Keith Stewart Thomson
Keith Stewart Thomson, a distinguished scholar, scientist, curator, and museum administrator who served as dean of Yale’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) from 1979 to 1986, died on Feb. 21. He was 86.
During a long and distinguished career in academics and museum administration, Thomson was also an executive officer of the American Philosophical Society, professor emeritus of natural history at the University of Oxford, and a widely published author.
Born in England in 1938, he emigrated to the United States in 1960 to enroll in a Ph.D. program in evolutionary biology at Harvard.
In 1965, he joined the faculty of the biology department at Yale, where he would serve for more than two decades. From 1976 to 1987 he was also curator of vertebrate zoology of the Yale Peabody Museum and, from 1977 to 1979, he served as the museum’s director. Then, in 1979, he was appointed dean of the graduate school, a position he held until 1986.
After serving as dean at Yale, Thomson returned to work in museums. From 1987 to 1995, he was president and CEO of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. Then, from 1998 to 2003, he served as director of the Oxford University Museum and was also professor of natural history at Oxford.
Throughout his career Thomson maintained a deep reverence for the role of museums in preserving the past, interpreting the present, and informing the possibilities of the future.
He had a life-long fascination, both historical and scientific, with Charles Darwin and how the theory of evolution shaped both culture and consciousness. He also had an abiding fascination with Thomas Jefferson, and Jefferson’s lesser-known passion for science. After retiring from Oxford, he held a fellowship at Monticello, which fueled an enormously productive time of writing for him.
From 2012 to 2017, he was the executive officer of the American Philosophical Society (APS), a period when he both expanded the public offerings of the APS and wrote extensively on a wide range of subjects from Jefferson to the conflicts between religion and science.
Thomson, who was always a writer at heart, penned the monthly column “Marginalia” for American Scientist magazine from 1982 to 2010. He delighted in writing this column, which allowed him to explore any subject that intrigued him — from how to ride a horse to how sharks swim.
As an academic, Thomson published more than 100 scientific papers. As a science writer for a more popular audience, he wrote many books, including “The Watch on the Heath” (published in the U.S. as “Before Darwin”) and “Fossils: a Very Short Introduction,” both in 2005; “The Legacy of the Mastodon” (2008); “A Passion for Nature: Thomas Jefferson and Natural History” (2008); “The Young Charles Darwin (2009); Jefferson’s Shadow: The Story of his Science” (2012), and “Private Doubt, Public Dilemma” (2015). He also authored a mystery novel, set in the England of his youth, titled “Murder in Cottisthorpe,” which was published last year.
He is survived by his wife of 62 years, Linda Price Thomson; two daughters, Jessica Fiorillo and Elizabeth Thomson; three grandchildren, Olivia Fiorillo, Jane Gewirtz, and William Gewirtz; and his dog Hazel.
