James E. Church
Pioneering snow hydrologist
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
James Edward Church, Jr. (15 February 1869 – 5 August 1959) is best known for having developed the Mount Rose snow sampler in 1906, the first instrument for measuring snow water content. It is still in use today.[1] He was also active in promoting the then nascent sciences of snow hydrology and water supply forecasting.[2]
Church, who received his Ph.D. from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, was born in Holly, Michigan on 15 February 1869. As a Classics professor he taught Latin, German, and fine arts at the University of Nevada, Reno from 1892 to 1939[3] and was the first person of European descent to ascend Mount Rose (1896).[4] Church died in Reno, Nevada, on 5 August 1959. The Church Fine Arts Complex on the University of Nevada, Reno campus—which opened in 1962, three years after his death—is named after him.[5]