Harry Clifford Fassett (1870-1953)

Biographical Sketch, by Sharon Landwehr, Archives Volunteer

Harry Clifford Fassett was born May 9, 1870, in Contra Costa Co., California. Employed by the Bureau of Fisheries (Department of Commerce & Labor) between 1911-1919, he was involved in Alaska salmon investigations and the Pribilof Islands Fur Seal investigations. Two of Alaska's topographical features were named in his honor: Fassett Point on Kodiak Island and a glacier on the Territory's southeastern coast.

A resident of San Francisco since 1934 and a Member of California Academy of Sciences since 1945, Harry Fassett was particularly interested in the Academy's Library and donated all of his books over a period of years along with extensive Reports and Bulletins of the U.S. Fish Commission, Department of Commerce, Department of Agriculture, Coast Geodetic Survey and more.

At the time of his death on December 9, 1953, Fassett was the last surviving member of the team that made the steamer Albatross famous as an oceanographic institution. He joined the crew in 1889, just after the research vessel had been brought to the Pacific. He stayed with the ship, as a representative of the U.S. Fish Commission then the Bureau of Fisheries, keeping the vessel's scientific records, until the close of its Philippine Expedition in 1910. He took part in almost continuous investigations, including expeditions to Hawaii, Panama, the South Seas (1899), Japan, and Alaska (1897).

Sources Consulted:

U.S. Commission of Fish & Fisheries, Commissioner's Report 1900

Harry Clifford Fassett Manuscript Collection

Academy Newsletter: May 1945, January 1954

California Academy of Sciences Index for the Manuscript Collection

Index cards for California Academy of Sciences Staff and Members