P. Quentin Tomich

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Prosper Quentin Tomich (born October 11, 1920 in Orangevale , California ; died March 11, 2014 in Honolulu , Hawaii ) was an American mammalogist and parasitologist .

Life

Fr. Quentin Tomich was raised on a farm in Orangevale, Sacramento County, the fifth of seven children . His father immigrated from Croatia in 1901 and his mother came from a Swedish immigrant family. Quentin was busy working on the farm at an early age and lived with an extended family that included numerous aunts, uncles and their children. Today the Tomichs' farm is in a suburb of Sacramento and is the last family-owned farm in the area to be run by Quentin Tomich's nephews and nieces.

Tomich left in 1937, the San Juan High School in Citrus Heights with a high school diploma and took over for two years the management of the family farm. From 1939 he studied biology at Sacramento Junior College and in 1941 went to the University of California, Berkeley . As part of his zoology studies, he spent two years mostly field studies in the university-run Hastings Natural History Reservation in the Santa Lucia Mountains . After completing his bachelor's degree at Berkeley, Tomich was hired by the University of California, San Francisco for two years to research the bubonic plague in the western United States under the direction of Karl Friedrich Meyer .

In 1946 Tomich received his masters degree from the University of California, Berkeley and entered the United States Navy . Immediately before moving to Cairo, he married his former fellow student Caroline Wallace so that she could accompany him. In Cairo, Tomich served in Naval Medical Research Unit Three (NAMRU-3), where he was engaged in research into the vectors of zoonoses . In 1947 the couple returned to the United States, Caroline worked as a teacher and Quentin continued his doctoral studies. For five years Tomich worked again in the Hastings Natural History Reservation and wrote an extensive monograph with Jean M. Linsdale on the ecology of the Californian mule deer . He finished his studies with a Ph.D.

In 1959 Tomich moved to Hawaii with his family, his wife Caroline and then three children, to work as a zoologist in the health department of the archipelago, which had recently become the 50th state in the United States . His job was to research the plague in Hāmākua District , Hawaii County . Since the beginning of the 20th century, starting from the port of Honolulu , the disease had spread to all major Hawaiian islands with rats and their fleas; the last infected fleas were recorded in 1957. Although Tomich's original role was canceled after a short time, he remained in the service of the health authority until his retirement in 1985.

After retiring, Fr. Quentin Tomich lived in Honokaa Congregation in Hāmākua and was active in numerous corporations in the municipality and the state well into old age. He was committed to the preservation of one of the last virgin forests in Hawaii, the Kalopa Native Forest State Park , which was placed under protection on his initiative in 1970 , and dealt with the history of Hāmākua. In 1998 he was asked by the editors of the newly formed Hamakua Times to publish a monthly essay about his community. The 64 editions were reissued in 2008 as a book on the history of Hāmākua.

Publications (selection)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Obituaries 04-18-14 . West Hawaii Today website , accessed January 10, 2018.
  2. ↑ a b c d e Kaye Lundburg et al .: Aloha Quentin. Dr. P. Quentin Tomich 1920-2014 . Hamakua Times , March 24, 2014, accessed January 10, 2018.
  3. ↑ Obituaries for April 16 . Hawaii Tribune Herald , April 16, 2014, accessed May 5, 2019.
personal data
SURNAME Tomich, P. Quentin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Tomich, Prosper Quentin (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American mammal logist and parasitologist
DATE OF BIRTH October 11, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH Orangevale , California
DATE OF DEATH March 11, 2014
Place of death Honolulu , Hawaii