Alan Best (sculptor)

Best was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1910, the third of five sons of English immigrants.[1] Soon after his birth, the family moved to Galiano Island and then to Salt Spring Island,[1] both Gulf Islands of British Columbia. Best attended Shawnigan Lake School for Boys.[1]

Aged 17, Best moved to New York, where he began sculpting animals at the American Museum of Natural History.[1] In 1931–32, he studied in Paris[1] at the Académie Julian. Moving to London, he had various sculpture jobs.[1] He worked for the ceramics company Josiah Wedgwood and Sons for which he designed ornamental figures of athletes and of a mandarin duck,[3] and was assistant to British sculptor Eric Kennington. He worked for the zoologist Julian Huxley as a field worker and as tutor to his sons,[1] and when Huxley was appointed curator of the London Zoo in 1936, Best became assistant zoo curator.[1] During WWII, Best served with the British Merchant Navy.[1] After the war, he returned to British Columbia.[1] He started a children's zoo in 1950,[1] and in 1951, became curator of Stanley Park Zoo, Vancouver.[1] He was a noted authority on penguins,[1] and made several expeditions to the Antarctic to capture different species for the zoo.[4]

He was the uncle of the Canadian filmmaker Alan Best.