Background
Goodspeed, Thomas Harper was born on May 17, 1887 in Springfield, Massachusetts, United States. Son of George Stephen and Florence Duffy (Mills) Goodspeed.
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Thomas Harper Goodspeed
Edit ProfileEducation
Student College Gaillard, Lausanne, Switzerland, 1902-1903. Advanced study Stockholms Hogskölan, 1922-1923, Kaiser Wilhelm Gesellschaft, Berlin-Dahlem, 1930-1931. Bachelor of Arts, Brown University, 1909.
Doctor of Philosophy, University California, 1912.
Doctor honoris causa U. Louisiana Plata, 1939. Doctor of Science honoris causa, Brown, 1940.
Career
He was the director of the University of California Botanical Garden from 1919 to 1957. Under the direction of Goodspeed and University of California landscape architect, John William Gregg, the garden was moved from its location on the central campus to its current site in Strawberry Canyon in the hills above the campus. As director of the UCBG, Goodspeed led several plant hunting expeditions to the Andes of Colombia, Peru, Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay.
He obtained a substantial collection of Nicotiana during these expeditions, which were then assembled at the Botanical Garden for further study.
His study lead to increased understanding of the origins and diversity of tobacco species. The collection was later used to reintroduce wild disease resistance traits into domesticated species.
During World War I Goodspeed, along with desert rubber expert and fellow Berkeley botanist, Harvey Monroe Hall, worked for the United States" Western strategic plants surveys for native sources of rubber. His positive relations with South American countries lead to him being asked to help maintain relations with these countries during World World War World War II He spent some time in Chile helping to design the Chilean Botanical Garden.
The Australian tobacco species Nicotiana goodspeedii H.-M. Wheeler is named after Goodspeed.
Achievements
Membership
Member of faculty, various agricultural colleges Fellow John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, Europe, 1930-1931, South America, 1935. Commander Orden All Merito Bernardo O’Higgins (Chile).
Fellow Linnean Society (London), American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Member National Academy Sciences Argentina, Argentine Anatomical Society, Biological Society of Montevideo. Member United States, State and South America professional, science associations and societies, including Sigma Xi and local special horticultural societies.
Connections
Married Florence Spencer Beman, June 6, 1911 (deceased. Married Elizabeth Bibbons Noack, February 5, 1954. Children: Stephen Spencer, Ellen Strutt (Mistress J. Doctorate. Ainsworth).
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Born
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Died
March 17, 1966 (aged 78) -
Nationality
United States