The family moved west to Los Angeles County, California, residing in a home in the City of Long Beach as a boy and during his teen years, just a few blocks from the Pacific Ocean.
After serving in the United States Army, he became a research associate for the Allan Hancock Foundation, a division of University of Southern California for 10 years, 1945 to 1955.
In 1965, he accepted the newly established position of Curator of Cryptogamic Botany at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History.
[1] In 1968, the noteworthy marine biologist and oceanographer, Joel Hedgpeth reflected in a narratie passage on the professional career of E. Yale Dawson in Between Pacific Tides, by Ed Ricketts and Jack Calvin (Stanford University Press).
I suppose he hoped that his disciple would eventually inherit his chair; but that did not come to pass, and Yale finally wound up at the Smithsonian, which alas, was to be his last job.