RALPH E. BROCK

And The State Forest Academy at Mount Alto, Pennsylvania by Ellen A. Manno, Kim C, Steiner, and R. Alexander Day

for

Forest History Today, Fall 2002, pp.12-17.

The year 2003 marks the centennial of the establishment of the State Forest Academy at Mont Alto, Pennsylvania, now the location of Pennsylvania State University's Mont Alto campus and the home of its associate degree program in Forest Technology. Not widely known is that the academy's first graduating class of six men in 1906 included the nation's first African-American forester, Ralph Elwood Brock. This is more than three decades earlier than the 1942 graduate from the University of Washington who was heretofore listed as the earliest American-educated black forester.1

Ralph Brock is believed to have been born in February 1883 near Pottsville, Pennsylvania, although there exists some conflicting information about his birth year.2 He was the son of a schoolteacher-turned-minister, John Calvin Brock, and wife Alcinda. Reverend Brock was an elder and pastor in the African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church, which he served in Delaware and at several locations in southeastern Pennsylvania. Reverend Brock died in 1901 at the age of about 57. 3

How Ralph Brock became involved in forestry is uncertain. He began high school in West Chester, Pennsylvania, but graduated from Howard High School in Wilmington, Delaware,4 where, according to one newspaper article, he passed "creditable examinations in forestry."5 However, annual reports of the Wilmington public schools offer no evidence that Howard High School offered any specific courses in forestry; Ralph Brock was a member of the class of 1900.6 The Wilmington, Delaware, city directories of 1899 and 1900 list Ralph E. Brock as a student, and the 1901 directory lists him as "removed to Carlisle, Pennsylvania."7 This information coincides with the fact that Reverend John Brock's "last charge was Carlisle where he remained one year. Being ill, he returned to his home, June 1901, to 530 E. Miner Street, West Chester, Pennsylvania."8

Ralph Brock's entrance into forestry is perhaps connected to Professor Addison Jones, superintendent of West Chester public schools from 1889 until his death in 1924. On November 26, 1901, Professor Jones wrote to Dr. Joseph T. Rothrock, Pennsylvania's first commissioner of forestry, inquiring about "a place for Ralph E. Brock."9 Perhaps Addison Jones, an apparent neighbor of the Brocks, was assuming some paternal responsibilities for Ralph whose father had died in August of that year. A description of Jones' October 1924 funeral mentions mourners going in the side door of his home on Miner Street. 10 The Brock family lived on Miner Street, and Reverend John Brock had once served the church two blocks away.11

By the end of January 1902, Ralph Brock (then at the Miner Street residence) was corresponding directly with Dr. Rothrock about ".... any books you would advise me to study prior to entering your service and in March 1902 ".. .inquiring whether there are any steps you would advise me taking now"12 Then on April 5, 1902, Ralph Brock was appointed a student assistant forester at Mont Alto by Governor Stone at the suggestion of Forestry Commissioner Rothrock "whose attention had been called to Brock by a number of friends."13 A reception was held in Brock's honor two days later, to which "many friends.., came to pay him their respects and tender their hearty congratulations."14

Ralph Brock's obituary also acknowledges the relationship between Brock and Rothrock: "For 10 years he was associated with his botany teacher, the late Dr. J. 1. Rothrock, distinguished botanist and pioneer in forest conservation."15 Brock was said to have done "some excellent work in botany at the University of Pennsylvania"16 but no additional documentation has been found to support this assertion. Dr. Rothrock also had a connection to the University of Pennsylvania. He earned a doctor of medicine degree from that institution in 1867 and years later, from 1877 to 1892, he served there as professor of botany It does not appear that Rotbrock and Brock were at the University of Pennsylvania at the same time, but it is possible that Brock worked with Rothrock's botany collection there.

In April 1902 Ralph Brock accompanied George H. Wirt, appointed Pennsylvania's first state forester in February 1901, to Mont Alto to establish the Commonwealth's first forest nursery The Pennsylvania Department of Forestry had recently purchased an iron company tract there of some 22,000 acres of forestland. 17

Other persons gradually joined Ralph Brock and George Wirt at Mont Alto between spring 1902 and spring 1903, and in May 1903 the State Forest Academy was established by act of legislature and approved by Governor Samuel W Pennypacker. The academy was created to train foresters who would ultimately care for the lands that the state had commenced to purchase for forestry purposes.18 Only three forestry schools existed at that time in the United States; forestry graduates were scarce and most were headed to federal service or were not practical enough for Dr. Rothrock.19

April and July 1903 correspondence from Ralph Brock, at Mont Alto, to Dr. Rothrock 20 offers evidence of a planned trip to the South that presumably occurred before September 1903. The duration of the trip was to be two to three weeks, during which time Brock would spend most of the time in the woods, to observe "the cypress lumbering operations and the yellow pine" and "learn all that is possible." No further information about this excursion has been found.

The first class at the Mont Alto State Forest Academy began with 13 members in September 1903--ten new students and the three student assistants, including Brock, who were absorbed into the class. George Wirt was the first director of the academy. Dr. Rothrock chose the term "academy" "because it was reminiscent of the United States Military Academy at West Point and the Naval Academy at Annapolis."21

Students were paid $30 per month and were required to work a considerable number of hours in establishing the school. It was not until the third week in December that formal study began in earnest.22 George Wirt had drafted a curriculum aimed at striking a balance between practical and theoretical forestry His original four-year course plan, covering 11 months of each year, was "revised, with Dr. Rothrock, to a three-year course of 33 months of actual work."23

Only six of the 13 remained to graduate in 1906, and they were assigned to fieldwork on forest reserves in different parts of the state. Brock's assignment was to remain at Mont Alto and take charge of the nursery. In January 1907 all six members were recalled to the academy to complete additional studies. Apparently 1904 had been a bad year and little class work had been done. In March 1907, the class of 1906 returned to their various jobs.24.25

Ralph Brock's reports on the Mont Alto nursery as well as some technical articles by him can be found in publications of the Pennsylvania Department of Forestry for the years 1907 through 1910. In addition, an article on "The Raising of the Hardy Catalpa" by Brock was published in 1904 in Forest Leaves, the publication of the Pennsylvania Forestry Association.26

The 1910 Pennsylvania Negro Business Directory includes the following entry: 'Among the State employees is Mr. Ralph E. Brock of West Chester. Mr. Brock for several years has been connected with the Forestry Department. He is probably the only experienced forester of the colored race in Pennsylvania. He has spent a great deal of his time making a study of this very important question: how to preserve our forests. He is considered by the department as a very capable man, and has charge of the State Nursery at Mont Alto."27

But on March 1, 1911, Ralph Brock resigned from state service. Accounts indicate that at least part of the cause was racial prejudice. A 1909 alumnus wrote in the 1914 yearbook that "Brock had a hard time of it for none of the boys could quite content himself being ordered around by a darky, regardless of his ability."28 A 1959 oral history interview of George Wirt supports this report: "Occasionally we would get some fellow who was distinctly bad. I remember very definitely one young fellow.. .He just enjoyed making trouble. Before he left, one of the last things he did was to raise trouble, as a result of which Brock was fired as a Negro. He wasn't going to work beside a Negro anytime, and he got the other fellows all 'het' up and it resulted in a couple of fistfights over at the nursery. The only thing we could do--that was what the commissioner [Robert S. Conklin] thought was to drop Brock out of the company and try to get along without him."29 A December 27. 1910, entry in Dr. Rothrock's diary indicates that he met that day with Ralph Brock "who wants to leave state service and do for himself in West Chester."30 The truth about Brock's departure from state service may be more complex than the racial arguments among students. There was some concern about the condition of the nursery at Mont Alto and heavy losses of seedlings over the previous winter due to frost heave. Edwin Ziegler (the academy's second and last director) attributed this loss to Brock's negligence in a March 17, 1911, letter to George Wirt (appointed state forester in spring 1910)." But this letter was sent after Brock's resignation and is the only example of dissatisfaction with Brock's work that has been found. State forestry records indicate that the nursery flourished under Brock's direction.32

After leaving Mont Alto, Brock and his wife Pauline (maiden name Wethers), whom he married in January 1908,"33.34 moved to West Chester, Pennsylvania, where Brock opened a landscaping and nursery business.35 The 1914 Mont Alto yearbook reports that most of Brock's work was "caring for suburban and country estates in the vicinity of New York City and Philadelphia."36

The 1923 Mont Alto yearbook lists Brock as being in the nursery business in Cleveland. Ohio.37 The September 1926 Birch Log 38 describes alumnus Brock as "in the nursery business" and the September 1928 Birch Log" indicates Brock was living and working in Cleveland, Ohio. But Cleveland city directories for the period 1921 1931 do not list Brock either individually or under the listings of "nurseries" or "gardeners. "40 Ralph Brock does not appear in the 1920 federal censuses for Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, or Virginia.

From 1928 to at least 1937, Brock was employed as the gardener for the Paul Laurence Dunbar Apartments complex in Harlem in New York City." 41 John D. Rockefeller, Jr. built the complex and then sold it in 1938. Brocks obituary states that he was also supervisor of the New York City Riverside Park and Radio City Gardens in Rockefeller Center; no dates were given and no other documentation of this employment has been found. 42 From 1944 to 1945 Ralph Brock was a part-time, assistant gardener at Harlem River Houses.43 The Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (which includes the Bureau of Forestry) describes Brock's post-state-service career as "the field of private forestry, serving the Chester and Philadelphia County Areas, as well as New York City. His specialty was estate gardens. orchards, and landscaping."44

Ralph Brock's obituary in the Daily Local News of West Chester, Pennsylvania, indicates that failing health forced his retirement in 1957. He died on December 9, 1959, in a convalescent home in New Jersey and is buried in Chestnut Grove Cemetery in West Chester. 45

The Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources honored Ralph Brock in February 2000 by renaming a seed-production orchard after him. The South Mountain Seed Orchard in Franklin County, about two miles from Mont Alto and long a mainstay of state forest seed and seedling production, was renamed the Ralph E. Brock Seed Orchard.46 Other tributes to Ralph Brock include an "Envirocard" printed in 2000 47, the Ralph E. Brock Environmental Stewardship Scholarship Fund established in 2000 to benefit students at Cornerstone Christian Academy in Philadelphia 48, and a tree planted by the Pottsville Shade Tree Commission on Arbor Day in 2001. 49

In April 2003, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission's Division of History approved an historical marker that will serve to introduce Ralph Elwood Brock and his historical significance to the general public. The roadside marker will likely be placed near the entrance to the Penn State Mont Alto campus, along Route 233; near another recently installed historical marker that notes the 2003 campus centennial. As time permits, we continue to seek additional information about Ralph Brock. And we continue to search for his descendants 50--so that they, too, might also learn about his distinction as the nation's first African-American forester.

Ellen A. Manno is executive director, School of Forest Resources Alumni Group, The Pennsylvania State University; Dr Kim C. Steiner is professor of forest biology, School of Forest Resources, The Pennsylvania State University; and R. Alexander Day is nursery operations manager, Bureau of Forestry, Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

NOTES

1. B.D. Mayberry Share the Vision: The History of the Tuskegee University Forest Resources Program, 1968 1992 lists the three earliest American-educated black foresters known in 1968:JimJohnston graduated from the University of Washington in 1942, Carroll Williams graduated from Michigan in 1955, and Charles lrby graduated from Utah State in 1956. Penn State's first (nonforestry) African American graduate was Calvin H. Walker in Agriculture in 1905.

2. Obituary in Daily Local News (West Chester, PA), December 10, 1959, states that Ralph Brock was "born February 15, 1883 in Pottsville." His gravestone in Chestnut Grove Cemetary in West Chester, PA, lists his year of birth as 1883. But a funeral notice in Daily Local News, December 11,1059, states that Ralph Brock died on December 9, 1959, "in the 77th year of his age" which suggests that he was born in 1881. The 1900 federal census lists Ralph Brock's birth date as February 1884. The 1910 federal census lists Ralph Brock as 29 years old, which also suggests that he was born in 1881. The 1890 federal census was destroyed by fire and not available; Mark Major of the Schuylkill County Visitors Bureau checked the local census of 1890 and did not find the Brock family listed (Ellen Manno in phone conversation with Mark Major on 6/5/01; and Gerry McLenahan, "First Black Forester is Remembered with Orchard, Tree, and Trading Card," special to Morning Call Freelance, Morning Call, March 1, 2001). A January 5, 1905, Daily Local News article, "Forester Brock Here. He Has Charge of Nurseries on South Mountain Reservation", refers to Brock as a 24-year-old in charge of nursery work at Mont Alto; age 24 in 1905 also suggests that Brock was born in 1881.

3. George Singleton, ed., The A.M.E. Review (Mother Bethel Church, Philadelphia, PA) 77, no. 204 (April June 1960): 9 12.

4. "Forester Brock Here. He Has Charge of Nurseries on South Mountain Reservation," Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)January 5, 1905

5. 'Appointed Forester," Daily Local News (West Chester, PA), April 5, 1902

6. Constance Cooper, Historical Society of Delaware, e-mail to Ellen Manno at Penn State, August 14, 2001.

7. Constance Cooper, Historical Society of Delaware, e-mail to Ellen Manno at Penn State, August 14, 2001.

8. George Singleton, ed., The A.M.E. Review (Mother Bethel Church, Philadelphia, PA) 77, no. 204 (April June 1960): 9 12 [12].

9. Pennsylvania State Archives, Record Group 6, Records of the Department of Forests and Waters, Lettcrbanks, 1902 04.

10. "Town Honors Memory of Supt. A. L.Jones. Every Child in Public Schools Drops a Flower upon His Casket. Memorial Services Are Held in Different Buildings and Long Procession of Friends and Pupils Files through His Late Home," Daily Local News (West Chester, PA), October 7,1924.

11. George Singleton, ed., The A.M.E. Review (Mother Bethel Church, Philadelphia, PA) 77 no. 204 (April--June 1960): 9 12 [121.

12. Letters of Ralph Elwood BrocktoJoseph T Rothrock.January 30, 1902, and March 10, 1902, Papers of Joseph Trimble Rothrock, MD, series 3, John William Lamer, ed. (Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 2001), Microfilm. Actual letters are at the Chester County Historical Society.

13. 'Appointed Forester." Daily Local New.c (West Chester, PA), April 5, 1902.

14. "Ralph Brock's Reception. Friends Wish Him Much Success in His New Field of Labor," Daily Local News (West Chester, PA) April 8, 1902.

15. "Obituaries" in Daily Local News (West Chester, PA), December 10, 1959. Perhaps the "ten years" were 1901 until 1911, when Brock left state service. Dr. Rothrock retired as commissioner of forestry in 1904; he died in 1922.

16. Wirt, George H. "The State Forest Academy," in Pennsylvania Forests 38, (Spring 1953): 43 45, 54, 57. However, the University Archives at the University of Pennsylvania possesses no record of Ralph F. Brock. An April 2001 e-mail from Chris Rooney, research assistant, Penn University Archives, to Ellen Manno, School of Forest Resources at Penn State, states "this does not necessarily mean that he (Brock) did not study at the university, but as a comprehensive record of those studying in non-degree programs does not exist, we cannot confirm his status vis-â-vis the university"

17. Wirt, George H. 'The State Forest Academy," in Pennsylvania Forests 38, (Spring 1953): 43--45, 54, 57.

18. 'After repeated efforts to have a course in forestry established in existing educational institutions of the State, he [Dr. Rothrock] conceived the idea of establishing a School of Forestry under State control, something after the plan of the military schools of the Federal Government." Wirt, George H. "State Forest Academy" in Forest Leaves, 12, no. 5 (October 1909): 68. "There were four compelling reasons for the state [Pennsylvania] to educate the foresters it needed besides the obvious reason that no one else could be persuaded to do so. First, a state forest school could train students under local conditions in the theory and skills specifically needed for managing Pennsylvania's forest reserves. Second, students could gain practical experience by serving as an actual work force while in school. Third, the state would have a guaranteed and steady supply of graduate foresters. And finally, the presence of these graduates would preclude the handing out of professional forestry positions as political plums." Elizabeth H. Thomas, The Pennsylvania State Forest School, 1903--1929 (Pennsylvania State Forest Academy/School Founders Society: 1985): 15.

19. The Biltmore Forest School in North Carolina was established in 1898. ..... Biltmore gave a one-year course that combined theory with practical instruction. Most years it graduated ten to twelve foresters, a number that did not begin to meet demand." Elizabeth H. Thomas, "Forest Protection and the Founding of Pennsylvania's First Forestry School, 1901- 1903," Pennsylvania History, 44 (October 1977): 291 315 [296]. The New York State College of Forestry at Cornell established a four-year course in 1898.

There was one graduate of the Cornell program in 1900, five in 1901, two in 1902, two in 1903, five in 1904, one in 1906, and one in 1907. Ralph S. Hosmer, Forestry at Cornell: A Retrospect of Proposals, Developments, and Accomplishments in the Teaching of Professional Forestry at Cornell University (Cornell University 1950): 13.

A forestry school at Yale opened in 1900, but did not produce a graduate until 1902. "Yale graduated eight master of forestry degrees in June 1902 but the number increased substantially afterwards. History of the Yale Forest School. New Haven, Connecticut. Yale Forest School, 1913. 350 pp. "By 1900 the Yale University Forestry School has been established., with a $150,000 gift from Gifford Pinchot and his family Pinchot had plans for the Yale graduates. He was going to hire them to staff the newly established U.S. Forest Service, which he headed.' Lester DeCoster, The Legacy of Penn's Woods: A History of the Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry (Harrisburg: Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission, 2000): 37.

"A course in forestry was offered at the Pennsylvania State Agricultural College as early as 1889. It was taught by William A. Buckhout, professor of botany who had been a student under Dr. Rothrock when he was professor of botany at the College during the period 1867 1870. Dr. Buckhout's.. lectures did not constitute a degree course and were not intended to educate students for the profession." Clepper, Henry "Forest Education in Pennsylvania" in Pennsylvania Forests, 57, no. 2 (Spring 1967): 28--30. Pennsylvania State College began offering a baccalaureate in forestry in 1907.

At the University of Michigan, "six courses in forestry were included in the Announcement of Department of Literature, Science, and the Arts for the academic year 1901--02. Actual instruction, however, was not given until the academic year 1902--3 . Samuel Trask Dana, ed., History of Activities in the Field of Natural Resources, University of Michigan (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1953): 15.

The University of Minnesota began offering a bachelor of science degree with a specialization in forestry in the 1903-04 school year. The first B.S. in forestry was granted in 1905. In 1906 there were four graduates of the program. "Minnesota School of Forestry," Northern Logger, 12 (March 1964): 15.

At the University of Nebraska, "professional instruction leading to a bachelor's degree began in 1904 Samuel Trask Dana and Evert W Johnson, Forestry Education in America, Today and Tomorrow (Washington, DC: Society of American Foresters, 1963): 384.

20. Letters of Ralph Elwood Brock to Joseph T. Rothrock, April 20, 1903, and July 27, 1903, Papers of Joseph Trimble Rothrock, MD, series 3, John William Lamer, ed., (Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 2001), Microfilm. Actual letters are at Chester County Historical Society.

21. George H. Wirt, interview by Charles D. Bonsted, March 1959, Early Forestry Education in North Carolina Oral History Collection, Library and Archives, Forest History Society Durham, NC, 21.

22. Elizabeth H. Thomas, The Pennsylvania State Forest School, 1903-1929, (Mont Alto, PA: Pennsylvania State Forest Academy/School Founders Society 1985), 34, 38. Student salaries were eliminated after the 1904-05 school year and therefore students were no longer state employees. But the state was giving an essentially free education. Thomas, 50.

23. George H. Wirt, "History of Forest Education in Pennsylvania," in Penn State Sylvan 1953 (forestry yearbook): 19. The Mont Alto Academy Ledger, 1903-1920 (The Pennsylvania State University Archives, Paterno Library) lists Ralph Brock's final average grades for the following 34 subjects (in alphabetical Order): algebra, arithmetic, bookkeeping, botany (elementary), botany (advanced), business law, chemistry, civil government, constable's manuals and laws, dendrology draughting, forest economics and policy forest finance, forest influences, forest management and working plans, forest mensuration, forestry (elementary), French, geometry geology meteorology nursery practice, physics, physiography plane and topographic surveying, plantation work, political economy political geography road construction, silvi-culture, soil, trigonometry wood technology zoology.

24. Elizabeth H. Thomas, The Pennsylvania State Forest School, 1903--1929. (Mont Alto, PA: Pennsylvania State Forest Academy/School Founders Society, 1985), 47.

25. In 1907 a Department of Forestry and a four-year forestry course were created at Penn State. This led to changes at the state forest academy at Mont Alto. In March 1920, Gifford Pinchot became State Commissioner of Forestry in Pennsylvania and he asked why there were two forestry schools in Pennsylvania. (George H. Wirt, "The History of Forestry Education in Pennsylvania" in the Penn State Sylvan 1935). In fall 1920, the academy at Mont Alto offered three separate programs: the first year of the new four-year course at Penn State, the junior and senior years of the academy curriculum, and a two-year rangers school. (Elizabeth H. Thomas, The Pennsylvania State Forest School, 1903--1 929, 137). After 1921, fewer and fewer academy graduates were called to state service. (Thomas, 151). In fall 1929, the state forest academy became part of Penn State and the Mont Alto facilities continued to be used for freshman foresters in the four year program. (Wirt, 20). From Mont Alto's forest school's first class in 1907 to its last class in 1929, its graduates totaled 243. (Henry Clepper, "Forestry Education in Pennsylvania: Its Origins and Historical Highlights" in Pennsylvania Forests, 57, no. 2 (Spring 1967): 29. In fall 1963, Mont Alto became a "commonwealth campus" at which the two-year Forest Technology program was offered along with freshman and sophomore course for students in many other disciplines (Harry L. Mosher, "Mont Alto's 2-Year Forest Technology Program" in Pennsylvania Forests, 57, no. 2, (Spring 1967): 40).

26. According to the Daily Local News (West Chester, PA), July 19, 1902 (Chester County Historical Society Clippings File), Ralph Brock had also "written for the Quarterly Review an article on the reservation at Mont Alto, Franklin County" Neither the Quarterly Review nor the article have been located.

27. "Industrial and Material Growth of the Negroes in Pennsylvania," Pennsylvania Negro Business Directory, 1910 (Harrisburg, PA: J.H.W Howard & Son, c.1909), 89 90.

28. George W Retan, "A Student's History of PSFA' in The Oak Leaf l9l4, first yearbook of the Pennsylvania State Forest Academy (Columbus, OH: The Champlin Press, 1914).

29. George H. Wirt, interview by Charles D. Boosted, March 1959, Early Forestry Education in North Carolina Oral History Collection, Library and Archives, Forest History Society Durham, North Carolina, 31.

30. Joseph Trimble Rothrock's 1910 diary entry "At 1:45 met Ralph Brock here who wants to leave State Service and do for himself in West Chester," December 27, 1910, Papers of Joseph Trimble Rothrock, MD. series 3,John William Lamer, ed. (Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 2001), Microfilm.

31. Elizabeth H. Thomas, The Pennsylvania State Forest School, 1903 1929 (Mont Alto, PA: Pennsylvania State Forest Academy/School Founders Society 1985), 114.

32. For example, Report of the Pennsylvania Department of Forestry for the Year 1907 (Harrisburg, PA), 62 66; Report of the Pennsylvania Department of Forestry for the Years 1908--09 (Harrisburg, PA), 224, 239 246. And Alex Day PA OCNR Bureau of Forestry e mail to Ellen Manno at Penn State, April 22, 2003.

33. "In Hymen's Toils," Daily Local News (West Chester, PA), January 15, 1908.

34. The 1910 federal census indicates Brock is living alone in Franklin County (where Mont Alto is located) but that he has been married for two years.

35. Elizabeth H. Thomas, The Pennsylvania State Forest School, 1903 1929 (Mont Alto, PA: Pennsylvania State Forest Academy School Founders Society, 1985), 114.

36. The Oak Leaf 1914, first yearbook of the Pennsylvania State Forest Academy (Columbus, OH: The Champlin Press), 34.

37. The Oak Leaf 1923, yearbook of the Pennsylvania State Forest Academy, 105.

38. The Birch Log, weekly newsletter of the Pennsylvania State Forest Academy, 3, no. 3 (September 24, 1926).

39. The Birch Log, weekly newsletter of the Pennsylvania State Forest Academy, 4, no. 36 (September 28, 1928).

40. Thomas Rieder, research archivist at Ohio Historical Center, to Ellen Manno at Penn State,January 30, 2002.

41. Melissa Buyer Kafes, archivist, Rockefeller Archive Center, Sleepy Hollow, NY, e-mail to Ellen Manno at Penn State, April 19, 2001.

42. 'Obituaries," Daily Local News (West Chester, PA), December 10, 1959.

43. Deborah Amore, Human Resources Department, New York City Housing Authority, New York, NY, to Helene Gladstein, Division of Citywide Personnel Services, New York, NY, July 20, 2001; copy forwarded to Ellen Manno at Penn State.

44. "State Seed Orchard Named for PAs First Black Forester," news release, February 15, 2000, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Commonwealth News Bureau.

45. "Obituaries" and "Funeral Notices," Daily Local News (West Chester, PA), December 10, 1959.

46. "State Seed Orchard Named for PAs First Black Forester," news release, February 15, 2000, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Commonwealth News Bureau.

47. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection distributed Earthwise 2000 'Envirocards" to fourth through sixth-graders throughout the state. Gerry McLenahan, "First Black Forester is Remembered with Orchard, Tree, and Trading Card," special to Morning Call Freelance, Morning Call. March 1. 2001.

48. When establishing the scholarship at Cornerstone Christian Academy (CCA) in Philadelphia, LarryJ. Buchholz and Debra A. Timm 'sought Out an early environmentalist in Pennsylvania Black history, Ralph Brock, by which to name the scholarship in hopes that it might prompt the recipient(s) and others to consider their role in the preservation of the beautiful world God has entrusted to us." Phil Arkow, The Philadelphia Foundation (www.philafound.org), e mail to Ellen Manno at Penn State, April 15, 2003.

49. The tree was planted in Charles Baber Cemetery to memorialize Brock's Schuylkill County heritage. Gerry McLenahan, "First Black Forester is Remembered with Orchard, Tree, and Trading Card," special to Morning Call -- Freelance, Morning Call, March 1,2001.

50. "Obituaries," Daily Local News (West Chester, PA), December 10, 1959. Ralph Brock's obituary reports that "Surviving is a wife, a son, Russell T Brock; a grandson, a sister, Miss Maria L Brock, 530 F. Miner Street, West Chester, and a brother, Dr. Howard F Brock, Westfield, NJ."