Stock, Chester, 1892-1950

Biography

Chester Stock was born in San Francisco on January 28, 1892. At the University of California, where he received a B.S. degree in 1914 and a Ph.D. in 1917, Stock studied geology and vertebrate paleontology under John C. Merriam. In 1918, he began working on the Rancho La Brea (now Hancock Park) collection of ground sloths, saber-tooths, and other fossil bones, housed at the Los Angeles Museum of History, Science, and Art, in Exposition Park. Starting as Merriam's assistant in 1917, Stock advanced through the ranks to become an assistant professor in 1921. That year Merriam left Berkeley to become president of the Carnegie Institution of Washington and Stock took over Merriam's teaching duties in vertebrate paleontology.

In 1926, shortly after the Division of Geological Sciences was established at Caltech under the leadership of John Buwalda, Stock joined the faculty as professor of paleontology. In return, physicist Robert Millikan, the head of Caltech, promised to provide $10,000 annually to Stock for the development of paleontology at the Institute. The Carnegie Institution of Washington also provided funds for Stock's research. In 1947 Stock succeeded Buwalda as geology division chairman.

In addition to his duties at Caltech, Stock spent considerable time on the vertebrate paleontology programs of the Los Angeles Museum (now the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County) and in the development of new projects. At the Museum, he held a number of positions including Curatorial Consultant (1931-1939), Senior Curator of Earth Sciences (1939-1948), and Chief Curator of Science (1948-1950). He played a major role in guiding the planning of a museum (now the Page Museum) to house and exhibit the park's tar-pit fossils.

During his tenure at Caltech, Stock built up a rather large collection of fossil bones. Much of it came from collecting expeditions to various sites and areas in the West, carried out with the help of E. L. Furlong, curator, W. J. P. Otto, sculptor and preparator, along with students and other assistants. Stock died suddenly in 1950, calling into question the program, and the usefulness, future care, and handling of the specimens.

In 1957, the Institute sold its entire collection of vertebrate paleontological materials to the Los Angeles Country Museum. The collection consisted of more than 5,000 recorded specimens, 50,000 unrecorded specimens, 8 complete skeletons, and many maps, field, and aerial photographs. Geology division chair Robert Sharp recommended the sale to Caltech president Lee DuBridge, and the Board of Trustees approved. By then, the collections were not being used in research by anyone on the faculty. The funds received were used to create chemical analytical facilities and other laboratory accommodations in Mudd Laboratory, where the collections had been stored.

Judith R. Goodstein, September 4, 2001.

Chronology

From the guide to the Chester Stock Papers, 1900-1951, (California Institute of Technology. Caltech Archives)