Joseph Le Conte (1823–1901) is probably the most eminent
geologist in Mountain View Cemetery. Born in Georgia to a
wealthy family, he graduated from the University of Georgia in
1841 and earned an M.D. in New York in 1845. Five years later he
gave up his practice in Macon to study geology and zoology at
Harvard under Louis Agassiz, earning a B.S. in 1851. He then
taught geology at three different universities, then endured the
Civil War on the losing side, before riding the transcontinental
railroad to Oakland in 1869, where he became the first professor
of geology at UC Berkeley and his brother John the acting
president, later a professor of physics. He spent the rest of
his life here. The Cal paleo museum has a page about his role
during this time. A much longer memoir, by Cal botanist Eugene
Hilgard, was published by the National Academy of Sciences in
1907 and is fascinating reading. In 1870 he first visited the
Sierra Nevada, a six-week excursion on horseback, and traveled
the West extensively thereafter