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{{Short description|American botanist (1928–1999)}}
{{Short description|American botanist (1928–1999)}}
{{Redirect|J.H.Thomas|the politician|J. H. Thomas}}
{{Infobox scientist
{{Infobox scientist
| name = John Hunter Thomas
| name = John Hunter Thomas

Revision as of 16:17, 9 October 2023

John Hunter Thomas
Born(1928-03-26)26 March 1928
Beuthen, Germany[2]
Died20 July 1999(1999-07-20) (aged 71)
Menlo Park, California, US
Known forFloristic botany
Systematic botany
Oakmead Herbarium
Scientific career
FieldsBotany[1]
ThesisThe vascular plants of the Santa Cruz Mountains of central California (1958)
Doctoral advisorIra Loren Wiggins

John Hunter Thomas (March 26, 1928 – July 20, 1999) was an American botanist, professor of biological sciences at Stanford University, curator and director of the Dudley Herbarium, and joint curator at the California Academy of Sciences. He was known for his study of plants in the Sonoran Desert, the Santa Cruz Mountains, and the Alaska North Slope, and for his history of botanical exploration in Washington, Oregon, and California. His doctoral research on the plants of the Santa Cruz Mountains was published as a guide to the vascular plants of coastal, central California. Thomas helped establish the Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve and contributed to the plant collection of Jasper Ridge Oakmead Herbarium (JROH).

Biography

Thomas was born in Beuthen, Germany, on March 26, 1928, to American parents, Roy and Lucile Thomas.[3] He had a younger sister, Mary Louise Thomas. Thomas spent his early childhood in Poland where his father was a mining engineer.[4] In 1939, his family moved back to the United States, taking up residence in New England. He completed his college preparatory studies in 1945 at Kent School in Connecticut, and his undergraduate work at the California Institute of Technology in 1949.[5]

After completing his undergraduate work at Caltech, Thomas spent the next decade as a graduate student at Stanford University (MA, 1949; PhD, 1959). His masters thesis (The taxonomy and distribution of the Onagraceae of the Sonoroan Desert) focused on the Onagraceae family of flowering plants in the Sonoran Desert. A year later, he joined Stanford botanist and faculty member Ira Loren Wiggins to study the plants in Point Barrow, Alaska. While still working on his research at Stanford, Thomas served as an officer in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War (1950–1953). On October 7, 1951, he was wounded on the Gearing-class destroyer USS Ernest G. Small during the attack on Hungnam. The ship hit a mine, damaging the bow, killing nine, and wounding 18. Thomas survived, but for the rest of his life he carried shrapnel embedded in his body.[4]

From 1956 to 1958, Thomas taught at Occidental College. With Wiggins as his advisor, Thomas completed his dissertation, informed by the plant collections of William Russel Dudley, on The vascular plants of the Santa Cruz Mountains of central California in 1958, with Stanford publishing it as a book in 1961.[6] Wiggins, who became director of the Arctic Research Laboratory, later co-authored A Flora of the Alaskan Arctic Slope (1962) with Thomas. From 1961 to 1969, Thomas lectured at Stanford, becoming associate professor from 1969 to 1977. He was made professor in 1977, staying there until his retirement as professor emeritus of biological sciences in 1995.[7]

Thomas served as the president of the California Botanical Society and editor of their journal, Madrono. From 1964 to 1987 he participated as a delegate to the International Botanical Congress. Thomas also served on the Academic Council's Committee on Libraries and the Associates of the Stanford University Libraries, and was an editorial board member for the Stanford University Press.[8]

Herbaria

After Frederick E. Terman became Stanford university provost in 1954, there was a strong push towards biomedicine and biochemistry, particularly in terms of the potential for new federal funding available to the university for cellular and molecular biology research. Terman's administrative focus on these government grants led to the elimination of the Division of Systematic Biology in June 1965. This loss of funding paved the way for the eventual transfer of the 850,000-specimen Dudley Herbarium from Stanford to the California Academy of Sciences Herbarium.[9] Thomas became associate curator of the Dudley Herbarium in 1962. Soon after, curator Roxana Stinchfield Ferris retired, leaving Thomas as curator from 1963 to 1972, becoming director of the herbarium from 1972 until 1995. In 1969, Thomas began working as a part-time joint curator at the Academy.[10] The transfer of the specimen collections from Stanford to the Academy was eventually completed in 1976.[9]

In 1973, Thomas helped establish the 1198 acres (485 ha) Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve at Stanford.[11] He also helped create the foundations for the Jasper Ridge plant collection at Oakmead Herbarium, a teaching and reference collection which was first established in 1996 after he had retired. The herbarium is located at the Leslie Shao-ming Sun Field Station, which was built in 2002 at the preserve. Along with John Rawlings and Toni Corelli, Thomas was one of the primary contributors to the plant collections at Oakmead. The collection hosts approximately 5500 specimens.[12] According to Oakmead, "Thomas was the most prolific collector of grasses in the Jasper Ridge area with 361 sheets...and the most prolific collector of graminoids in general with 453 sheets collected from 1955 to 1992".[13] Unfortunately, his personal herbarium, which contained thousands of duplicate specimens, was destroyed by insects shortly before his death.[10]

Personal life

Thomas was married to Susan Davidson Thomas on December 3, 1966.[2] They had no children. Although he was of the Catholic faith, he openly criticized the anti-birth control position of the Church, particularly the position of Pope Paul VI found in the 1968 encyclical Humanae vitae, which condemned "artificial" birth control.[11] Thomas gave lectures on the dangers of human overpopulation and advocated for human population planning. At least two of these lectures are known: "The Immorality of Too Many People" was delivered at Mills College on November 15, 1969,[14] while another lecture, discussing "the interrelated problems of overpopulation and pollution", was given at Michigan State University on October 13, 1970, and recorded by WKAR Radio.[15] His various hobbies included reading English novels by authors like C. P. Snow and Evelyn Waugh, and owning a printing press, which he used to publish satirical reviews of work by his peers under the title "Cardboard Carton Corpse and Cadaver Container Corporation".[16] He died in a nursing home from Alzheimer's disease on July 20, 1999.[8] A memorial service was held a month later, on August 24, at Stanford Memorial Church.[16]

Publications

  • Thomas, John Hunter; Kenton Lee Chambers (1957). The Vascular Flora of Middleton Island, Alaska. Natural History Museum of Stanford University. 5 (2). OCLC 16900645.
  • Thomas, John Hunter (1958). The taxonomy and distribution of the Onagraceae of the Sonoroan Desert. (M.A. thesis). Stanford University. OCLC 25641417.
  • Thomas, John Hunter (May 1961). "The Gautier Herbarium". Contributions from the Dudley Herbarium. Natural History Museum of Stanford University. 5 (6): 143–145. OCLC 5066237.
  • Thomas, John Hunter (May 1961). "The History of Botanical Collecting in the Santa Cruz Mountains of Central California". Contributions from the Dudley Herbarium. Natural History Museum of Stanford University. 5 (6): 147–168. OCLC 5066237.
  • Thomas, John Hunter (1961). Flora of the Santa Cruz Mountains of California: A Manual of the Vascular Plants. Stanford University Press. ISBN 9780804718622. OCLC 1357629653.
  • Wiggins, Ira L.; Thomas, John Hunter (1962). A Flora of the Alaskan Arctic Slope. Special Publication of the Arctic Institute of North America, No. 4. University of Toronto Press. OCLC 1084498.226309200
  • Thomas, J. H. (1970). [Thomas lectures on the interrelated problems of overpopulation and pollution to a Michigan State University audience]. OCLC 13450879. MSU Libraries Catalog.
  • Thomas, John Hunter; Parnell, Dennis R. (1974). Native Shrubs of the Sierra Nevada. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520027381. OCLC 959906.
  • Thomas, John Hunter (May 1979). "Botanical Explorations in Washington, Oregon, California and Adjacent Regions". Huntia. Hunt Botanical Library, Carnegie Institute of Technology. 3 (1): 5–62. OCLC 30808725.
The standard author abbreviation J.H.Thomas is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.[17]

References

  1. ^ Nemeh 2008, p. 69.
  2. ^ a b David T. Powers and Associates, Inc. 1991.
  3. ^ San Francisco Chronicle 1967, p. 29.
  4. ^ a b Ehrlich et al. n.d., p. 1.
  5. ^ Workman 1999.
  6. ^ Timby 1998, p. 6.
  7. ^ Timby 1998, p. 14.
  8. ^ a b Palo Alto Weekly 1999.
  9. ^ a b Timby 1998, p. 2.
  10. ^ a b Daniel 2008, p. 258.
  11. ^ a b Ray 1999.
  12. ^ Jewett 2005; Consortium of California Herbaria (CCH).
  13. ^ "Oakmead Herbarium: Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve Order Poale".
  14. ^ San Francisco Chronicle 1969, p. 23.
  15. ^ Thomas 1970.
  16. ^ a b Ehrlich et al. n.d., p. 2.
  17. ^ International Plant Names Index.  J.H.Thomas.

Bibliography

Further reading

External links

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