Robert Langston

Robert Lee Langston

Sept. 7, 1926 - Oct. 19, 2013

Resident of Kensington

Born in San Diego to Clinton Lee Langston and Myrtle Lewis Langston, Bob spent his childhood in Huntington Park, Los Angeles. He served in the US Army Air Force in 1944-45, then earned his undergraduate and Masters degrees in Entomology from UC Berkeley, where he worked as an entomologist and museum curator for many years. He studied insects in ancient amber at the UCSF Medical Center, then was an agricultural inspector and environmental impact analyst in the San Bruno mountains south of San Francisco.

An avid butterfly collector, he contributed to numerous articles in professional journals and reference books. He is credited with discovering two butterfly species in the San Francisco Bay Area. Bob donated his vast butterfly and moth collection to the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. During his retirement as an Eastwood Associate at the Academy, he spent many happy volunteer hours curating their insect collection. He loved the outdoors and traveling, and tending his garden of California native plants.

Preceded in death by his brother John Lewis Langston and his daughter Susan Monica Langston, he is survived by Evelyn Langston, his wife of 61 years; daughter Ann Lizbeth Langston of Riverside; son and daughter in law Bruce and Loretta Langston of Carmichael; son Gregory Langston of Orinda; and five grandchildren.

There will be no service, at his request. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to the California Academy of Sciences (www.calacademy.org.)