Robert DeCourcy Ward
| Robert DeCourcy Ward | |
|---|---|
| Born | November 29, 1867 Boston, Massachusetts |
| Died |
November 12, 1931 (aged 63) Cambridge, Massachusetts |
| Nationality | United States |
| Education | A.B., A.M. |
| Alma mater | Harvard University |
| Occupation | Climatologist, writer, educator |
| Spouse(s) | Emma Lane |
| Children | Henry DeCourcy Robert Saltonstall Anna Saltonstall Emma Lane |
Robert DeCourcy Ward (November 29, 1867 – November 12, 1931) was an American climatologist, author, and educator. He became the first ever professor of climatology in the United States and made contributions to the study of the climate, but his advocacy for immigration reform and eugenics may have contributed to his present-day obscurity.
Born on November 29, 1867, in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Henry Veazey Ward and Anna Saltonstall (Merrill), he matriculated to Harvard University in 1885, where he received an A.B. in 1889. After graduation, he spent a year traveling through Europe. He joined the meteorology staff of Harvard University in 1890 as an assistant to William Morris Davis, later becoming an instructor in meteorology, then in climatology. Beginning in 1892, he served as editor of the American Meteorological Journal, a post he would hold until 1896 when it ceased publication. In Harvard graduate school, he studied meteorology for two years and was awarded an A.M. in 1893.
In 1894, he helped to co-found the Immigration Restriction League, a group of fellow Bostonians who were opposed to the growing influx of "undesirable immigrants". In his early writings, Ward noted that immigrants should not be excluded "on the ground of race, religion, or creed", but the group were concerned about the supposed deterioration in the quality of immigration and sought changes to the immigration laws. Ward served as a member of the group's executive committee until 1908. In the following years, he developed an interest in the then-new theory of eugenics and wrote several works on the subject. In 1913, he urged that the principles of eugenics be applied to immigrants, thereby denying entry to undesirable aliens on the basis of their physical, mental, or economic qualities.
On April 28, 1897, he was married to Emma Lane and the couple had four children: Henry DeCourcy (July 31, 1898), Robert Saltonstall (May 24, 1900), Anna Saltonstall (February 13, 1904), and Emma Lane (February 9, 1908). From June until February the following year, he spent time in South America studying the climatic conditions there. He became assistant professor of climatology at Harvard University in 1900. In 1903, Ward released a translated and updated version of Austrian meteorologist Julius von Hann's Handbuch der Klimatologie (1883), which became widely used.
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