John Nathan Cobb - The Demise of Cobb and Of The College

The Demise of Cobb and Of The College

John Nathan Cobb suffered from heart disease and endured a heart attack in the summer of 1929. He was ill for many months and spent his final days in the warmer climate of La Jolla, California, where he died on 13 January 1930 at the age of 61. His death was prominently noted in local newspapers and in numerous fisheries publications.

Shortly after Cobb's death, Washington State Governor Roland Hill Hartley (1864‒1952) appointed a new President of the University, Matthew Lyle Spencer (1881‒1969). Spencer sought scholarship and high academic standards at the UW and he did not think highly of the College of Fisheries. Apparently, courses in canning and fishing methods did not meet the new President’s criteria of scholarship. As a result, the College was dissolved in April, 1930, and all faculty of the College were dismissed, except for Leonard Schultz, who was apparently considered a bona-fide academic and was assigned to a position in the new College of Science.

Uproar occurred among the students in the College who now faced a situation wherein they now had no major field. They sent a telegram to Governor Hartley protesting President Spencer’s decision, stating in part that his judgment was "Protested by unanimous action of fisheries students." Upon his inquiry of the UW, Governor Hartley was told that the Board of Regents had created a new College of Science and had elected to consolidate the College of Fisheries as a Department in the new College.

A new Director was appointed for the Department in the person of William Francis Thompson (1888‒1965), who was to become the dominant figure in the UW Department (later, School) of Fisheries for over 16 years and the preeminent fishery scientist of the Pacific Northwest for nearly 40 years. Thompson had offices in the College of Fisheries where, since 1925, he was Director of the International Fisheries Commission (now International Pacific Halibut Commission) charged with the management of, and research on, the Pacific halibut, Hippoglossus stenolepis, fishery. A Ph.D. from Stanford University, Thompson was appointed Research Professor and Director of the new department on a part-time basis, as he remained Director of the International Fisheries Commission. He remained Director of the School until 1947 when he resigned to establish and head the UW's new Fisheries Research Institute.

Thompson instituted an entirely new approach to fisheries education at the UW, concentrating on the emerging field of fisheries science. He revised the curriculum to emphasize basic science and not the technology of the commercial fishing industry. To the present day, the School of Fisheries (now School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences) has continued the emphasis on fisheries science and on graduate study.