Graduate School of Oceanography (Rec. Gr. 80)

Historical note

The University of Rhode Island's formal oceanography program began in 1936 under the leadership of Dr. Charles Fish (1899-1978). Dr. Fish, until that date identified as Assistant and Associate Professor of Zoology, assumed new duties as "Professor in charge, Department of Zoology and Director, Narragansett Marine Laboratory" (NML). Functioning as a subdivision of the Department of Zoology, the NML was housed in Room 8, South Hall until June 1949. On September 1, 1948, the lab was constituted a separate unit of the School of Arts and Sciences and was administered on the same basis as the other departments of the Rhode Island State College. Dr. Fish served as the first and only director of the NML, from 1936 to 1961.

NML initially focused on biological oceanography and, due to a paucity of facilities, studies were largely confined to Narragansett Bay. Several early studies also reflected a strong commercial orientation. Exemplary of these were the biology of the starfish and controlling its predatory menace to the oyster industry (1935), an investigation of the winter flounder to determine the movements of adult stock and the value of artificial stocking with fry (1937), and the nutritional value of the black quahog, their location in Rhode Island waters, and the most efficacious means of obtaining them (1942).

In June of 1949, the NML relocated to Fort Kearney, Narragansett, Rhode Island, formerly a World War II prisoner of war camp. It was renamed the Fish Oceanographic Lab in 1960 and then established as the Graduate School of Oceanography (GSO) in 1961. Dr. Fish served as Acting Dean of the GSO from 1961 to 1962. Under the direction of his successor, Dr. John A. Knauss (1962-1987), the GSO was transformed from a modest research facility into an international institution renowned for the breadth of its marine programs. The programs expanded to include all aspects of oceanography and facilities were established so that faculty and students could address open-ocean problems. The first of the GSO's ocean-going research ships, Trident, arrived in 1962. The GSO was the first to establish degree programs in ocean engineering (1965), marine resource economics and marine affairs (both 1969), and a two-year program to train commercial fishermen (1967). With the assistance of Senator Claiborne Pell, the GSO achieved Sea Grant College status in 1971. In 1989, the school was renamed the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration Center of Excellence.

From 1987 to 1992 Robert A. Duce served as Dean of GSO, guiding the establishment of the Coastal Institute on Narragansett Bay and establishing global environmental issues, as well as local issues on Narragansett Bay, and coastal management ecosystems as research priorities.

Margaret Leinen succeeded Dr. Duce in 1992, and served as Dean until 2000. As Dean she became one of the few women in the United States to head an Oceanographic Institution and the first to head a Joint Oceanographic Institution, a consortium of ten of the country's leading marine academic and research institutions. Among the highlights of her tenure were the GSO's first capital campaign and the establishment of the Ocean Technology Center.