Robert Fiske Griggs

Robert Fiske Griggs (August 22, 1881, in Brooklyn, Connecticut – June 10, 1962), was a botanist who led a 1915 National Geographic Society (NGS) expedition to observe the aftermath of the Katmai volcanic eruption.

Mincing their way across the crumbling, treacherous surface of the hot ash, they studied the temperatures and temperaments of the roaring fumaroles and explored the perilous margins of the pyroclastic deposits.

Hungry for stories to push the horrors of World War I from their minds, thousands of National Geographic subscribers were thrilled to read Griggs' gripping articles about the adventures of his exploring parties.

[2] In 1919, botanists Frank Lincoln Stevens and Nora Elizabeth Dalbey published Griggsia, which is a genus of fungi in the class Dothideomycetes.

[4] Griggs, Robert F. "The Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes: An Account of the Discovery and Exploration of the Most Wonderful Volcanic Region in the World," National Geographic (February 1918), 115–169.