Joseph LeConte

Joseph Le Conte (February 26 1823 - July 6 1901) was an American geologist and professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

Of Huguenot descent, he was born in Liberty County, Georgia to Louis Le Conte, patriarch of the noted Le Conte family.cite web|url=http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?path=/ScienceMedicine/Individuals-1&id=h-791|work=New Georgia Encyclopedia|title=LeConte family|date=2003] He was educated at Franklin College in Athens, Georgia (now the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Georgia) where he was a member of the Phi Kappa Literary Society. After graduation in 1841, he studied medicine and received his degree at the New York College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1845.1911|article=Joseph LeConte] After practising for three or four years at Macon, Georgia, he entered Harvard University, and studied natural history under Louis Agassiz.

An excursion made with Professors J. Hall and Agassiz to the Helderberg mountains of New York developed a keen interest in geology. After graduating at Harvard, Le Conte in 1851 accompanied Agassiz on an expedition to study the Florida reefs. On his return he became professor of natural science in Oglethorpe University which was located in Midway, Georgia at the time; and from December 1852 until 1856 professor of natural history and geology at Franklin College. From 1857 to 1869 he was a professor of chemistry and geology at South Carolina College, which is now the University of South Carolina.

On January 14, 1846, he married Caroline Nisbet, a niece of Eugenius A. Nisbet. The Le Contes had four children grow to adulthood: Emma Florence Le Conte, Sarah Elizabeth Le Conte, Caroline Eaton Le Conte, and Joseph Nisbet Le Conte.

During the Civil War Le Conte continued to teach in South Carolina. He also produced medicine and supervised the niter works (to manufacture explosives) for the Confederacy. However, after the war he continued to teach, but he claimed to find Reconstruction politics intolerable, with moves of the Reconstruction-era Legislature to deeply cut funding to South Carolina College.cite book|url=http://docsouth.unc.edu/leconte/leconte.html|title=Autobiography of Joseph Le Conte|last=LeConte|first=Joseph|date=1903|pages=238]

In September 1869, he moved to Berkeley, California to join the faculty of the newly-established (1868) University of California. cite book|url=http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/cgi-bin/ebind2html.pl/reed_c04?seq=118|title=History of the University of Georgia|last=Reed|first=Thomas Walter|location=Athens, Georgia|publisher=University of Georgia|date=1949|pages=401-405] His brother John had come to California in April 1869 to also join the faculty of the new University as a professor of physics. Joseph was appointed the first professor of geology and natural history at the University, a post which he held until his death.

He published a series of papers on monocular and binocular vision, and also on psychology. His chief contributions, however, related to geology. He described the fissure-eruptions in western America, discoursed on earth-crust movements and their causes and on the great features of the earth's surface. As separate works he published "Elements of Geology" (1878, 5th ed. 1889); "Religion and Science" (1874); and "Evolution: its History, its Evidences, and its Relation to Religious Thought" (1888). This last work anticipates in structure and argument Teilhard de Chardin's "Phenomenon of Man."(1955). [ [http://www.aaas.org/spp/dser/03_Areas/evolution/perspectives/Birch_1972.shtml Birch, Charles, "Participatory Evolution: the Drive of Creation," "Journal of the American Academy of Religion", 40:147-163 (June 1972)] ] In 1874, he was nominated to the National Academy of Sciences. He was president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1892, and of the Geological Society of America in 1896.

Le Conte is also noted for his exploration and preservation of the Sierra Nevada of California, USA. He first visited Yosemite Valley in 1870, where he became friends with John Muir and started exploring the Sierra.cite web|url=http://www.sierraclub.org/history/key_figures/leconte/index.asp|title=Joseph LeConte: Scientist and Savant|work=Sierra Club History|publisher=Sierra Club|accessdate=2007-09-13] He became concerned that resource exploitation (such as sheepherding) would ruin the Sierra, so he co-founded the Sierra Club with Muir and others in 1892. He was a director of the Sierra Club from 1892 through 1898. His son, Joseph N. Le Conte, was also a noted professor and Sierra Club member.

He died of a heart attack in the Yosemite Valley, California, on the July 6, 1901, right before the Sierra Club's first High Trip. [cite journal|url=http://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/yosemite_nature_notes/25/25-4.pdf|title=Joseph N. LeConte|journal=Yosemite Nature Notes|volume=25|number=4|pages=66–69|month=April|year=1946|first=Elizabeth H.|last=Godfrey] [cite journal|title=Obituary|journal=American Journal of Science|volume=12|date=1901|pages=248|author=Silliman, Benjamin] The Sierra Club built the LeConte Memorial Lodge in his honor in 1904. The Le Conte Canyon, Le Conte Divide, Le Conte Falls and Mount Le Conte were named after him. [cite book|url=http://www.yosemite.ca.us/history/place_names_of_the_high_sierra/l.html|last=Farquhar|first=F.P.|title=Place Names of the High Sierra|publisher=Mountaineers|date=1926] Le Conte Middle School in Hollywood is also named after him. He is buried in Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, California.

References

* Obituary by J. J. Stevenson, "Annals of New York Acad. of Sciences", vol. xiv. (1902), p. 150.

External links

* [http://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/leconte/ A Journal of Ramblings through the High Sierras of California, by Joseph LeConte]
* [http://www.sierraclub.org/history/key_figures/leconte/muir.asp "Reminiscences of Joseph LeConte" by John Muir] (1901)
* [http://georgia.sierraclub.org/leconte/ The Joseph Le Conte Group of the Sierra Club, in Athens, Georgia]
* Phillip C. Cato, "The Evolutionary Theology of Joseph LeConte." (Ph.D. dissertation, Emory University, 1977)