Stephen Sargent Visher was born in Chicago in 1887. His family moved to a rural farm
in South Dakota in 1898. Visher returned to Chicago in 1902 to attend high school.
After he graduated, he taught elementary school back in South Dakota from 1905-1906.
Visher once again returned to Chicago where he earned his BS in botany at the
University of Chicago in 1909, and later an MS in geology in 1910. He was then
appointed Assistant State Geologist of South Dakota and also taught at the
University of South Dakota from 1910-1913. During this time, he earned a second MS,
this one in zoology, in 1912 at USD. After returning to the University of Chicago,
Visher earned his PhD in geography in 1914. He then taught at the State Normal
College in Moorhead, Minnesota and did field work in places like the Caribbean,
North Carolina, and Utah. In 1919, he began his teaching career at the University of
Indiana, where he remained until his retirement in 1958.
After moving to Indiana, Visher also worked in various government capacities,
including time with the U.S. Soil Conservation Service, the Indiana Geological
Survey, and the U.S. Department of State, as Acting Geographer. Visher also served
in various leadership roles. In 1931, he became Vice President of the Association of
American Geographers and also later served as President of the Indiana Academy of
Science in 1950. He received honors such as the Distinguished Service Award from the
National Council for Geographic Education in 1948 and the Outstanding Achievement
Award from the Association of American Geographers in 1958. A prolific author,
Visher wrote books such as Climate of Indiana (1944)
and Scientists Starred 1903-1943 in American Men of
Science (1947), and numerous articles on a variety of geographical and
climatological subjects, the state of Indiana, the backgrounds of well-known
geographers and scientists, and on controversial topics as well, such as eugenics
and euthanasia. Visher died in 1967.
