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James Edward Church—1869–1959

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 January 2017

N. H.  and
G. S.
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Type
Obituary
Information
Journal of Glaciology , Volume 3 , Issue 29 , 1961 , pp. 944
Copyright
Copyright © International Glaciological Society 1961

Dr. Church was born in Holly, Michigan, in 1869. After graduating at the University of Michigan in 1892 he studied archaeology, obtaining his Ph.D. at the University of Munich in 1901. He received the degree of LL.D. at the University of Nevada in 1937.

Seldom has there been anyone with so many, and such diversified interests, more particularly in his younger years. First he was a teacher and then principal in various schools in Michigan. Later he taught Latin and German at the University of Nevada where he became Associate Professor and then Professor of Classics.

Church married in 1894; his wife predeceased him by many years. There are two sons.

He was a member of a very large number of societies, including the American Meteorological Society, the American Academy of Arts and Science, and the American Geophysical Union; he became Chairman of its Committee on Snow and President of the Section of Hydrology. He was President of the Commission on Snow, of the International Association of Scientific Hydrology in the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics.

Church was founder of the Mount Rose Meteorological Observatory and adviser to the Snow Forecasting Services for the State of Nevada; he was also a snow specialist in the United States Weather Bureau. He received a very large number of honours and honorary memberships, including that of the British Glaciological Society.

Undoubtedly Church’s two most important achievements in connection with glaciology were, first, snow surveying and the forecasting of run-off which he brought to a high degree of perfection; and, second, his work on behalf of the International Commission on Snow, and the kindly encouragement he gave to its members.

In his capacity as Chairman he came to Edinburgh for the 1936 Meetings of the Commission within the framework of the International Association of Scientific Hydrology of the I.U.G.G. There he crystallized the suggestion he had made some months before that there should be a British Group within the Commission—the seed from which the British Glaciological Society ultimately grew.