Norton, John Bitting Smith

John Bitting Smith Norton was born in April 1872 to Samuel J. and Louisa Norton of Cocke County, Tennessee. He went to Kansas in the late 1890s to attend the Kansas State Agricultural College at Manhattan, now Kansas State University. He received both his Bachelor of Science and his Master of Science degrees from the Kansas State Agricultural College (K.S.A.C.) in 1896 and 1901, respectively. While he was in school, he worked as an assistant professor at the Agricultural Experiment Station of the K.S.A.C. from 1894 to 1896 and as a botanical assistant at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis, Missouri, from 1896 to 1901.

J. B. S. Norton then moved to Maryland, where he was appointed State Plant Pathologist as well as professor of botany and plant pathology at the Maryland Agricultural College. As State Plant Pathologist, he was responsible for experimentation, botanical surveying, gathering and disseminating information, and instruction. He also shared responsibility with the State Entomologist for nursery and orchard inspections. In 1914, Norton gave up his position as State Plant Pathologist to devote all of his time to his teaching and other duties at the Experiment Station, a unit of the Maryland Agricultural College.

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