Coe Finch Austin (June 20, 1831 – March 18, 1880) was an educator, botanist and founding member of the Torrey Botanical Club.

His interest in plant life also came at an early age and he was a constant companion to his mother in her flower garden.

[1] As a young man, Austin worked as a school teacher in Tappan, New York, where he met and married Hannah Campbell, the daughter of a New Jersey farmer.

But it was through his acquaintance with John Torrey that he secured a position as curator of the Columbia College Herbarium from 1859 thru 1863.

[2] In 1870, he published his most well-known work, Musci appalachiani, which dealt with the mosses of the Eastern United States.