of the foundation. It was a great coup for the ever-persuasive Jean Dorst. While the Charles Darwin Research Station (CDRS) on the islands was managed by a resident director, all the CDF administration and other international work – including the production of a bi-annual bulletin Noticias de Galápagos – were carried out from Corley Smith's home, Greensted Hall, in Essex. He is credited with successfully promoting and maintaining a good working relationship between the national government and the international scientific body, which was seen by many in Ecuador as encroaching on their territory. "Most crucially," as Professor Dorst later wrote, "he perceived and understood the way the foundation had to meet and adapt to changing conditions in Ecuador." On handing over the role in 1984, Corley Smith was awarded the Order of Merit by the Ecuadorean government, and continued to visit the Galápagos often – eight times in the next 12 years – and to travel widely round the world. The extensive library at the CDRS, which holds the most complete collection of material on Galápagos anywhere in the world, is dedicated to the memory of Corley Smith. Family Corley Smith was predeceased by his wife, Joan Haggard, whom he married in August 1937. She was the daughter of diplomat Sir Godfrey Digby Napier Haggard and sister of actor Stephen Haggard. Upon his death in 1997 at age 88, Corley Smith was survived by a son and three daughters. References External links Obituary of Gerard Corley Smith reproduced by the Charles Darwin Foundation with permission of The Times (3 November 1997). 1909 births 1997 deaths People from Bolton People educated at Bolton School Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Haiti Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Ecuador British environmentalists