ROBERT AARON GREGORY

ROBERT AARON GREGORY - SHELBURNE - Robert Aaron Gregory, "Bob," died Feb. 25, 2014, after a brief illness, in Fletcher Allen Health Care. Born July 27, 1927, Bob grew up in Hudson Falls, N.Y. After enlisting and serving in the US Navy, he earned a B.S. degree in botany at Cornell University, then master's and PhD degrees in botany at Yale University and Oregon State University. He was also a Bullard Fellow at Harvard University. Bob spent the first 10 years of his lifelong career with the United States Department of Agriculture as a forester and research plant physiologist at the Pacific Northwest Forest and Range Experiment Station in Alaska. Next, he pursued research work at the Northeastern Forest Experiment laboratories located in Beltsville, Md., and Burlington, Vt. Additionally, Bob taught as an adjunct associate professor of forestry at the George Aiken School of Natural Resources, University of Vermont. He authored and co-authored numerous scientific publications addressing, among other things, the anatomy and physiology of sugar maples. An experienced hunter and outdoorsman, Bob was a licensed private pilot and, in his later years, crafted elegant shaker style furniture and made all the cupboards, woodwork and doors for his home in Charlotte. Bob was preceded in death by his parents, Mary (Bourdeau) and Edward Gregory; sisters, Harriet (Myers) and Gertrude (Brady); brother, Edward Jr.; and wife, Shirley. He leaves his daughter, Katherine; grandsons, Matthew and Zachary; daughters, Robin and Shelley, from his wife's first marriage; nieces, nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews; and many former colleagues and friends. Friends and family recently gathered at an informal reception in Bob's honor at the Shelburne Bay Lodge assisted living facility where he resided at the time of his death. His ashes will be interred at the Fort Ann, N.Y., Cemetery later this year.