[1][2] Best attended Lafayette College for three years before leaving to teach high school in Riegelsville, Pennsylvania.

He was instrumental in revising and reclassifying many moss genera, including Thuidium, Claopodium, Heterocladium, Leskea, and Pseudoleskea.

[3] Best served as associate editor of The Bryologist from 1911 until his death, and as president of the Sullivant Moss Society from 1901 to 1902.

[5] Best's personal herbarium of mosses and publications were absorbed into the collection of the New York Botanical Garden.

published Bestia, which is a genus of mosses belonging to the family Lembophyllaceae and it was named in George Newton Best's honour.