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John Fraser Hart

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John Fraser Hart(born April 5, 1924) is an American geographer. Over the course of his career he published over 150 scholarly papers, over a dozen books, and taught over 50,000 university students in his 65 years of teaching from 1949 until his retirement in 2015.

Early life and education[edit]

Hart was born inStaunton, Virginia,and spent his childhood summers on his grandfather's farm. From these summer months roaming the area around the farm, he developed an early interest in the countryside.[1][2]The family moved toNew York Cityin 1933 for his father to complete a doctoral degree atColumbia Universitythrough the end of 1934. Hart described it as a difficult year for them all especially in the time of theGreat Depression.Once he had completed high school, Hart began taking college classes atHampden–Sydney College,the same place his father had begun teaching at, but they moved in 1940 in the middle of his sophomore year toAtlanta.Instead of returning to school immediately, he spent a year working to get together enough money to attendEmory University,from which he received his Bachelor's of Arts degree in classical languages, Latin and Greek, in 1943.[3]

Directly after graduating he joined the Navy to fight inWWIIand spent three and a half years as a Navy intelligence officer during his Pacific Ocean tours. Aboard an aircraft carrier, one of his jobs was to spot returning aircraft in order to confirm them as allies rather than enemies. He also trained other sailors how to do the same, often using model aircraft in his teachings, models which he "midnight requisitioned" when his tour was completed.[4]During his time at sea, he took notice of the intelligence reports he was working with and that he knew so little about geography. This led to him desiring to take classes on the geography of the Pacific, which he frequently lamented never occurred among his numerous other geography courses.[3]

After the end of the war in 1945, Hart took several geography classes at theUniversity of Georgiaand met the head of the geography departmentMerle Charles Pruntywho tutored him on the subject once a week. He also sent Hart to take some statistics courses because he knew that geographical knowledge needed to become more quantitative in the future. After a year of this, Hart went on toNorthwestern Universityand studied underMalcolm Jarvis Proudfootfor his Master of Arts degree, which he completed in 1949, and then his Ph.D. in 1950 from the same university.[5]

Career[edit]

As he was completing his Ph.D., Hart was asked by Prunty to return and work as a faculty member at the University of Georgia, which he agreed to in 1949 and stayed there until 1955.[5]Under Prunty, he worked alongside other famous geographers, includingEugene Cotton MatherandWilbur Zelinsky.Hart especially worked with the former on a series of publications to various journals, along with an excursion through theSouthern United Statesin 1952 as a geographical reviewing job for theInternational Geographical Congress.This resulted in them jointly publishing a report titled theSoutheastern Excursion Guidebook,among other works.[6]Several years later, Hart moved on to teach atIndiana Universityfrom 1955 to 1967. Afterwards, he made a final teaching position change to theUniversity of Minnesotain 1967, where he continued to work for nearly 50 years.[1]He retired from the University of Minnesota in 2015 at the age of 91.[7]He did not plan on completely retiring from geographical work, however, as he noted his intention to continue progress on his next book,Fossils on the Prairie.[8]

Hart became an executive officer for theAmerican Association of Geographersfrom 1965 to 1966, before becoming an editor for theAnnals of the American Association of Geographersjournal from 1970 to 1975. He then became second vice-president of the organization in 1977.[9]A collection of Hart's writing was published in the bookA Love of the Land: Selected Writings of John Fraser Hartthat was edited by John C. Hudson.[10]In total during his life, as of 2015, Hart has published 15 books and has taught more than 50,000 university students.[11]He is noted by his students and colleagues to be unique in his lack of computer use of any kind, with a secretary managing his emails from his students that are printed out and a reply typed by Hart on an electric typewriter, before being retyped as a reply email by his secretary.[12]

Awards and honors[edit]

TheMeritorious Contributionsaward from theAmerican Association of Geographerswas given to Hart in 1969.[13]Hart was presented, in 1971, with the Teaching of Geography at the College Level award by theNational Council for Geographic Education.[9]In 1982, Hart was named afellowof theJohn Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundationfor his geographical accomplishments.[14]He received the 1987 Southeastern Division of the American Association of Geographers (SEDAAG) Lifetime Achievement Award.[15]In 2001, he was awarded thePaul P. Vouras Medalfrom theAmerican Geographical Society.[16]The 2005Lifetime Achievement Honorsfrom the American Association of Geographers was presented to Hart.[13]The Association of American Geographers' Rural Geography Specialty Group named their annual award The John Fraser Hart Award for Research Excellence to honor Hart. The award recognizes scholars in the fields of agricultural and/or rural geography research.[17][18]

Personal life[edit]

Hart lives inEdina, Minnesota,with his wife Meredith.[2][7]

Bibliography[edit]

Published books/reports[edit]

  • — (2008).My Kind of County: Door County, Wisconsin.Columbia College Press.ISBN9781930066861.[19]
  • —; Ziegler, Susy S. (2008).Landscapes of Minnesota: A Geography.Minnesota Historical Society Press.ISBN9780873515917.[20]
  • — (2008).A Love of the Land: Selected Writings of John Fraser Hart.Columbia College Press.ISBN9781930066755.[10][21]
  • — (2003).The Changing Scale of American Agriculture.University of Virginia Press.ISBN9780813922294.[22]
  • —; Rhodes, Michelle J.; Morgan, John T. (2002).The Unknown World of the Mobile Home.Johns Hopkins University Press.ISBN9780801875830.[23]
  • — (1998).The American Farm: How Farming Shaped the Landscape of America.B&N Books.ISBN9780760706145.[24]
  • — (1998).The Rural Landscape.Johns Hopkins University Press.ISBN9780801857171.[25]
  • — (1993).The Land that Feeds Us.W. W. Norton & Company.ISBN9780393309508.[26]
  • — (1991).Our Changing Cities.Johns Hopkins University Press.ISBN9780801840883.[27]
  • — (1978).Computer Approximations.Krieger Publishing Co.ISBN9780892756421.
  • — (1976).The South.Van Nostrand Reinhold.ISBN9780442297541.
  • —; Raitz, Karl B. (1975).Cultural Geography on Topographic Maps.Wiley.ISBN9780471705956.[28]
  • — (1975).The Look of the Land.Prentice Hall.ISBN9780135405345.[29]
  • —; Mather, Cotton;Johnson, Hildegard Binder;Matros, Ron (1975).Upper Coulee Country.Trimbelle Press.[30][31]
  • — (1972).Geographic Manpower: A Report on Manpower in American Geography.Association of American Geographers.[32]
  • — (1967).U.S. and Canada (Lands and peoples of the world).Ginn & Company.[9]
  • — (1967).The Southeastern United States.Van Nostrand Reinhold.[9]
  • — (1962).The United States of America – Around The World Program.Doubleday.
  • — (1957).America's Farms and Ranches.Doubleday.
  • — (1957).Ireland – Around The World Program.Doubleday.
  • — (1955).The British Moorlands: A Problem in Land Utilization.University of Georgia Press.ISBN9780820300269.[33]
  • —; Mather, Cotton (1952).Southeastern Excursion Guidebook.International Geographical Union.[6]

Published papers[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^abShafer, Mary (April 14, 2015)."John Fraser Hart:" Just an old country geographer "".University of Minnesota.Archived fromthe originalon July 23, 2020.RetrievedApril 9,2021.
  2. ^abSolis, Patricia (2004)."Career Profile: John Fraser Hart".aag.org.American Association of Geographers.RetrievedApril 8,2021.
  3. ^abde Souza AR (1983)."Talks With Teachers: John Fraser Hart".Journal of Geography.82(2): 54–58.Bibcode:1983JGeog..82...54D.doi:10.1080/00221348308980773.RetrievedApril 9,2021.
  4. ^Jensen, Jill (November 10, 2011)."WWII vet leads an old-fashioned classroom".Minnesota Daily.RetrievedApril 9,2021.
  5. ^abHart, John Fraser (April 24, 1972)."Geographers on Film Interview With John Fraser Hart".Library of Congress(Interview). Interviewed by Maynard Weston Dow.Association of American Geographers.RetrievedApril 9,2021.
  6. ^abKaran PP (2003)."Cotton Mather (1918–1999)".Annals of the Association of American Geographers.93(2): 487.doi:10.1111/1467-8306.9302013.S2CID129264714.RetrievedApril 11,2021.
  7. ^abLerner, Maura (May 4, 2015)."At 91, Prof. John Fraser Hart teaches his last class at the U".Star Tribune.RetrievedApril 9,2021.
  8. ^Olson, Dan (May 12, 2015)."For 91-year-old U prof, one last lecture but lots left to do".MPR News.RetrievedApril 9,2021.
  9. ^abcdElam WW (1977)."Report of the Nominating Committee—1977".Journal of Geography.76(4): 158–159.Bibcode:1977JGeog..76..158E.doi:10.1080/00221347708985299.RetrievedApril 11,2021.
  10. ^abWheeler JO (Spring 2010)."A Love of the Land: Selected Writing of John Fraser Hart".Southeastern Geographer.50(1): 169–170.doi:10.1353/sgo.0.0071.S2CID140622432.RetrievedApril 9,2021.
  11. ^Hicken, Melanie (October 1, 2014)."The lifelong professor – America's oldest workers: Why we refuse to retire!".CNN Money.RetrievedApril 9,2021.
  12. ^Sand, Paul (October 15, 2002)."U prof. disdains the everyday e-trappings of modern life".Minnesota Daily.RetrievedApril 9,2021.
  13. ^ab"AAG Honors".aag.org.American Association of Geographers.2021.RetrievedApril 11,2021.
  14. ^"Fellows: John Fraser Hart".gf.org.John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.2020.RetrievedApril 9,2021.
  15. ^"Lifetime Achievement Award".SEDAAG.American Association of Geographers.2021.RetrievedApril 9,2021.
  16. ^"Paul P. Vouras Medal".Americangeo.org.American Geographical Society.2021.RetrievedApril 9,2021.
  17. ^"Excellence in research: Geography group selects Harrington for John Fraser Hart Award".Kansas State University.March 30, 2012.RetrievedApril 9,2021.
  18. ^"John Fraser Hart Award, Best PhD Student Paper".SEDAAG.American Association of Geographers.2021.RetrievedApril 9,2021.
  19. ^Meyer-Arendt KJ (November 2011). "My Kind of County: Door County, Wisconsin".Tourism Geographies.13(4): 576.doi:10.1080/14616688.2011.590519.S2CID153154700.
  20. ^Hertzel, Laurie (August 18, 2009)."Nominees for state book awards drawn from a wide range".Star Tribune.RetrievedApril 11,2021.
  21. ^Reviews forA Love of the Land: Selected Writings of John Fraser Hart:
  22. ^Reviews forThe Changing Scale of American Agriculture:
  23. ^Reviews forThe Unknown World of the Mobile Home:
  24. ^Bays, Brad A."Thematic Survey of Historic Barns in Central and South-Central Oklahoma"(PDF).OkHistory.org.Oklahoma Historical Society.RetrievedApril 11,2021.
  25. ^Reviews forThe Rural Landscape:
  26. ^Reviews forThe Land that Feeds Us:
  27. ^Reviews forOur Changing Cities:
  28. ^"Book Reviews".Journal of Geography.75(5): 312–314. 1976.Bibcode:1976JGeog..75..312..doi:10.1080/00221347608980367.
  29. ^Smith EG (January 1977). "John Fraser Hart," The Look of the Land "(Book Review)".Journal of Historical Geography.3(1): 73 – viaProQuest.
  30. ^Hudson JC (March 1976)."Review: Upper Coulee Country".Annals of the Association of American Geographers.66(1): 164–165.JSTOR2562038.RetrievedApril 11,2021.
  31. ^Olmstead CW (January 1977). "Cotton Mather, John Fraser Hart, Hildegard Binder Johnson and Ron Matros," Upper Coulee Country "(Book Review)".Journal of Historical Geography.3(1): 73 – viaProQuest.
  32. ^National Research Council(1997). "Appendix A — Enrollment and Employment Trends in Geography".Rediscovering Geography: New Relevance for Science and Society.National Academies Press. pp. 187–217.ISBN978-0-309-07679-1.
  33. ^Guy-Harold S (1957)."Geographical Publications: The British Moorlands".Journal of Geography.56(1): 42.doi:10.1080/00221345708985218.RetrievedApril 11,2021.

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