with Benjamin Holzman, Measurement of Evaporation from Land and Water Surfaces. Leaving government in 1946, Thornthwaite opened the Laboratory of Climatology in Seabrook, New Jersey, which he operated until his death in 1963. The facility continued to operate under the management of John Russell Mather. One of his first papers would also be his most cited: "An Approach Toward a Rational Classification of Climate" (1948). This paper would be used by scientists across North America and around the world. It incorporates evapotranspiration, temperature and precipitation information and is widely used in studying animal species diversity and potential impacts of climate change. Mather shared authorship with Thornthwaite in their 1955 monograph "The Water Balance", which was Thornthwaite's second major contribution to climatology, after Rational Classification. The water budget was a simple and easily used methodology for estimating water surpluses and runoff, and the difference between surpluses and runoff, to estimate the amount of water would recharge an aquifer. Thornthwaite was a professor of climatology at Johns Hopkins University from 1947 to 1955. Personal life Thornthwaite married Denzil Slentz in 1925. They had three daughters. When his wife died in 1962, he established the Charles Warren and Denzil Slentz Thornthwaite Memorial Scholarship Fund in her memory. The fund awards annual merit scholarships to students in meteorology and earth science at Central Michigan University. References Further reading F. Kenneth Hare, “Obituary: Charles Warren Thornthwaite 1899-1963” Geographical Review, 53:595-597, 1963. John Russell Mather and Marie Sanderson, The Genius of C.Warren Thornthwaite, Climatologist-Geographer, University of Oklahoma Press, 1996. (Synopsis) External links List of publications (UC Berkeley) The Water Balance C. W. Thornthwaite and F. Kenneth Hare, Climatic classification in forestry (Online) American climatologists 1899 births 1963 deaths Central Michigan University alumni Recipients of the Cullum Geographical Medal American geographers Johns Hopkins University faculty 20th-century geographers