Pioneer Information
Born to Arthur and Freda Deering in Augusta, Maine, Robert Deering received a degree from the University of Maine in ornamental horticulture with a concentration in landscape design in 1942. After World War II, he continued his studies in landscape architecture at Cornell University, where he earned an M.L.A. and in 1948, a Doctorate.
In 1949 he moved to California to teach at the University of California, Davis. He was a pioneer in the study of plant and site design relationships for shading and passive solar functions. After several decades in practice, he returned to teaching at the end of his career, working at King Faisal University in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.
He started a private practice designing private gardens, school grounds, parks and commercial sites in 1955. The parking lot he designed for the Nut Tree in Vacaville, California, is recognized as one of the first tree-shaded parking lots in the country. Between 1960 and 1979, Deering worked with the State of California’s Parks system, focusing on state park acquisitions and land preservation. He was instrumental in the protection of historic structures at Fort Ross and Angel Island. Deering was made a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects in 1996.
