American botanist and high school teacher interested in the vascular plants of the Hawaiian Islands and particularly the Asteraceae. From Illinois, Earl E. Sherff studied botany at Albion College and received a BSc from this institution. Later he gained a master's and doctoral degree from the University of Chicago and taught at high schools in Elgin and Deerfield as well as Christian Fenger High School and Lindblom Technical High in Chicago. Later Sherff taught at the Chicago Teachers College and became a research associate to the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. He collected extensively in the Chicago area as well as in other states and Hawaii in particular. Sherff published quite extensively on the flora of Hawaii and produced taxonomic revisions of the genera Taraxacum F.H. Wigg, Cosmos Cav., Tetramolopium Nees, Lipochaeta DC, Dubautia Gaudich., Railliardia Gaudich., Haplostachys Hillebr., Phyllostegia Benth. and Stenogyne Cass. Five species epithets, all members of the Asteraceae family, have been named after him.

Source
Anon, 1966, "Death of Earl E. Sherff", Brittonia, 18(2): 191
R.H. Mohlenbrock, 1982, "Illinois Solanaceae in the Missouri Botanical Garden Herbarium and Biographical Sketches of Some Collectors", Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden, 69(2): 382-392.