed his first two degrees, Whistler served in the Peace Corps as a teacher at Samoa College in Apia, Western Samoa (now known as Samoa). He then moved to Hawaii, where he ...