Harry Gisborne

Harry Thomas Gisborne (September 11, 1893 – November 9, 1949) was an American forester who pioneered the scientific study of wildfires.

Biography

Harry Gisborne was born in Montpelier, Vermont. After graduating with a forestry degree from the University of Michigan, he joined the U.S. Forest Service, and after four years was assigned to head the Rocky Mountain Research Station in Missoula, Montana. Many of his studies were conducted at the Priest River Experimental Forest, just outside Priest River, Idaho. During his tenure there, he developed new instruments and methods to study the start and spread of wildfires. He was the first recipient from his area to receive the USDA Superior Service Award. Gisborne died of a heart attack on November 9, 1949, while field-checking the site of the Mann Gulch Fire in April 1949: Norman Maclean called this the "death of a scientist" in his book Young Men and Fire.