William Morris Davis
1850–1934 (age 84)
geographer
Biography
William Morris Davis, often called the father of American geography, shaped the discipline through his teaching at Harvard, his pioneering concept of the cycle of erosion, and his insistence that landscape study remain grounded in observation.
He guided students and colleagues across a variety of scientific societies, always emphasizing the human stories behind the contours of rivers and mountains; he is interred at Mountain View Cemetery and Mausoleum.