Bar Harbor, Maine - Sally C. Rooney, 80, died December 13, 2018, at Birch Bay Village, Bar Harbor. Born 1938 in Malden, MA, she was the daughter of Kellogg W and Muriel C Kyle of Stoneham, MA.

Sally graduated from the University of Maine, Orono, becoming the first woman to earn a BS, wildlife management in 1959. She followed that with an MS zoology in 1972 and an MS botany in 1991. She had a long career as an educator and turned her passion for plants and animals into a career as a consulting biologist, rediscovering many plants thought extinct in Maine, discovering others not known before and co-authoring books on plant biology. She had long affiliations with various Audubon societies as an avid birder, the Nature Conservancy and the Josselyn Botanical Society. Few areas of Maine escaped Sally's investigations but Aroostook County and Mount Desert Island were her favorites.

Sally lived for many years in Houlton, moving in the late 1990s to Sedgwick.

She is survived by her three children, son, Brett and his husband, Eric of Bondi, Australia; son, Kent and his wife, Emily, and children, Shannon and Erin of Windsor, CO; daughter, Janet and her partner, Teimoc, of New York, NY; brother, Peter Kyle and his partner, Henry, of Riverdale, NY; loyal friend, Jill Weber of Bar Harbor; and scores of other people who shared her enthusiasm for discovery and ardor for conserving our natural world.

Her family would especially like to thank the staff at Birch Bay Village for their steadfast support and selfless devotion to Sally.

A memorial service to celebrate Sally's life will be held in April. Gifts in Sally's memory may be made at northernlighthomecarehospice.org. Condolences may be expressed at www.jordanfernald.com.