Owsley Stanley, a.k.a. Bear, was an American chemist and counterculture icon who is best known for supplying the band the Grateful Dead with their LSD in their famous Acid Tests of 1966-1967. Owsley was born on March 19, 1935 in Lexington, Kentucky, to a middle-class family that originally came from England in the 17th century. His grandfather had been governor of Kentucky and his father was a successful lawyer. Bear grew up with a passion for chemistry from an early age and after finishing school he went on to study at the University of Chicago where he graduated with a degree in biochemistry in 1956. He did not stay long after this but instead decided to move to Berkeley, California where he established himself as one of their most prominent drug dealers selling marijuana under the name “Bear’s Angels” . After being released from prison for possession of Marijuana with Intent to Sell in 1959, Owsley began working as a janitor at the UC Berkeley Chemistry department which enabled him access to chemicals like Nitrous Oxide and Ethyl Ether which are both used for making LSD. In 1962 he relocated again and settled down in Menlo Park California where he opened up his own private laboratory dedicated to producing LSD under the pseudonym “Owsley” .
Owsley Stanley
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