# Talk:John Hunter Thomas

There's an interesting connection he has with Montana and his family, and I wonder how far back it goes. His father was a mining engineer, and I think there's a solid connection with Montana roots.  The obituary for his sister also has a a lot of interesting family backstory with connections to Montana.  Through his colleagues, we discover that he spent summers at Flathead Lake Biological Station, but I think it's quite likely he was visiting close family relatives as well.  I will keep looking into this. Viriditas (talk) 22:09, 12 October 2023 (UTC)

I suspect these summers were spent teaching, because the station conducts field courses in the summer, but I have no evidence just yet. Viriditas (talk) 22:15, 12 October 2023 (UTC)
Added only what I could source. Viriditas (talk) 22:28, 12 October 2023 (UTC)
Found it!  Adding now. Viriditas (talk) 19:36, 15 October 2023 (UTC)

Making a list:

Muriel E. Poston (1950- ) - botanist, professor of environmental analysis, Howard, Pitzer College
Charles P. Quinn - naturalist, author
Added. Viriditas (talk) 01:25, 13 October 2023 (UTC)

It would be nice to add content about Thomas' early proposal to remove invasive eucalyptus.  While it was not a popular idea when he first proposed it (1980s, 1990s?), it is now semi-official policy in California, with removals occurring all over the SFBA.  I'm personally curious as to what caused the sea change. Viriditas (talk) 23:08, 4 November 2023 (UTC)

This review is transcluded from Talk:John Hunter Thomas/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.
Nominator: Viriditas (talk · contribs) 00:15, 11 January 2025 (UTC)
Reviewer: An anonymous username, not my real name (talk · contribs) 20:22, 4 February 2025 (UTC)
I'd be glad to review this. At a cursory glance, it looks quite good.
Article is stable, no copyvios, image is good. I spot checked refs 4, 5, 7, 14, and 20. I do see a couple lines lacking citations. I also have some minor clarity/prose/formatting comments.

Thomas was born in Beuthen, Germany, on March 26, 1928, to American parents, Roy and Lucile Thomas. I don't think this sentence actually requires any commas (aside from those for the city and date, obviously).
Done.
It might be nitpicky of me, but ref 4 simply says that his father was a mining engineer, not that he only worked as one in Poland.
I believe this is due to another source which documents his mining work in Poland; IIRC, we don't know much about his mining work in the US, although I think it is assumed he continued the same work here, I don't remember.  I think you also might be reading this quite differently than me.  I will revisit it and see what I turn up.
Haven't run into the other source just yet, but until I do, I've changed it to "Thomas was born...to American parents Roy, a mining engineer, and Lucile Thomas...Thomas spent his early childhood in Poland."
The talk page shows I pursued this line of inquiry last year. My guess is that his father was involved in mining in Montana but I never was able to confirm it.
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. Any reason to not simply say he graduated from Kent School and earned his bachelor's degree from Caltech, rather than saying he completed his work/studies? This would also be in line with the source.
Done.
...Thomas spent the next decade as a graduate student at Stanford University (MA, 1949; PhD, 1959). Except he wasn't continuously, as the wording implies; his naval service occurred in between.
Added "intermittent graduate student" and "broken up by military service leave" to the end of sentence.  Not sure if that addresses your issue.
Changed to "After completing his undergraduate work at Caltech, Thomas spent the next decade as an intermittent graduate student at Stanford University broken up by active military service."
From 1951 to 1952, Thomas served as an officer in the United States Navy Reserve during the Korean War. Would it not be more accurate to say he was called to active duty by the naval reserve for that period?
Not sure if he was called to active duty or volunteered. I will need to revisit this. My extended family served at the same time as Thomas in the same war, and they did so in order to afford medical school training through a military-funded scholarship like the Health Professions Scholarship Program (which was apparently created much later in the 1970s), which was paid for, I believe.  So I'm not sure if he was called to duty or volunteered in exchange for tuition.  I don't know the details, but I will revisit.
Added "From 1951 to 1952, Thomas served as an officer in the United States Navy Reserve during the Korean War after being called to active duty."
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. Citation needed.
Sources were accidentally removed in November when the article appeared on DYK.  I will add them back.
Looks like the culprit was User:Sm8900[1].  Fixing now.
Done, if I restored them correctly. Viriditas (talk) 02:58, 5 February 2025 (UTC)
It was eventually established in 1996, one year after his retirement. Citation needed.
Sources were accidentally removed in November when the article appeared on DYK.  I will add them back.
Looks like the culprit was User:Sm8900[2].  Fixing now.
Done, if I restored them correctly. Viriditas (talk) 02:58, 5 February 2025 (UTC)
I don't think the article clearly explains what the Oakmead Herbarium is and how it differs from the Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve.
Will do.
Added a few clarifications to make it a bit more clear.  I will attempt to add more.
Per your request, I added: "Unlike the former Dudley Herbarium, which documented plants from the entirety of California, the Oakmead Herbarium had a much narrower focus, documenting and storing plant specimens taken from just the area of Jasper Ridge since 1867." I can add more or adjust.
His personal herbarium, which contained thousands of duplicate specimens, was destroyed by insects shortly before his death. A little more dramatic than what the source says; it merely states that the collection was discarded due to severe insect damage. It also wouldn't hurt to mention that this collection was at Stanford or that his field notebooks still remain there.
I think there's actually another source that is dramatic, but perhaps I failed to cite it here.  I will revisit.
I didn't originally mention the notebooks because there's conflicting info.  The 1998 Stanford source says that in 1996, "The collecting notebooks for all Dudley Herbarium personnel were transferred with [Thomas'] specimens to the California Academy of Science."[3]  The 2008 source by the CAS says "His field notebooks remain at Stanford University."[4]  The OAC guide to his papers lists three boxes of notebooks.[5]  Given that OAC is dated 2013 and updated as late as last year, it sounds like I should assume CAS is correct and add it.
Thomas was married to Susan Davidson Thomas on December 3, 1966. While technically correct, I suppose, "Thomas married" sounds more natural.
Done.  Good catch.
The information in the second paragraph of the personal life section seems somewhat closely linked to his career as a biologist. Is this the best section for it?
Great question.  Yes, I think the personal life section is the best place for it for now based on what I've read about him and the popularity of population control topics in the late 1960s and early 1970s.  There was virtually no crossover with his career, as it was entirely separate. I actually spent a great deal of time trying to find out more but wasn't able to do so.
I see that part of this confusion again arose from the edits of User:Sm8900 who split this into different paragraphs. I originally added it as one paragraph to buttress his religious position on birth control.  These were not academic lectures about population control, but rather speeches he gave outside of the university. I see now that this wording may have confused you, along with the paragraphs that were added by others giving it undue attention.  I will revisit this.
I just found further info.  I will try to add it.
Expanded the material.
His various hobbies included reading English novels by authors like C. P. Snow and Evelyn Waugh, and owning a printing press... A few issues here. It says "various" but only names two, there's an unnecessary comma, and it's worded such that his hobby is apparently owning a printing press (as opposed to actually using it).
Done, although you might have a different style in mind, as the use of commas here can vary.
That's all I've found. Nothing too bad except for the missing citations. I will be putting it on hold. — Anonymous 21:11, 4 February 2025 (UTC)

Thanks for the review! I will be addressing your points over the next few days. Viriditas (talk) 23:06, 4 February 2025 (UTC)
It looks like you're still working, so I'll add another small comment (it's something that won't make or break the article's potential GA status, but it wouldn't hurt either). IIRC, one of the sources (unfortunately, I can't remember which) mentioned that his health had been poor for essentially the duration of his retirement until his death. It seems worth a mention, I think. — Anonymous 23:02, 5 February 2025 (UTC)
I will look.  He was suffering from Alzheimer’s, IIRC. Viriditas (talk) 23:08, 5 February 2025 (UTC)
I think you are referring to the sentence "Since his retirement he has been incapacitated by chronic illness".  My take on that, is that it is a euphemism for Alzheimer's.  That was written in 1998 when there was still very much a stigma.  Of course, there's a chance it refers to something else.  When we read about the family of Bruce Willis being open about his dementia in 2023, that's a fairly new social phenomenon.   This was 1998, and it was only in 1991 that Magic Johnson announced he had HIV.  That was pretty unheard of at the time.  The usual practice is that these things were not always discussed, although there's another source saying Thomas' family was open about it at some point, I just haven't pinpointed when that was or if it was just the Stanford publication using the euphemism as a substitute for the openness about his Alzheimer's.  My take is that it's a euphemism for Alzheimer's. Viriditas (talk) 03:42, 6 February 2025 (UTC)
 All of your improvements seem good. Leaving out the mention of "chronic illness" is fine. I noticed a handful of other small improvements that could be made.
I believe there should be an apostrophe in "master(')s thesis".
Thomas was a fellow of both the California Academy of Sciences and the Arctic Institute of North America. I notice the dates of his fellowships are not given. If the sources don't mention them, perhaps consider moving the sentence to the end of the paragraph that contains it, which is where other distinctions without specific dates are mentioned.
A massive amount of background information is provided in the Dudley Herbarium section. By my count, only three of its nineteen sentences mention Thomas by name. A little context can be helpful, but the section's coverage of the history of the herbarium appears disproportionate to its coverage of the actual subject.
"Permafrost" seems worthy of a wikilink.
After these are addressed, it should be all ready to go. — Anonymous 23:00, 7 February 2025 (UTC)

Done.[6]  I moved the fellowships to the penultimate sentence in the paragraph. Viriditas (talk) 00:24, 8 February 2025 (UTC)