Roscoe Wilfred Thatcher (c. 1872 − 6 December 1933) was an American agriculturist. He was born and raised on a farm in Chatham Center, Ohio, and studied at the

University of Nebraska A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

. He began his academic career at

Washington State College Washington State University (Washington State, WSU, or informally Wazzu) is a public land-grant research university with its flagship, and oldest, campus in Pullman, Washington. Founded in 1890, WSU is also one of the oldest land-grant univer ...

, becoming head of the Department of Agriculture there.

Biography

Thatcher moved to the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

in 1913, initially as head of the Department of Chemistry, and later as Dean of the Department of Agriculture. In 1921 he became director of the

New York State Agricultural Experiment Station The New York State Agricultural Experiment Station (NYSAES) at Geneva, Ontario County, New York State, is an agricultural experiment station operated by the New York State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University. In August 20 ...

, and that year published a book, ''Chemistry of Plant Life''. Thatcher left New York to become the first president of

Massachusetts State College The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, it ...

, the new name for the Massachusetts Agricultural College. Thatcher was known for his studies of the chemistry of flour, and the chemistry of insecticides. In 1924

President Coolidge Calvin Coolidge (born John Calvin Coolidge Jr.; ; July 4, 1872January 5, 1933) was the 30th president of the United States from 1923 to 1929. Born in Vermont, Coolidge was a Republican lawyer from New England who climbed up the ladder of Mas ...

appointed him to the president's Agricultural Commission. He died of a

cerebral hemorrhage Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as cerebral bleed, intraparenchymal bleed, and hemorrhagic stroke, or haemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain, into its ventricles, or into both. It is one kind of bleed ...

on 6 December 1933. A dormitory at UMass Amherst designed by architect Louis W. Ross was named after Thatcher, Roscoe W. Thatcher House. The dormitory design was deemed so successful, it won a medal.

Works

* ''The Chemistry of Plant Life''. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1921.

Footnotes

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Thatcher, Roscoe Wilfred 1870s births 1933 deaths American agriculturalists People from Medina County, Ohio Scientists from Ohio University of Nebraska alumni Washington State University faculty University of Minnesota faculty University of Massachusetts Amherst faculty 20th-century American chemists Presidents of the American Society of Agronomy