UA Sponsors Lecture on the Storied Life of Dr. Thomas Fearn

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The University of Alabama department of history and Center for the Study of the South will sponsor a lecture by Olin B. King on Dr. Thomas Fearn on Friday, Nov. 11 at 2 p.m., in the Henry Jacobs Reading area on the second floor of Gorgas Library. The lecture is free and open to the public.

King began his research on Fearn’s storied life after moving into the historic Fearn house in Huntsville in 1978.

Born in Virginia in 1789, Fearn was a doctor in Huntsville who pioneered the use of quinine in the treatment of malaria. During a long career, he clashed with Andrew Jackson, called for the abolition of slavery, served on UA’s Board of Trustees, was active in banking and numerous other enterprises, opposed Alabama’s secession from the Union, but briefly served in the Confederate Congress. He lived to see Huntsville occupied by Union troops and died there in 1863.

King is the founder and former chairman of Space Craft Inc., in Huntsville. King started his business in the basement of his Huntsville home with two friends whose goal was to design and build satellites. The company quickly became a major subcontractor for NASA, building components for the Saturn V rocket. Today SCI’s clients include Hewlett-Packard Co., and several hundred companies involved in the telecommunications, computer, medical and defense industries. The firm has been Huntsville’s largest private employer and the state’s largest company, and has several plants around the world.

The UA history department is part of the College of Arts and Sciences, the University’s largest division and the largest public liberal arts college in the state. Students from the college have won numerous national awards including Rhodes Scholarships, Goldwater Scholarships and memberships on the “USA Today” Academic All American Team.