Roscoe Wilfred Thatcher

Background

Thatcher was born on a farm at Chatham Center, Ohio, in 1872. He was the son of Charles Phelps and Lida Elizabeth (Parkard) Thatcher. His parents moved to Nebraska in 1885 and settled on a prairie farm near Gibbon.

Education

In 1892 he entered the University of Nebraska, where he worked his way through the preparatory and collegiate departments. He received the degree of B. S. in chemistry in 1898.

Career

He taught in a high school for a year, spent two years as assistant chemist at the Nebraska agricultural experiment station, and then accepted a similar position at the Washington State Agricultural Experiment Station, where he later served as chief chemist (1903 - 07) and as director (1907 - 13). During the latter period he was also professor of agricultural chemistry at the State College of Washington. During his connection with the Washington station he published in its bulletins a number of important papers upon the chemistry of forage crops, insecticides, soils, fertilizers, and upon the composition and milling properties of Washington wheats.

From 1913 to 1917 he served as professor of plant chemistry in the University of Minnesota. In 1917 he was appointed dean of the School of Agriculture and director of the Minnesota experiment station. During this period he reorganized and greatly strengthened the department of agricultural chemistry at the University; at the same time he conducted researches upon forage and cereal crops, insecticides, apples, and dairy products.

In 1921 he became director of the New York agricultural experiment station at Geneva, and in 1923 director of the Geneva and Cornell agricultural stations, which were united at that time. In 1924-25 he served as a member of the conference on agricultural legislation called by President Calvin Coolidge.

His broad interests in agronomy, organization of agricultural research, and agricultural education induced him to accept in 1927 the presidency of the Massachusetts Agricultural College at Amherst, which in 1931 became the Massachusetts State College. He discharged the administrative duties of this position with great ability. He instituted a new system of freshman dormitories, made important revisions in the curriculum of studies, enlarged opportunities for staff members to do post-graduate study, and entered upon a five-year building program of remodeling and construction which he did not live to carry through to completion.

His health, which on previous occasions had shown signs of breaking, had become seriously impaired, and after a temporary leave of absence he was finally obliged in 1932 to resign the presidency of the college. Following a period of rest he resumed his connection with the college in April 1933 as research professor of agricultural chemistry. He began a study of the rôle of the lesser known chemical elements in plant growth, but his work was cut short by an attack of cerebral hemorrhage from which he died in his laboratory on December 6, 1933.

Achievements

• Thatcher's wide experience in all branches of agricultural chemistry together with his rare gifts as an administrator and organizer made him a leader in the fields of agricultural research and education. He also was the author of many bulletins, addresses, and reports. In 1921 he published his Chemistry of Plant Life.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Chemistry of Plant Life

Membership

He was president of the American Society of Agronomy in 1912, of whose Journal he was assistant editor from 1913 to 1919, and editor from 1920 to 1927. He was president of the American Society for the Promotion of Agricultural Science in 1919. His reports as chairman of the committee on experiment station organization and policy (1921 - 23), and as a member of the committee on publication of research for the Association of Land Grant Colleges were most valuable. He was a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the American Chemical Society, serving the latter as chairman of the committee in charge of the Frasch bequest for agricultural research.

Connections

He had married Nellie Elizabeth Fulmer of Gibbon on August 25, 1896, and the pair one daughter.

Father:

Charles Phelps Thatcher

Mother:

Lida Elizabeth (Parkard) Thatcher

Spouse:

Nellie Elizabeth Fulmer of Gibbon