Dr. Robert F. Thorne was born on July 13, 1920 in Spring Lake, New Jersey. He was educated through high school in Gulfport and St. Petersburg, Florida. He attended Dartmouth College, where he received a B.A. in Botany in 1941. For graduate work, he attended Cornell University in Ithaca, New York and earned an M.S. degree in Economic Botany (1943) and a Ph. D. in Economic Botany with a minor in Geomorphology (1949). During WWII, he served in the Army Air Forces, first at Hondo Navigation School, Texas as a 2nd Lieutenant for Aerial Navigation (1943). Then, as an Instructor and Examinations Officer at Ellington Field, Houston, Texas (1944-1945). Dr. Thorne was the Assistant Professor of Botany at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, from 1949-1953, Associate Professor from 1954-1960, and Professor from 1961-1962. He was a Visiting Professor at the University of Minnesota, Lake Itasca Biological Station in the Summer of 1962 before moving to California, where he became Taxonomist and Curator for Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden and Professor for Claremont Graduate School (now University) in Claremont, California. He became Taxonomist and Curator Emeritus as well as Professor Emeritus at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden and Claremont Graduate School in 1987 and continues there to this day. He also became Curator Emeritus of the Pomona College Herbarium in Claremont, California from 1990 to the present. Other appointments include: Field Botanist, U.S. Public Health Service, Georgia, Summer 1946. Botany Assistant, 1945-1947; Instructor in Botany, 1948-1949; Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. Visiting Associate Professor, University of Virginia, Mountain Lake Biological Station, Summer l956. In addition, he has been the thesis advisor for at least 12 Ph. D. students and 15 M.S. and M.A. degrees.
From the description of Robert Folger Thorne Papers: 1905-1988 bulk 1960-1985. (Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden Library). WorldCat record id: 429338991
