Oliver Lanard Fassig Explained

Oliver Lanard Fassig
Birth Place:Columbus, Ohio
Death Place:Washington, D.C.
Nationality:American
Field:Meteorology, Climatology, Bibliography
Work Institutions:United States Weather Bureau
Alma Mater:Ohio State University, Johns Hopkins University

Oliver Lanard Fassig (April 5, 1860 – December 6, 1936) was an American meteorologist and climatologist who worked for the United States Weather Bureau initially as part of the Signal Corps of the United States War Department and later affiliated with the United States Department of Agriculture.[1]

Oliver Lanard Fassig was born at Columbus, Ohio, on April 5, 1860, son of Mathias and Elizabeth (Lanard) Fassig.[2] He attended Ohio State University and received a Bachelor of Science degree in 1882. He then studied at Johns Hopkins University under the guidance of American geologist William Bullock Clark, where in 1899 he received the first PhD in meteorology ever earned in the United States.[3] His doctoral thesis was on the broad pressure relations of distinctive types of March weather over North America.[4] On September 14, 1898, he married Ann Green McCoy, of Annapolis, Maryland.[2]

Meteorological service

Fassig's official meteorological service began on January 12, 1883, when he entered the Signal Corps of the United States War Department in Washington, D.C. In May 1883, he was assigned to Fort Myer in Arlington County, Virginia, for instruction, but returned to the Central Office for duty in January 1884. In December 1885, he was sent to New Haven, Connecticut, to work as an assistant and study electrical methods at Yale University. In August 1887 he returned to the Central Office in Washington, D.C., where he worked as a bibliographer and librarian from June 1888 to February 1896. In 1889, he published an extensive bibliography titled the “Bibliography of Meteorology – A classed catalogue of the printed literature of meteorology from the origin of printing to the close of 1881”.[5] He then served as an assistant in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and at Mount Weather, which is located in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. He was made chairman of the section on History and Bibliography of the International Meteorological Congress, Chicago in 1893.[6] His contacts with meteorologists from abroad led him to take a year's leave of absence to study in Germany, 1896-7, where he took special courses at the University of Berlin and became a member of the German Meteorological Society. He was in charge of the Baltimore station from June 5, 1900, to July 14, 1905; May 31, 1907, to April 2, 1909, and August 10, 1912, to April 14, 1919. While in Baltimore, he gave instruction in meteorology at the Johns Hopkins University and wrote "The Climate and Weather of Baltimore".[7] He was in charge of the station at San Juan, Puerto Rico, from April 2, 1909, to August 10, 1912, and April 14, 1919, to June 10, 1930, where he had general charge of the West Indian and Caribbean service.[8] On leaving San Juan he came once more to the Central Office, this time as Chief of the Climatological Division, which position he retained until his retirement on June 30, 1932.

Fassig was a quiet, unassuming, unhurried scientist. His interests embraced many phases of science. Absolute fairness and sympathetic understanding characterized his dealings not only with his equals but with those under him. He had the courage to do what he thought right even at considerable personal sacrifice, as when he refused to enter politics on behalf of his chief.[2]

Fassig died at the Emergency Hospital in Washington, D.C., on Sunday evening, December 6, 1936, as a result of being struck by an automobile on November 20, 1936.[9]

List of publications

Notes and References

  1. Anonymous. 1937. Obituary: Oliver Lanard Fassig. Geographical Review 27(2):337.
  2. Brooks, C.F. 1940. Oliver Lanard Fassig (1860-1936). Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 74(6):118-120.
  3. Koelsch, W.A. 1981. Pioneer: The first American doctorate in meteorology. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 62(3):362-367.
  4. Fassig, O.L. 1899. Types of March weather in the United States. The relations existing between mean atmospheric pressure, the prevailing character of the weather, and the paths of storms. Doctoral thesis, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, 340 pp.
  5. Fassig, O.L. 1889. Bibliography of Meteorology. United States of America War Department, Signal Office, Washington, D.C., 475 pp.
  6. Fassig, O.L. 1893. Proceedings of the meteorological congress held at Chicago August 21–24, 1893. Monthly Weather Review 21(8):227.
  7. Fassig, O.L. 1907. The climate and weather of Baltimore. In: Clark, W.B. (ed), Maryland Weather Service, Special Publication 11, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 515 pp.
  8. Fassig, O.L. 1911. The normal temperature of Porto Rico, West Indies. Monthly Weather Review 39(2):299-302.
  9. Web site: Fassig, Oliver L.. NOAA History: Profiles in Time – NWS Biographies. 3 February 2009.

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