An Areal View of the Courtyard in Front of Thornton Hall

An aerial view of the courtyard in front of Thornton Hall (physical sciences building completed in 1970) showing the roof of the Gymnasium which was designed by Anson Boyd from the California Division of Architects in April 1949. Robert Ambrose Thornton (1897-1982), born and raised in Houston, Texas, became a powerhouse at San Francisco State. Thornton was the son of Frank Thornton and Cherokee/African American mother. Frank Thornton was a Black laborer who worked pressing oil out of cottonwood seed at processing plant. After attending segregated schools, Thornton earned his B.S. degree in mathematics and physics at Howard University in 1922. He was inducted into the Alpha Chapter of service fraternity Phi Beta Sigma, which was based upon the belief that members should be judged upon “his own merits, rather than his family background or affluence... without regard to race, nationality, skin tone or texture of hair.” Thornton earned his MS degree from Ohio State in 1925 and Ph.D. from University of Minnesota in 1946. Thornton was a gifted bass singer; while living in New York’s Greenwich Village, he was offered an audition to replace Paul Robeson (1898-1976) in the African American musical revue Shuffle Along after attending Howard, but his mother frowned upon the idea of him being an entertainer. Thornton studied for three years with Albert Einstein at Princeton University’s Institute for Advanced Study during the early 1950s where they had conversations on mathematical techniques. Thornton once said. “Although a scientist may talk like a bookkeeper, he creates like a poet.” Thornton joined the faculty of San Francisco State in 1956 specializing in the field of theoretical mechanics and astro-dynamics, and in 1963 was the first black faculty to be named a chairman of the Division of Natural Sciences and subsequently becoming the first dean of the School of Science in 1964. On July 8, 1981, the California State University Trustee resolved to dedicate the Physical Science Building to Robert A. Thornton. President Paul Romberg wrote to Chancellor Glenn Dumke that despite the demand of his administrative assignments, Thornton remained a teacher.

- the information provided by Meredith Eliassen

Credits: Some descriptions were developed with the assistance of ChatGPT, an AI language model by OpenAI.