Frank Holman Probert

  General Notes:

Arrived in New York on the Majestic in 1901 and applied for Naturalization in 1912

Frank Holman Probert was born in London, England, on June 13, 1876. He died at his home in Berkeley on May 7, 1940. In 1907 he married Jessie Agnes McGaw; she and a son, Aylwin, survive him.
Following graduation from the Royal School of Mines, London, in 1897, Probert spent a year investigating the mineral resources of Ontario, Canada. During 1898-99, he was manager of the Llanfair Mines, Ltd., Wales, and in 1899-1900 held a similar position with the Anhalt Lead and Silver Co. at Anhalt, Germany. In 1901 he examined the Rio Tinto Mines in south Spain, then entered the employ of Phelps Dodge & Co. at Morenci, Arizona, to conduct research in the hydrometallurgy of copper.
In 1903, Probert began his professional career as a consulting mining engineer, first in partnership with Gordon McLean and later with W. H. Weed; these activities continued until 1916, when he was appointed Professor of Mining at the University of California. During these thirteen years, Mr. Probert made his home first in Los Angeles, later in San Francisco; his professional activities took him to many mining districts in the United States and Mexico. His principal interests attached to the copper mining industry of the southwestern United States where the largest copper producing interests operating in that region were among his clients.
In 1917, Professor Probert became Dean of the College of Mining, the position he filled capably for twenty-three years to the time of his death. As Professor of Mining and Dean of the College, he devoted himself wholeheartedly to University and student affairs, and to professional services and assignments of public and emergency nature. In 1917-18, he was a member of the War Minerals Investigation Committee of the United States Bureau of Mines, charged specially with the conduct of investigations of the manganese and chrome resources of the maritime provinces of Canada and the states of Colorado and Utah. In 1917, he went to France as a member of the American Mining Mission to Europe for Investigation of Mineral Industries and Reparation to Northern France. For several years after the World War he served as a consulting engineer for the United States Bureau of Mines.
Dean Probert was active in the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers, the American Mining Congress and the Mining and Metallurgical Society of America. He contributed to their technical publications and committee conferences. For the Institute of Industrial Relations he prepared a paper read at the World Engineering Congress in Japan in 1929.
Dean Probert's contributions to the University are not confined to his professional activities in the College of Mining. The same deep interest which he felt in the welfare of his own students spread widely over the campus. To individuals and organizations engaged in the activities and service of the University, he gave wise counsel, financial support, and an incredible amount of time. Incoming students he welcomed at the Freshman Rally. Four years later he spoke to these men and women at the Mining Circle during their Senior Pilgrimage. And throughout the interval of their college generation, he was an active member of such student organizations as Winged Helmet, Golden Bear, Phi Phi, Theta Tau, Tau Beta Pi, Circle C Society, Big C Society, and the University Y.M.C.A.
During his more active years Probert regularly attended athletic contests, mingling with the players in training quarters, discussing with them their scholastic and personal problems. He was the chairman of the committee which erected the Memorial Stadium, and contributed the first funds. In the Big C Society, he served as Custodian and wrote the initiation ritual. This ritual and his reading of it brought a spiritual quality to the society which is typical of his influence on the thoughts and lives of countless individuals over a quarter of a century. Not only in athletics, but in all phases of University life, Dean Probert stressed the value of earnest and unceasing effort, of high loyalty, and constructive idealism.
The spiritual qualities of this warm friend and good man were best exemplified in his home.

Frank married Alice Lavinia Jecks, daughter of Horatio Edgar Jecks and Mary Ann Emma Crix, on 27 Dec 1899 in St Barnabas, South Lambeth. (Alice Lavinia Jecks was born Q4 1878 in Lambeth and died Q4 1943 in Yorkshire.)

Frank next married Jessie A. Mcgraw on 25 May 1907 in Washington, District Of Columbia, District Of Columbia. (Jessie A. Mcgraw was born in 1873.)