Raphael Zon (December 1, 1874 – October 27, 1956) was a prominent

U.S. Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency within the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands covering of land. The major divisions of the agency are the Chief's ...

researcher.

Early life

Raphael Zon was born in

Simbirsk Ulyanovsk,, , known as Simbirsk until 1924, is a city and the administrative center of Ulyanovsk Oblast, Russia, located on the Volga River east of Moscow. Ulyanovsk has been the only Russian UNESCO City of Literature since 2015. The city wa ...

in the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

in 1874, to parents Gabriel Zon and Eugenia Berliner. A schoolmate of

Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...

's, he fled Russia in 1896 while on bail following arrest for organizing a trade union. Zon and companion Anna Puziriskaya, whom he would later marry, fled to Belgium where he studied in

Liège Liège ( ; ; ; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality of Wallonia, and the capital of the Liège Province, province of Liège, Belgium. The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east o ...

. He spent nine months in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

before emigrating to the United States in 1898.

Education

Zon's early studies were in Russia. He attended the "classical gymnasium" in Simbirsk, and, studying "medical and natural sciences," graduating from the Kazan Imperial University with a bachelor's degree in "comparative embryology".Schmaltz, Norman J. (1980). "Forest Researcher: Raphael Zon" Part I
''Journal of Forest History'' (January), pp.25-39. Accessed: March 13, 2013. In the United States, Zon studied

forestry Forestry is the science and craft of creating, managing, planting, using, conserving and repairing forests and woodlands for associated resources for human and Natural environment, environmental benefits. Forestry is practiced in plantations and ...

under

Bernhard Fernow Bernhard Eduard Fernow ( ; January 7, 1851 – February 6, 1923) was the third chief of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Division of Forestry of the United States from 1886 to 1898, preceding Gifford Pinchot in that position, and laying much ...

, Filibert Roth and others at the

New York State College of Forestry at Cornell The New York State College of Forestry at Cornell University was a statutory college established in 1898 at Cornell University to teach scientific forestry. The first four-year college of forestry in the country, it was defunded by the State of Ne ...

University in

Ithaca, New York Ithaca () is a city in and the county seat of Tompkins County, New York, United States. Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake in the Finger Lakes region of New York (state), New York, Ithaca is the largest community in the Ithaca metrop ...

, earning a professional degree of Forest Engineer (F.E.) in the college's first graduating class in 1901.

Career

Upon graduation, he went to work for the U.S. Forest Service, where his career spanned 43 years as a forest researcher. Zon was a protégé' of both Dr. Bernhard Fernow and

Gifford Pinchot Gifford Pinchot (August 11, 1865October 4, 1946) was an American forester and politician. He served as the fourth chief of the U.S. Division of Forestry, as the first head of the United States Forest Service, and as the 28th governor of Pennsyl ...

, first Chief of the United States Forest Service, and a close friend of Bob Marshall in the 1930s. Zon made significant contributions to forestry literature. Many of his more than 200 scientific publications have been translated into Russian, French, German, and Japanese. With

Bernard Fernow Bernhard Eduard Fernow ( ; January 7, 1851 – February 6, 1923) was the third chief of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Division of Forestry of the United States from 1886 to 1898, preceding Gifford Pinchot in that position, and laying much o ...

, Zon helped establish American forestry’s professional periodical literature. These contributions began when he joined the editorial staff of ''Forest Quarterly''. He deepened his involvement, becoming editor of the ''Proceedings of the Society of American Foresters'' in 1905. When ''Forest Quarterly'' and ''Proceedings'' merged, Zon became one of the founders and the first managing editor of the combined publication, the ''Journal of Forestry''. He served as editor-in-chief of the ''Journal of Forestry'' from 1923-28. Zon was a "giant" among American foresters, or as Secretary of Agriculture Claude R. Wickard said, the "dean of all foresters of America."Schmaltz, Norman J. 1980. "Forest Researcher: Raphael Zon" Part II
''Journal of Forest History'' (April), pp.86-97. Retrieved March 13, 2013.

Commemoration

A large stone memorial with plaque commemorating Zon stands at the USDA Cutfoot Sioux Experimental Forest, in Minnesota, near where his ashes were scattered.

Career

* 1901. U.S. Forest Service Student Assistant and assistant to forest investigations in the East * 1907. Chief, Office of Silvics, later Forest Investigations * 1920. Special investigations in forest economics * 1923-1944. Director, Lakes States Forest Experiment Station, St. Paul, Minnesota * 1923-1928. Director, Cloquet Forest Experiment Station,

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

* 1944. Retired, U.S. Forest Service

Accomplishments

* 1908. Proposed the establishment of decentralized U.S. Forest Experiment Stations * 1914. Charter member,

Ecological Society of America The Ecological Society of America (ESA) is a professional organization of ecological scientists. Based in the United States and founded in 1915, ESA publications include peer-reviewed journals, newsletters, fact sheets, and teaching resources. I ...

* 1918. National Research Council, Division of Agriculture, Botany, Forestry, Fisheries and Zoology Executive Committee * 1923-1928. Editor-in-chief,

Journal of Forestry The ''Journal of Forestry'' is the primary scholarly journal of the Society of American Foresters. It aims to advance the forestry profession by keeping professional foresters informed about developments and ideas related to the practice of for ...

* 1928. International Congress of Soil Science, American vice president of the subcommision of forest soils * 1930.

Charles Lathrop Pack Charles Lathrop Pack (May 7, 1857 – June 14, 1937), a third-generation timberman, was "one of the five wealthiest men in America prior to World War I".Eyle, p. xv His financial success was built on the success of his father, George Willis Pa ...

Forest Education Board * 1940. New York World's Fair "Foreign-born citizens judged to have made the most notable contributions to American democracy in the past 100 years" * Fellow, Society of American Foresters * 1952. Gifford Pinchot Medal, Society of American Foresters * 2005. U.S. Forest Service Centennial Congress Science Leadership Award * Authored or co-authored roughly 200 articles in professional journals, business and development publications, or popular magazines

References

External links

"A Red Star is Born."
''Peeling Back the Bark''.
''The Greatest Good: 100 years''
a video on the life and legacy of Raphael Zon, by Char Miller {{DEFAULTSORT:Zon, Raphael Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences alumni History of forestry in the United States Forestry academics American conservationists American foresters New York State College of Forestry 1956 deaths 1874 births Kazan Federal University alumni Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States