George Lawrence Barron

George Barron was born in Grangemouth, Scotland, in 1928. His parents divorced when he was eight, resulting in a move to Falkirk, where he lived with his maternal Grandparents and attended grade school and later high school at age 11. At 12, he joined his mother in Glasgow, transferring to an inner-city high school. By 13, he had attended five schools in three towns, often midterm, making adjustments to different curricula challenging! George dropped out of high school at 13 in June of 1942. When he turned 14 in August of that year, he got a job working as an apprentice in the Clydebank shipyards.

George severely injured his hand in 1944, resigned from his apprenticeship, and moved to Grangemouth to live with his paternal grandmother. His “Granny Barron” was a wonderful person. George adjusted well, finishing high school and earning his Higher Leaving Certificate at 18. Following mandatory post-war conscription, he served in the RAF, where he spent over a year in training in wireless and radar technology in England before being assigned to an experimental station near Stonehenge. George was demobilized in November 1949, two years and three months after his conscription.

As a conscripted ‘ex-serviceman’ with a Higher Leaving Certificate, George qualified for financial support for a four-year university degree and was accepted into the science program at Glasgow University. He graduated top of his class in 1954 with a B.Sc. (First Class Honours).

In 1951, George had the good fortune to meet an attractive young woman, Mae Thomson, at a University of Glasgow student dance. George used persistence, chocolates, flattery, Chanel No. 5, trips to Loch Lomond, and other exotic places!!! to win her heart! George and Mae married in 1953, just before his final year at university. Their daughter Lesley was born in Glasgow on the 27th of June 1954. They then moved to Canada, where George earned an M.Sc. in Plant Pathology in Toronto in 1955 before relocating to the USA, where he completed his Ph.D. in Mycology at Iowa State University in 1958. Their son Scott was born in Ames, Iowa (1957), followed by Stuart in Guelph, Ontario (1959). Laurie arrived later (1965), tipping the balance in favour of Canada.

George accepted a job as an assistant Professor in the Botany Department, Ontario Agricultural College in 1958, later called the University of Guelph. He packed the family possessions into a small U-haul trailer and headed for the Great White North. He loved both teaching and his research on fungi. He did exceptionally well at Guelph for 35 years and ‘retired’ in 1993, though he enjoyed the ‘work’ so much he continued to go in almost every day for another 20 years just for the fun of it!

George’s research on fungi was highly respected. In 1968, he wrote a book on soil fungi that became something of a classic, and he later became recognized as a global expert in his field. Over the years, he received a number of prestigious awards and honours in recognition of his work. These included the distinguished Mycologist Award by the Mycological Society of America (their highest honour), and a Doctor of Science degree from the University of Glasgow for his contributions to soil mycology. George was also awarded the George Lawson Medal from the Botanical Society of Canada for his contributions on the biology of soil fungi in Canada. Later, to celebrate their centenary, the British Mycological Society awarded Fellowships to thirty distinguished mycologists around the world. George was selected as one of this elite global group. Later, George was awarded a D.Sc. from St. Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia for significant contributions to Canadian mycology.

On ‘retiring’, George changed direction from microfungi to macrofungi and wrote a book on The Mushrooms of Ontario and North-East North America. The book was well-received and sold over 45,000 copies in Canada and the USA. His favourite retirement project was the creation of a website on fungi that was enjoyed widely by students of fungi, both professional and amateur. In the early years, his website attracted close to a million hits annually. Some years later the administration axed the website. Undaunted, George released much of the content of the website on a CD with over 900 pages and a thousand images of fungi. The CD received appreciative comments for its quality of content, and value as an educational resource.

Through all of their years together, Mae was George’s ‘right hand’ and an unwavering support to him. She never complained about lack of money in the early years, or about extra time spent in the lab, vacations in the woods, or his camp cooking. She treated everyone with kindness and good humour. She was empathic, liked by all, and loved by those who knew her best. For her children, Mae was a wonderful mother, kind, compassionate, and patient to a fault. She was a generous and wonderful friend, advisor, critic and a better person and wife than George expected or deserved. But George was lucky - a Virgo, born in the "Roaring Twenties", in the "Year of the Dragon". Hard to beat that!!

A note from George’s family:

Per George’s wishes, family will be holding a private celebration of life. Please feel free to share messages or memories on the Gilbert MacIntyre & Son Funeral Home website. For those wishing to make a donation, both George and Mae were lifelong supporters of public libraries and a donation to the Guelph Public Library in their name would be appreciated.