John Nathan Cobb : founding Director of the College of Fisheries, University of Washington, Seattle

Marine Fisheries Review, Summer, 2003 by J. Richard Dunn

During the salmon fishing season in Alaska in the summers of 1917 and 1918, Cobb traveled north to visit the various APA concerns. His work involved inspecting the working and sanitary conditions in the canneries. Because of his previous work in Alaska with the Bureau of Fisheries, Cobb was familiar with most of the APA packing operations there. (29)

Cobb was apparently satisfied with his work with APA, but he again sought another position of advancement. Cobb's experience in the fisheries of Alaska, his former position at the Pacific Fisherman, and his involvement with the Pacific Fisheries Society placed him at the forefront of a burgeoning movement to establish a "school of fisheries" at the University of Washington. He was not an unwitting observer of this movement. Indeed, he kept his name always fresh to the University administration and the result was that Cobb resigned from APA in January 1919 to accept the founding directorship of the College of Fisheries at the University of Washington. (30) This new position would serve him well and allow him to use his diverse talents in the fisheries field.

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 likely played a vital role in the establishment of this new College. Richard Van Cleve (1906-1984), a longtime Dean of the renamed College of Fisheries who served from 1948-1971, ascribed the establishment of the College of Fisheries to Freeman. (31)

Freeman, in a letter dated 1937 to the U.W. President Lee Paul Sieg (1879-1963), wrote in part, "I call your attention to the fact that I secured the establishment of the School of Fisheries at the University of Washington...." (32) 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 U.W. beginning in 1914 and that, alter the conclusion of World War I in 1918, he resumed his lobbying to the U.W. (21)

Seattle became a "boom town" in the period 1900-1920. The city's population grew from about 81,000 in 1900 to become a major city of some 315,000 people by 1920. Many of Seattle's major establishments and various aspects of the city's civic development began during this period (Berner, 1991). Shipbuilding and metal trades were noteworthy components of the local economy in the years before World War I. The processing and transportation of lumber and wood products were important to Seattle and the greater Puget Sound region.

Both forestry and fisheries were important industries for the State of Washington in the first quarter of the 20th century and were of considerable interest to the U.W. Commercial fisheries in Washington State during 1914-1921 were highly dependent on harvest of Pacific salmon, whose catches fluctuated yearly. From 1914 to 1917, fisheries products in Washington State ranged in value from $1.7 to $15.2 million (Giles, 1918). According to Darwin (1921), the value of canned salmon in 1919-1920 was $12.9 million and in 1920-1921 it was much smaller, just over $4.5 million. Lumber production was the leading industry of the State during the first quarter of the 20th century; its value ranged from $37.1 to $68.8 million from 1907-1912, and was $41.8 and $53.2 million in 1915 and 1916 (Giles, 1918).