Los Angeles County
Biographies
JOHN ADAMS COMSTOCK
In science
the position of Dr. John Adams Comstock is secure. He has achieved it through the merit of his
work. As associate director of Los Angeles County Museum
he is nationally known and is generally recognized as an authority upon those
phases of science to which he has given his attention. Likewise, as a physician and surgeon, he
holds a position of eminence in his profession, both as a practitioner and a
teacher. Doctor Comstock was born in Evanston, Illinois,
January 30, 1883, and is a son of John Adams and Nellie (Hurd) Comstock. On the maternal side of his family, his
grandfather came to Chicago,
Illinois, and was the first man
to practice law in that community. John
Adams Comstock, Sr., the father of the doctor, was a native of Illinois, and in that
state was a manufacturer and business man during most of his life. He died in Santa Rosa, California,
where his widow now resides.
Doctor
Comstock received his grade and high school training in Evanston, Illinois,
and for a number of years thereafter worked as an architect and designer. He then entered the College
of Osteopathic Physicians and Surgeons
in Los Angeles,
and from this institution was graduated.
During an ensuing period, Doctor Comstock practiced his profession with
marked success, and also served as an instructor and as registrar in the
osteopathic school from which he had received his degree. It may be appropriately noted at this point
that later he as given the degree of Master of Arts by Occidental College.
For a
number of years, Doctor Comstock was a designer for the noted Elbert Hubbard at
the home of the Roycrofters in East
Aurora, New York. With the training he received in this
connection he came to California and here
organized the Crafts-Camarata in Santa
Rosa. Later he
taught arts and crafts at the famous art colony in Carmel.
He became greatly interested in Indian arts and handiwork and made an
exhaustive study of them, a training which has been of inestimable benefit to
his work in subsequent years. In the
year 1919 the doctor was appointed assistant director of the Southwest Museum,
and was made a director in 1921.
Finally, in 1925, he resigned for the purpose of accepting the
responsible position he now holds as associate director of the Los Angeles Museum.
He has fulfilled the many duties of his office with rare ability and
understanding of the subjects involved, and for an interval served as acting director
during the absence of Dr. William A. Bryan. Doctor Comstock is a fellow of the London
Entomological Society, and the American Association for the Advancement of
Science. He is president of the southern
California division
of the Science League of America.
Additional memberships of importance include the following: the California Academy of Science; the
Southern California Academy of Sciences (of which he was president from 1928 to
1929); the Western Society of Naturalist; and the Cooper Ornithological
Club. Doctor Comstock has won great
recognition as an authority on butterflies and is credited with the discovery
and description of several new species of American lepidoptera,
also in 1923 had published a book on the subject, “Butterflies in
California.” Mention has hitherto been
made that he has always been interested in the American Indian and in the
preservation of the aboriginal American and his native art. In this connection, he was the organizer and
the first chief of the executive committee of the Indian Welfare League.
Doctor
Comstock has been thrice married. His first
union was with Carol Townsend of Chicago, and to them were born three
children: John Sterling, Mrs. Jean
Comstock White, and Betty. On March 28,
1928, the doctor was married secondly to Dr. Carolyn Calvert Lord of Temple
Arizona, who died shortly after they were wedded. His third marriage was to Miss Ruth Gard, a
daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George Gard and member of one of the prominent
families of Los Angeles.
Transcribed
By: Michele Y. Larsen on July 19, 2012.
Source: California
of the South Vol. V,
by John Steven McGroarty, Pages 153-154,
Clarke Publ., Chicago, Los Angeles,
Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2012 Michele
Y. Larsen.
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