Harrison Yocum papers
Portrait of Harrison Yocum taken in his front yard. The rock piles are made of crystals he tracked down all over southern Arizona, 2002.
Collection area: Arizona and Southwest
Collection dates: 1864-2010 bulk (bulk 1953-2008)
Harrison Yocum was instrumental in the establishment of the Tucson Botanical Gardens (TBG), however the bulk of this collection focuses on his geology club, the Pima College Rockhounds; his schoolwork and independent research on botany; his piano compositions; his autobiography and family history, with some material focused on TBG.
Also housed in the collection is much history and some genealogy of the Yocum family, including correspondence from his ancestor George Seifert as well as letters and mementoes from Harrison's parents Harrison senior (Harry) and Bertha Yocum and a book about his sister, Eloise as well as materials gathered from his parents’ trip to California in 1915.
This collection is arranged by medium: documents, cassettes, photo albums. Documents are arranged topically and by date when given.
Harrison Yocum (1923-2010) studied horticulture with a minor in botany at Penn State, graduating in 1955 then earning his MS in Botany at Rutgers in 1959. A lifelong botanist and horticulturalist, Harrison Yocum had a large collection of palm trees when he moved to Tucson from Bethlehem, PA in 1964. In Tucson he worked at the Dendrochronology Lab at the University of Arizona (UA). He moved on to supervising landscaping at Tucson International Airport (TIA), winning a number of awards for his work there. His home became the first site of the Tucson Botanical Gardens before it moved temporarily to Reid Park and finally to the Porter family’s nursery on Alvernon Way in 1975.
After retiring from TIA in 1982, he taught classes in geology at Pima Community College, organizing the Pima College Rockhounds’ field trips. Yocum led field trips to collect geologic samples far afield in southern Arizona, producing handouts with his whimsical original ink drawings and maps. His students at Pima College along with returning friends and students were referred to as the Pima College Rockhounds (which he also rendered as Rock Hounds and Rock-hounds; we have preserved his usage).
Harrison Yocum also had extensive training in music starting at about the time he graduated high school. He wrote 195 original compositions for piano which are also included in this collection, including his favorite piece,
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