Carl Sharsmith

Carl William Sharsmith (March 14, 1903 – October 14, 1994) was an American naturalist and Yosemite park ranger, notable for his knowledge and interpretation of the natural history of the Sierra Nevada.

He taught botany at various universities, and was the first botanist to comprehensively document the alpine flora of the high Sierra Nevada.

Born Karl Wilhelm Schaarschmidt II in New York City to Swiss and German parents, he grew up the U.S., Europe, and Canada.

Sharsmith would work each summer as a Ranger-Naturalist and spend the rest of the year teaching or performing herbarium research.

He died at his home in San Jose, California just a few weeks after he completed his final season in uniform at Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite National Park.