Myrtle E. Johnson

Myrtle E. Johnson

Johnson with students, biology field trip, 1937

Johnson leads SDSU biology students on a field trip to Bird Rock, La Jolla, in 1937. Photo credit: Special Collections & University Archives © 2007 San Diego State University.
Born June 4, 1881
East Troy, Wisconsin, United States
Died August 17, 1967(1967-08-17) (aged 86)
San Diego, California, United States
Citizenship United States
Fields Marine Biology
Institutions San Diego State University
Alma mater University of California, Berkeley
Known for Seashore Animals of the Pacific Coast

Myrtle Elizabeth Johnson (1881 – 1967) was an American marine biologist, ascidiologist, and educator in California in the early 20th century. She was the first woman PhD faculty member at the San Diego State College (now San Diego State University) and was chair of the Biology department for two decades. Her major work, Seashore Animals of the Pacific Coast, published in 1927, was the standard descriptive text of intertidal species until Ed Ricketts's Between Pacific Tides was published in 1939.[1] Ricketts considered Johnson's book "the vade mecum of marine biologists of the Pacific."[2]

Biography

Johnson was born on June 4, 1881, in East Troy, Wisconsin to Marian Gray Johnson and Dr. Theodore F. Johnson. In 1887, the Johnson family moved to National City, south of San Diego, for the doctor's health.[3] Johnson attended San Diego State Normal School (now San Diego State University), graduating with a teaching credential in 1901. She taught in elementary and junior high schools in south San Diego, Palomar, and the Los Angeles city schools, before matriculating at the University of California, Berkeley in 1904. Johnson received her B.S. in Math and Zoology in 1908, and an M.S. in Zoology (with a secondary teaching credential) in 1909. She worked as a research assistant to William Ritter at the Marine Biological Association in La Jolla (1909-1910)[4] before continuing post-graduate study in Zoology, working with Dr. Harry Beal Torrey. She received her PhD (Zoology) in 1912.

While working as a high school biology teacher in Pasadena (1912-1921), Johnson began work (1915) on a study of intertidal species with another Pasadena high school biologist, Harry James Snook. They continued to work on the text after Johnson joined the faculty of San Diego State College in 1921. Johnson and Snook's Seashore Animals of the Pacific Coast was first published in 1927 and has been reissued in three editions (1935, 1955, 1967).[5]

Johnson died on August 17, 1967 in San Diego.

Career

Professional Societies

Memberships

Selected Bibliography

References

  1. ↑ Tamm, Eric Enno (2004). Beyond the Outer Shores: The Untold Odyssey of Ed Ricketts, the Pioneering Ecologist Who Inspired John Steinbeck and Joseph Campbell. New York: Thunder's Mouth Press. p. 28.
  2. ↑ Ricketts, Edward Flanders; Calvin, Jack (1939). Between Pacific Tides. An account of the habits and habitats of some five hundred of the common, conspicuous seashore invertebrates of the Pacific Coast between Sitka, Alaska, and Northern Mexico. Stanford University Press.
  3. ↑ Pruitt, Clarence M. (December 1, 1967). "Myrtle Elizabeth Johnson". Science Education. 51 (5): 424–427. doi:10.1002/sce.3730510503.
  4. ↑ “Guide to the William E. Ritter Papers, 1879-1944.” Finding Aid. (BANC MSS 71/3 c ed.). Berkeley, CA: Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
  5. ↑ "Formats and editions of 'Seashore animals of the Pacific coast'". Worldcat.org. OCLC. Retrieved 16 April 2016.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 9/15/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.