Louis Valentine Pirsson

Background

He was born on November 3, 1860 at Fordham, New York, United States, the son of Francis Morris and Louisa (Butt) Pirsson. His great-grandfather, William Pirsson, came from Chelmsford, Essex, England, to the vicinity of New York in 1796. His son William married Emily Morris of New York, and it was in the comfortable home of his paternal grandparents that Louis was born.

His mother died when Louis was four years old; his father saw little of the young son, being absent in South America.

At nine years of age Louis became the ward of Thomas Lord of New York, who placed him in the family of the Rev. William J. Blain, pastor of a near-by church, who lived on a small farm near Amsterdam, New York. Another boy taken into Blain's family helped stimulate his scientific leanings.

Education

William J. Blain was a teacher of Louis, from him the boy received much of his primary education. Louis was trained in the strict and regular performance of small family duties. He delved into his preceptor's excellent library and acquired a taste for literature and for natural history.

At sixteen he was placed in Amenia Academy, Dutchess County, New York. (later in New Marlboro, Massachussets), and entered the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale in 1879. His summer vacations spent at the shore with his wealthy guardian softened an otherwise severe life with luxurious pastimes and social diversions. Pirsson graduated from Sheffield with honors in 1882.

An enthusiastic geologist, he returned to Yale and studied under Professor Penfield. He studied at Heidelberg, the Mecca of petrologists, and in Paris.

Career

He served as assistant in chemistry at Sheffield Scientific School of Yale; became an expert analyst; and laid the chemical foundation for his later geological work. In 1888 he taught chemistry at the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute, but in 1889 he left to accept an unusual opportunity, procured for him by his kindly adviser, Professor Brush, to become a field assistant of a United States Geological Survey party under Arnold Hague to study Yellowstone Park.

While abroad (in Paris), in 1892, he was called by Professor Brush to Yale to become instructor in mineralogy and lithology. In 1893 he gave the first graduate course at Yale in petrology, which later attracted a continuous flow of graduate students, many of whom were to become distinguished geologists. In 1894 he was made assistant professor, and in 1897 professor of physical geology. As a member of the governing board of the Sheffield Scientific School, he served as its secretary; was senior class officer and chairman of the discipline committee; was a member of the board of Sheffield trustees and of its executive committee, and for a brief period was acting director of the school.

From 1899 until his death was associate editor of the American Journal of Science, in which some forty of his contributions were published. Pirsson was also the author of a widely used book on Rocks and Rock Minerals (1908) and of a testbook of physical geology, which is Part I of the Text Book of Geology (1915) by Pirsson and Schuchert.

He died in New Haven, Connecticut.

Achievements

• Louis Valentine Pirsson is known as one of the most influencial professors of geology at Yale University. His most noted contributions were a series of papers dealing with the igneous rocks of Montana, which Whitman Cross states constitute "one of the most important contributions to American petrology. " His analyses and microscopic investigations revealed many interesting rocks, some new to science. He was a co-author of Quantitative Classification of Igneous Rocks, in which was formulated an entirely new system of classification and a new terminology.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Quantitative Classification of Igneous Rocks: Based On Chemical and Mineral Characters, with a Systematic Nomenclature

    (This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

  • rocks and Rock Minerals Third Edition

    (Written by the late Professor of physical Geology in the ...)

  • Rocks and rock minerals; a manual of the elements of petrology w

Personality

Quotes from others about the person

• According to Cross post, as a teacher Louis held his students "not by picturesque or fascinating language, but by his knowledge of the subject and his clear and fluent presentation of it".

Connections

In 1902 he married Eliza Trumbull Brush, daughter of his early teacher and adviser, Professor George J. Brush.

Father:

Francis Morris Pirsson

Mother:

Louisa (Butt) Pirsson

Spouse:

Eliza Trumbull Brush

Grandfather:

William Pirsson

influencer:

William J.Blain

teacher, advisor:

George J. Brush

great-grandfathe:

William Pirsson

grandmother:

Emily Morris