Robert F. Thorne (July 13, 1920 – March 24, 2015) was an American

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

. He was taxonomist and curator emeritus at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden and professor emeritus at

Claremont Graduate University The Claremont Graduate University (CGU) is a private, all-graduate research university in Claremont, California, United States. Founded in 1925, CGU is a member of the Claremont Colleges consortium which includes five undergraduate and two grad ...

Claremont, California Claremont () is a suburban city in eastern Los Angeles County, California, United States, east of Los Angeles. It lies in the Pomona Valley at the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. As of the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census it had ...

. His research has contributed to the understanding of the evolution of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

Life

Thorne was born on July 13, 1920, in Spring Lake, New Jersey. He was educated through high school in Gulfport and

St. Petersburg, Florida St. Petersburg is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 258,308, making it the List of municipalities in Florida, fifth-most populous city in Florida and the most populous city in the sta ...

.Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden Library. "Finding Aid for the Robert Folger Thorne Papers 1905-1988" (2009), p. 1. He graduated ''

summa cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...

'' in 1941 with a major in

botany Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

from

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College ( ) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, Dartmouth is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the America ...

and earned a M.S. degree in economic botany in 1942 at

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

.Hamilton, Clement W. "Robert F. Thorne - Recipient of the 2001 Asa Gray Award", ''Systematic Botany''(2002), 27(1): p. 2. He spent about three years serving in the armed forces during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, first at Hondo Navigation School,

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

, graduating as a second lieutenant in aerial navigation in 1943. Then, after 7 months in

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

in 1944 as a B-24 bomber navigator with 40 missions over eastern and southern Europe, he served as an instructor and as an examinations officer at

Ellington Field Ellington Field Joint Reserve Base is a joint installation shared by various active component and reserve component military units, as well as aircraft flight operations of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) under the aegi ...

, Texas, from 1944 to 1945.Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden Library. "Finding Aid for the Robert Folger Thorne Papers 1905-1988" (2009), p. 2. After serving in the armed forces, he earned his Ph.D. in economic botany at Cornell University in 1949, studying under professors Walter Muenscher and Arthur Eames. While at Cornell, he met and married Mae Zukel in 1947. Bob Thorne died on Tuesday, March 24, 2015, at the age of 94.

Work

Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden

Thorne was the assistant professor of botany at the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (U of I, UIowa, or Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized int ...

Iowa City, Iowa Iowa City is the largest city in Johnson County, Iowa, United States, and its county seat. At the time of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census the population was 74,828, making it the state's List of cities in Iowa, fifth-most populous c ...

, from 1949 to 1953, associate professor from 1954 to 1960, and professor from 1961 to 1962. He was a visiting professor at the

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 ...

Lake Itasca Lake Itasca ( ) is a small glacial lake, approximately in area. It is located in Itasca State Park, in south-eastern Clearwater County, in the Headwaters area of north-central Minnesota, and is notable for being the headwater of the Mississip ...

Biological Station in the summer of 1962 before moving to

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, where he became

taxonomist In biology, taxonomy () is the science, scientific study of naming, defining (Circumscription (taxonomy), circumscribing) and classifying groups of biological organisms based on shared characteristics. Organisms are grouped into taxon, taxa (si ...

and

curator A curator (from , meaning 'to take care') is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the particular ins ...

for Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden and professor for Claremont Graduate School (now

) in

. He became taxonomist and curator emeritus as well as professor emeritus at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden and Claremont Graduate School in 1987. He also became curator emeritus of the

Pomona College Pomona College ( ) is a private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It was established in 1887 by a group of Congregationalism in the United States, Congregationalists ...

Herbarium in Claremont, California, from 1990 to the present. Other appointments include: Field Botanist, U.S. Public Health Service, Georgia, Summer 1946. Botany Assistant, 1945–1947; Instructor in Botany, 1948–1949; Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. Visiting Associate Professor,

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson and contains his The Lawn, Academical Village, a World H ...

, Mountain Lake Biological Station, Summer 1956. Thorne became a Fulbright Research Scholar in 1959 and spent his time as a

National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...

senior postdoctoral fellow at the

University of Queensland The University of Queensland is a Public university, public research university located primarily in Brisbane, the capital city of the Australian state of Queensland. Founded in 1909 by the Queensland parliament, UQ is one of the six sandstone ...

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

and studying the plant communities of

New Caledonia New Caledonia ( ; ) is a group of islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean, southwest of Vanuatu and east of Australia. Located from Metropolitan France, it forms a Overseas France#Sui generis collectivity, ''sui generis'' collectivity of t ...

, and

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

. When he moved to California in 1962, he quickly learned the flora of California, which led him to write the essay entitled "The vascular plant communities of California" in 1976. According to ''Systematic Botany'', Thorne has advocated for "the conservation of California's endangered natural environments; his advocacy and leadership helped result in the conservation of Santa Catalina Island’s biota." Thorne gained an international reputation through "his contributions to our understanding of the evolution of flowering plants... and that has culminated recently in two... publications, one outlining his classifications of

monocot Monocotyledons (), commonly referred to as monocots, (Lilianae ''sensu'' Chase & Reveal) are flowering plants whose seeds contain only one Embryo#Plant embryos, embryonic leaf, or cotyledon. A monocot taxon has been in use for several decades, but ...

s (Thorne 2000) and the other on the

dicotyledon The dicotyledons, also known as dicots (or, more rarely, dicotyls), are one of the two groups into which all the flowering plants (angiosperms) were formerly divided. The name refers to one of the typical characteristics of the group: namely, ...

s (Thorne 2001)." Thorne was a guide and teacher for the many staff, students, researchers, and visitors of Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden through the years. Among his projects was completing "floristic works on both the San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountains," a study of the flora of Sierra San Pedro Martir, and a checklist for the entire Baja peninsula.

Thorne system

Among Thorne's many accomplishments was a system of plant taxonomy known as the Thorne system, first issued in 1968, and periodically revised from 1976 onwards (1977, 1983, 1992, 1999, 2007).

Fellowships and awards

* Cramer Fellow (

to attend

, 1941; declined a second Cramer Fellowship in order to enter Army Air Forces). * Research Associate Professor,

, 1957. * Fulbright Research Scholar,

, Brisbane, Australia, 1959–1960 (renewed once). * National Science Foundation Senior Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia; Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and British Museum (Natural History), London, England, 1960. * Elected Foreign Member, Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, 1986–present. * Merit Award, American Botanical Society, 1996. * ''Madroño'', Volume 45, 1999. Dedicated to Robert F. Thorne.

Special recognition

* 1996. Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, Ensenada. For botanical contributions in Baja California * 1998. Santa Catalina Island Conservancy. For botanical contributions to Santa Catalina Island * 1999. Southern California Botanists. For botanical contributions in California * 1999. Southern California Botanists. Lifetime Achievement Award * 2000. University Club of Claremont, California * 2001.

American Society of Plant Taxonomists The American Society of Plant Taxonomists (ASPT) is a botany, botanical organization formed in 1935 to "foster, encourage, and promote education and research in the field of plant taxonomy, to include those areas and fields of study that contribut ...

. Asa Gray Award for outstanding contributions in systematic botany * 2003. Third International Conference of the Comparative Biology of Monocotyledons. Lifetime Achievement Award * 2005. Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden. Dedication honoring lifetime achievements as systematist and conservationist * 2006. Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden. California Glory Award acknowledging outstanding contributions toward understanding and preservation of California's native flora * 2006. Botanical Society of America. Centennial Award for exemplary services to the plant sciences

Professional service

Active via elective and appointed offices in service to several professional societies: * President,

, 1968. * Secretary, Botanical Society of America, ca. 1958. * President, Southern California Botanists, ca. 1966. * Second vice-president, California Botanical Society, ca. 1966. * National treasurer, Gamma Alpha scientific fraternity, 1954–1957. * Chairman, advisory council of Flora North America Project, which found the project feasible. * On the editorial boards of several national botanical journals; international journal Taiwania. * Reviewer of manuscripts for various botanical journals and university presses.

Selected publications

* * * * * 1986. Thorne, R. F. Antarctic elements in Australasian rainforests. Telopea 2(6): 611–617.Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden Library. "Finding Aid for the Robert Folger Thorne Papers 1905-1988" (2009), p. 3. * * * 1994. Krantz, T. P. and R. F. Thorne. An annotated flora of the vascular plants of the San Bernardino Mountains. (Appendix I: Krantz. A phytogeography of the San Bernardino Mountains, San Bernardino County, California. Ph.D. Thesis, Univ. of Calif., Berkeley. 1994)Robert F Thorne.A Bibliography of Floristics in Southern California. 2. Literature pertinent to local areas
/ref> * 1995. Thorne, R. F. Vascular plants of Fort DeSoto Park, Pinellas County, Florida. Selbyana 16(1): 100–109. * 1999. Thorne, R. F. Eastern Asia as a living museum for archaic angiosperms and other seed plants. Taiwania 44(4): 413–422. * 2000. Thorne, R. F. The classification and geography of the monocotyledon subclasses Alismatidae, Liliidae and Commelinidae, pp. 75–124. In B. Nordenstam, G. E-Ghazaly, and M. Kassas ds. Plant Systematics for the 21st Century. Portland Press, London, UK. * 2001. Thorne, R. F. The classification and geography of the flowering plants: dicotyledons of the class Angiospermae (subclasses Magnoliidae, Ranunculidae, Caryophyllidae, Dilleniidae, Rosidae, Asteridae, and Lamiidae). Botanical Revue 66(4): 44l–647. * 2002. Thorne, R. F. How many species of seed plants are there? Taxon 51: 511–512. * 2006. Thorne, R. F. A bibliography of floristics in southern California: addendum number 2A. Crossosoma 31(2), Fall–Winter 2005 (issued 2006). * * 2007. Thorne, R. F. et al. Transmontane coniferous vegetation, pp. 575–586. In M. G. Barbour. T. Keeler.-Wolf and A. A. Schoenherr ds. Terrestrial Vegetation of California, 3rd ed., University of California Press, Berkeley, CA. * 2010. Thorne, R. F, R. V. Moran and R. A. Minnich. 2010. Vascular plants of the high Sierra San Pedro Mártir, Baja California, Mexico: an annotated checklist. Aliso (28): 1–57.

References

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Thorne, Robert Folger American taxonomists 1920 births 2015 deaths Botanists active in California Botanists active in North America Claremont Graduate University faculty Botanical Society of America Cornell University alumni Dartmouth College alumni Scientists from California 20th-century American botanists 21st-century American botanists American military personnel of World War II