Frederic Brewster Loomis

Frederic Brewster Loomis was an American paleontologist, born on November 22, 1873, in Brooklyn, New York, and educated at Amherst College and the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. He spent his entire professional career at Amherst, where he taught geology, paleontology, and biology and became closely identified with the college’s scientific life.

His specialty was vertebrate paleontology, and he carried out extensive fieldwork that added important fossil material to Amherst’s museum collections. Amherst’s archives and museum records describe a career shaped by research, teaching, and expeditions, while later college coverage notes that fossils he uncovered remained on display there many years after his death.

Loomis was also recognized by his peers beyond Amherst: he was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a fellow of the Geological Society of America, and served as president of the Paleontological Society. He died on July 28, 1937, in Sitka, Alaska, leaving behind both scientific publications and a museum legacy that outlasted him.