Clarence Adelbert Petty (August 8, 1905 – November 30, 2009) was an American forest ranger, conservationist, and outdoorsman.
[2] Again struggling in college, he was given a job to teach the use of a transit theodolite and survey equipment, despite the fact that he initially barely understood these instruments himself.
The classification resulted in large part from his study of more than 1,300 miles (2,100 km) of rivers and streams, a project he undertook by canoe and portage in the early 1970s, when he was in his sixties.
Petty worked for the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression and served in the Navy as a pilot in the Pacific during World War II.
[4] In tribute, Adirondack Explorer magazine's Dick Beamish wrote an obituary for Petty.