James Norman Dent

James Norman Dent

James Norman Dent died Saturday, January 31, 2009, in Charlottesville.

He was born in Martin, Tennessee, on May 10, 1916, to James Rolandus and Alta Norman Dent.

He grew up in Tennessee, and entered the University of Tennessee from which he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1938. He was awarded the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by The Johns Hopkins University in 1941, specializing in endocrinology and development. During the summer of 1941 he was a member of a Johns Hopkins zoological expedition into the Blue Mountains of Jamaica. In the fall of 1941 he returned to Johns Hopkins to continue his research.

In May of 1942 Professor Dent was taken into the Army Air Corps. In September, he was commissioned as an Aviation Physiologist and served in that capacity until he was released from active duty in September 1945. He remained in the Air Corps Reserve and Air Force Reserve until he retired as Lieutenant Colonel in 1986.

Following his military service, Professor Dent taught briefly as an assistant professor at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and at the University of Pittsburgh until September 1949, when he joined the Department of Biology at the University of Virginia, rising from associate professor to professor and professor emeritus upon his retirement in 1986.

During his career at the University of Virginia, he was on leave as visiting professor and/or research fellow several times. He visited Saints Andrews University, Saint Andrews, Scotland from 1959- until 1960; Harvard University from 1968 until 1969); Benaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India and University of Calcutta, Calcutta India, in 1975; University of California, Berkeley, California in 1976. He was a Research Participant and Consultant at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, during the academic year of 1962 until 1963 and the summers of 1964 until 1969. From February through April of 1963, he served as special consultant to the Philippine Atomic Energy Commission in Manila, Republic of the Philippines.

Professor Dent's research was concerned primarily with various aspects of develop-mental physiology and comparative endocrinology. Most of his studies were carried out upon amphibians. The results obtained by Professor Dent and by his students with him and by him in collaboration with other investigators were presented in over a hundred publications in various scientific journals and in chapters of three reference textbooks. He was a member of the editorial board of the journal General and Comparative Endocrinology from 1978 to 1986.

Travel, especially foreign travel was something Professor Dent enjoyed. He also participated in numerous backpacking and climbing trips, usually in the high Sierra. He took much pleasure in working with his shrubs and roses and, occasionally in painting and sculpture. His greatest joy, however, was found on the ski slopes of Colorado.

Professor Dent is survived by his two daughters, Ms. Julie Dent Carlyle of San Francisco, California, and Ms. Martha Elizabeth Dent of Richmond, Virginia.

Funeral services will be private.

In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be sent to the University of Virginia Fund,

To be added to the funds provided for the James Norman Dent Award.

Friends may sign a guest register at teaguefuneralhome.com.


This obituary was originally published in the Daily Progress.