Thomas Harvey Gill (January 21, 1891 – May 21, 1972) was a leader in American forestry, adventurer, writer of popular fiction and editor of an academic journal.

Forester

Gill received a Master of Forestry degree from Yale University in 1915. Gill served with the U.S. Forest Service from 1915 to 1925, other than his service as a U.S. Army pilot during World War I. From 1926 to 1960, he served as secretary and forester for the

Charles Lathrop Pack Charles Lathrop Pack (May 7, 1857 – June 14, 1937), a third-generation timberman, was "one of the five wealthiest men in America prior to World War I".Eyle, p. xv He owed his good start in life to the success of his father, George Willis Pack, ...

Forestry Foundation. Under the Oberlaender Trust of the

Carl Schurz Carl Schurz (; March 2, 1829 – May 14, 1906) was a German revolutionary and an American statesman, journalist, and reformer. He immigrated to the United States after the German revolutions of 1848–1849 and became a prominent member of the new ...

Memorial Foundation, Gill was part of the 1936 group of eight American foresters who toured Germany and Austria to observe and study forest management in Europe. Gill played an important role in establishing the forestry division of the

Food and Agriculture Organization The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)french: link=no, Organisation des Nations unies pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture; it, Organizzazione delle Nazioni Unite per l'Alimentazione e l'Agricoltura is an intern ...

of the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

and founded the International Society of Tropical Foresters. He was elected a Fellow of the

Society of American Foresters The Society of American Foresters (SAF) is a professional organization representing the forestry industry in the United States. Its mission statement declares that it seeks to "advance the science, education, and practice of forestry; to enhance t ...

in 1948 and was a recipient of its Sir William Schlich Memorial Award in 1954. He was also awarded the Bernhard Eduard Fernow Medal from the

American Forestry Association American Forests is a 501(c)(3) non-profit conservation organization, established in 1875, and dedicated to protecting and restoring healthy forest ecosystems. The current headquarters are in Washington, D.C. Activities The mission of American ...

in 1967, and was named a Fellow of the

Forest History Society The Forest History Society is an American non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of forest and conservation history."Forest History Society." Echo Project. Center for History and New Media, George Mason University. http://echo.gmu. ...

in 1972. Gill's citations from foreign governments include the French Ordre du Mérite agricole in 1947 and the German Verdienstkreuz in 1961. In 1969, the President of Mexico awarded Gill the Gold Medal for Civic Merit; he was the first United States citizen to be so honored. The Mexican Institute of Natural Renewable Resources granted him its Diploma of Honor in 1965. In 1966, at the VI World Forestry Congress in Spain, he was recipient of the Medal of Honor.

Scholar

In 1938, along with

Harry Stack Sullivan Herbert "Harry" Stack Sullivan (February 21, 1892, Norwich, New York – January 14, 1949, Paris, France) was an American Neo-Freudian psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who held that "personality can never be isolated from the complex interpersonal ...

and Ernest E. Hadley he founded the interdisciplinary journal ''Psychiatry: Journal of the Biology and Pathology of Interpersonal Relations'' (now Psychiatry: Interpersonal and Biological Processes).

Novelist

Tom Gill authored many popular and academic works. His fiction centered on stories of adventure involving cowboys, forest rangers, and frontier characters. His 12 books of fiction included ''Guardians of the Desert'', ''Death Rides the Mesa'', ''North to Danger'', ''Firebrand'', and ''No Place for Women''.

Fox Movietone Movietone News is a newsreel that ran from 1928 to 1963 in the United States. Under the name British Movietone News, it also ran in the United Kingdom from 1929 to 1986, in France also produced by Fox-Europa, in Australia and New Zealand until 1970 ...

adapted Gill's story ''The Gay Bandit of the Border'', releasing the film as '' The Gay Caballero'' in 1932. His 1939 novel ''Gentlemen of the Jungle'' was adapted into the film ''

Tropic Zone (film) ''Tropic Zone'' is a 1953 American crime film written and directed by Lewis R. Foster and starring Ronald Reagan, Rhonda Fleming, Estelita Rodriguez, Noah Beery Jr., Grant Withers and John Wengraf. It was released on January 14, 1953, by Paramou ...

''.

End of life

Tom Gill died in Washington, DC, on May 21, 1972, at the age of 81.

References

;Sources
Inventory of the Thomas Harvey Gill Papers, 1912 - 1972
in the

Library and Archives, Durham, NC
Overview for ''The Gay Caballero'' (1932)
;Notes

External links

*
Inventory of the Thomas Harvey Gill Papers, 1912 - 1972
in the

Library and Archives, Durham, NC
Overview for ''The Gay Caballero'' (1932)

Forests in Fiction: Tom Gill Lived What He Wrote

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gill, Tom History of forestry in the United States United States Forest Service Yale University alumni 1972 deaths American foresters 1891 births American male novelists 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American male writers Recipients of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Recipients of the Sir William Schlich Memorial Award