Paul Thomson (botanist)

[2] Thomson raised chickens, churned butter and grew potatoes during the Great Depression to earn money for his family.

[2] Thomson graduated from high school in 1934 and enrolled in Nebraska Wesleyan University for two years, but dropped out in 1937 due to unaffordable tuition costs.

[1] Following his departure from NWU, he briefly worked as an installer of telegraph lines for Western Union[2] and early railroad-signal control systems in Colorado.

[2] The Los Angeles Times reported in 1971 that Thomson was able to grow 96 separate types of fruit between his two orchards in Bonsall and Edgehill.

[1] Thomson grew the first successful Mammee apple crop, also known as the South American apricot or the mamey, of note in California.

[1] A friend of Thomson, Jim Neitzel, said that his Edgehill farm soon attracted the attention of other botanists and tropical fruit enthusiasts.

[2] In a 1989 interview with the San Diego Union-Tribune Thomson told the newspaper that, "I was 20 years ahead of my time...I never made enough to pay the water bill, let alone make any money.

"[1] Thomson, an organic farmer, continued to earn his living by budding and grafting fruit trees for grove owners and nurseries throughout California.

[1] In particular, Thomson devoted much of his time to propagating tropical and subtropical fruits that would grow in San Diego's North County.

[2] Thomson and John Riley, a Lockheed engineer from Santa Clara, California,[1] and fellow fruit enthusiast, began working together to publish a newsletter beginning in 1960.

[1] Thomson's organization became a driving force behind the growing availability of exotic fruits throughout California's supermarkets and farmers markets.

Limited literature and a passion to learn more on the plants that had piqued his interest, Thomson set forth on gathering specimens, assembling species descriptions, drawing habitat location maps and taking photographs which all culminated in him privately publishing the Dudleya and Hassenthaus Handbook in 1993.

[5] However, Thomson failed to follow the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature in place at the time, which invalidated most of his new treatments of species.