John Nathan Cobb - The Founding of The College of Fisheries at The University of Washington

The Founding of The College of Fisheries At The University of Washington

The origin of the idea of a fisheries school at the University of Washington is unknown, but Miller Freeman, owner of Pacific Fisherman magazine and Cobb’s one-time supervisor, likely played a vital role in the establishment of this new College. In his memoirs, Freeman wrote that he used the editorial pages of Pacific Fisherman to advocate the establishment of a school of fisheries at the University of Washington as early as 1914. Hugh McCormick Smith (1865‒1941), Commissioner, U.S. Bureau of Fisheries, was also an active supporter of the proposed school.

At the University of Washington, planning for a school of fisheries continued at a more rapid pace. In October 1918, UW President Henry Suzzallo (1875‒1933) wrote Cobb that through Miller Freeman he had heard that Cobb "might like to participate in the organization of such a school as a member of this faculty." Suzzallo was most concerned about the salary Cobb would require, noting that "Until this year our maximum salary has been $3,000." Cobb responded to Suzzallo on 26 December 1918 with his application for the position of director, and he noted that he had merely a common school education. He listed some 35 publications on fisheries topics in his application. Suzzallo answered Cobb on 4 January 1919, appointing him Professor of Fisheries, administrative head of the Department of Fisheries, and Director of the College of Fisheries, at a salary of $4,000 per year. Cobb’s initial appointment was for a four-year period. Two weeks later, on 17 January 1919, Suzzallo recommended to the Board of Regents that a College of Fisheries be established at the University of Washington. The Board agreed and the establishment of the College was authorized. This event was duly reported in the Pacific Fisherman.

Cobb began the new College on a fast track. In an announcement for the College of Fisheries issued in early 1919, he wrote that so much interest was generated by the announcement of the establishment of the College that "Professor Cobb, the Director, is open it for the coming spring quarter, March 31st, instead of waiting until the beginning of the fall quarter as originally planned." The announcement indicated the College would offer a four-year course of instruction in Fish Culture and Fisheries Technology, and briefly described the potential job market for graduates. The announcement further stated that the College would, so far as possible, "assist students in securing employment during summer vacations" in various aspects of the fishing industry, hatcheries, and elsewhere.

The new College apparently began life housed in two temporary wooden buildings along the Lake Washington Ship Canal at the southern margin of the UW campus. The College soon relocated to other "temporary" housing located just north of the present UW Medical Center, where it remained until new quarters were built in the early 1950s. The initial faculty consisted of two new hires, one who taught courses in fish culture and another who was responsible for courses in fisheries technology. Trevor Charles Digby Kincaid (1872‒1970) of the Zoology Department taught ichthyology. Cobb taught at various times Introduction to Fisheries, Fisheries Methods, Fisheries Problems, and History of Fisheries.


During Cobb’s directorship, the faculty remained small and underwent considerable turnover, likely caused in part by the low salaries paid to instructors. The number of faculty listed in course catalogs from 1919‒1920 to 1929‒1930 ranged from two to five, including Cobb. Numerous "Associated Faculty" drawn from other UW departments or from industry or government agencies were listed in the Colleges entry in UW Course Catalogs.

The design of the curriculum largely followed that suggested earlier to the UW President by Professor Kincaid and previously outlined by Cobb. Two curricular tracks were initially established, fish culture and fisheries technology. The two lines of inquiry were quite similar for the first two years, differing mainly in that the requirements for the technology major included twice as many chemistry credits as did the fish culture major. The number of fisheries courses offered increased from 12 in the initial year of the College to 24 in the academic year 1928‒1929.

Enrollment in the College was strong during the first decade of its existence, ranging from 30 to 117 students a year. The College initially offered Bachelor and Master of Science Degrees and, later, a Doctor of Philosophy Degree. The first graduating class in Fisheries was in 1922, with five B.S. degrees conferred as well as the first Ph.D. degree, awarded to Ray Clough, then on the College of Fisheries faculty. Identical numbers of degrees were apparently awarded each year in 1923, 1924, and 1925. The first M.S. degree was awarded in 1924 to Clarence Anderson, also on the faculty of the College. During Cobb's reign as Director and Dean, there were 31 B.S. degrees granted (from 1919‒1920 through the 1928‒1929 academic years) as well as one M.A., eight M.S., and two Ph.D. degrees. Thus, only about 42 students graduated during the first decade of the College.

Cobb vigorously promoted the College in a variety of ways. As a former newspaperman, he ensured that many articles were published in the local press. The College was also the subject of attention in the national and international print media. As Dean, he was the subject of a number of profiles in various newspapers and magazines. Cobb published several articles about the College and gave talks about fisheries to various clubs and organizations in Seattle as well as towns in outlying areas. Cobb was also active in the community, holding memberships in the Arctic Club of Seattle, the Puget Sound Academy of Science, and the Aquarium Society of Seattle for which he served as founding president. All of these social engagements served as a focal point for the College and for Cobb.

After spending some time in the University system, Cobb became aware that the College was not held in high esteem by many of his colleagues, likely because of its applied emphasis and lack of scholarly endeavor. Cobb initiated three actions likely designed to counter some of this criticism. In 1924 he began a research program on the passage of salmon over dams in which he was the sole investigator, he initiated in 1925 a journal of the College titled UW Publications in Fisheries, and he hired a trained ichthyologist to teach and conduct research.

Cobb and the Department became involved in opposing the rise of new hydroelectric dams in the Northwest. Cobb himself began research on how to pass salmon over high dams, but was not qualified to do such research. He did not seek help from either biologists or engineers and his efforts became the focus of strong criticism. Cobb's experiments were a failure and he encountered substantial criticism from various quarters. It was obvious that he did not have a sufficient background in science or engineering to conduct this work.

In the late 1920s, Cobb planned to create a Department of Ichthyology that would be “separate” from the applied courses in the College. Presumably this new department would engage in "scholarly research." In 1927, he began to search for a qualified ichthyologist to teach, conduct research, and to begin a systematic fish collection in the College. After a nation-wide search, Cobb selected Leonard Peter Schultz (1901‒1986) whom Cobb had met in 1926. Schultz had received an M.S. degree at the University of Michigan and was teaching zoology at the Michigan State Normal College at Ypsilanti. Schultz was apparently planning to pursue a Ph.D. degree in ichthyology at the University of Michigan. Schultz moved to Seattle in the fall of 1928 and immediately began to teach and to assemble a research collection of fishes.

Cobb was well known for having a "strong personality." He apparently antagonized the faculty, but the hostility of his colleagues did not surface until Cobb's incapacitation due to ill health in 1929. In a ten-page memorandum titled "Confidential: Conditions at the College of Fisheries" and signed "Staff," the authors laid out a series of complaints against the Dean. The authors wrote that the College had lost prestige, mainly since 1925, due to the Dean's activities. They criticized Cobb's work on passage of salmon over dams complaining that he was unqualified to do so because he lacked training as a scientist and was neither a biologist nor an engineer. Complaints about his "science" also reached the news media.

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