A significant period of geography at the University of Washington is associated with the work of John C. Sherman. His legacy is memorialized in the Sherman Laboratory, as a reminder of his lasting contribution to cartography, to the geography department and to the University of Washington. He summarized his early years in his 1947 dissertation:

After completing his doctoral dissertation he was appointed as Assistant Professor, promoted to Associate Professor in 1954 and to Full Professor in 1963. Between 1963 and 1973 he served as the departmental chairman. He retired in 1986. He died on October 21, 1996.

The brief note does not indicate what was the central activity of his life, cartography. John Sherman was part of the department from 1939 to 1986, for almost half a century. He was the founder of the modern cartography program at the university, the first full time cartographer at any American university, for over three decades one of the leading cartographers in the country.

John Sherman first encountered cartography as a graduate student at Clark. He was engaged to draw maps and graphs for C. Jones and Darkenwald's book on Economic Geography. Subsequently he produced the outline maps of the State of Washington and of the world.

When he began his post-master's studies at UW in 1939, he assisted the climatologist Phil Church - climatology was until 1948 offered within the geography department. - A cartography course was offered by William Pierson from 1937. When Phil Church went on military leave from November 1941 to 1944 at the Institute of Meteorology at the University of Chicago, and William H. Pierson in September 1942 went to the Office of the Geographer in the Department of State, John Sherman, then a doctoral student, stepped in. He was appointed in 1942 as an Associate and in 1943 as Instructor to assist in teaching courses in climatology and meteorology (under the label of aerology) as well as cartography. As a young faculty member he was - as later in his life - willing to help the department and on solicitation of chairman Howard Martin "covered" numerous departmental offerings. His broad background was adequate for undergraduate teaching, at the time the primary function of the department. At the end of the war Howard Martin attempted to expand the geography programs. Joseph E. Williams joined the department in 1946 and expanded the cartography program. John Sherman assisted them though most of his obligations consisted in teaching a variety of courses. In 1948 climatology and meteorology separated and Phil Church became the chairman of the new department. At this time John Sherman assisted with the introductory cartography course, but most of all he was engaged in making maps, relief modes, and book illustrations. In the 1949/50 he taught a course of cartography, side by side with Williams. He was also responsible for the courses in economic geography, Anglo-America, Africa, and Conservation of Natural Resources. Williams handled an advanced cartography course, first introduced during the war. The departmental program at this time covered major fields of systematic geography, and all major regions of the world, as was the practice at universities around the country. Howard Martin wanted to expand and to reorganize the departmental program but was not able to convince the university administration. Major revision required a new man and a new leadership. Williams left for California in 1950, and the newly appointed chairman Donald Hudson convinced Henry Leppard, who just retired from the University of Chicago, to come to Seattle and help with cartography.

What was denied to Howard Martin, was granted to the new chairman Donald Hudson, who came from Northwestern in 1951. Donald Hudson began immediately to implement his new program for the department; he selected four major concentrations in which the department will specialize: Anglo-America; Far East; economic geography; and cartography. In his report to the College Council (April 5, 1954) he commented:

Hudson directed John to lead the cartography program: introductory courses, advanced courses, research, publications. In his meticulous way, John Sherman became ' the cartographer'. By 1952, the major part of Hudson's scheme was already in place and cartography in a position of prominence. Henry Leppard and John Sherman taught Introductory, Intermediate and Advanced Cartography, in addition to Map Reproduction and Aerial Photo Interpretation. Hudson further encouraged John Sherman to expand his work from map production to studies of map design and interpretation, to visual and tactil perception, automatic mapping, air photo interpretation and remote sensing.

The new era of cartographic endeavor began at this time and continued for over three decades. During this period, the program was recognized as one of the three leading in the United States, identified by their leaders: at the University of Wisconsin with Arthur Robinson, at the University of Kansas with George Jenks and at the University of Washington with John C. Sherman.

John was trained as a climatologist, as his dissertation demonstrates. Geography and climatology were linked programs. The attic of the Social Science building ( John Sherman called it the "new building" ) was completed in 1942 to become the fourth floor of Smith Hall; the weather station was placed on the roof. Geography students monitored the instruments. Instead of guiding the students to monitor the weather station on the roof of Smith Hall, John became the leader of cartography students. Willis Heath came to the department in 1954 as a student, and wrote his dissertation on Maps and Graphics for the Blind. This opened John's interest in maps for the blind, that he followed for the rest of his life. Heath was appointed in 1957 as a temporary assistant and later as a regular faculty member - and continued until his retirement in 1972. He brought with him considerable expertise in graphics and photographic processing and helped to establish the Cartographic Laboratory in the department. Heath was an admirably trained craftsman; he shared with John the intricacies of printing and map design for printing, and they passed the learned experience to a generation of new students. The cartography program was expanded. Phil Muehrcke, graduate of the University of Michigan, came in 1969 and initiated a computer mapping program in coordination with the computer graphic endeavor of Prof. Edgar Horwood in the Department of Civil Engineering. Side by side with the map design and production and map analysis of John Sherman, the department created an integrated and comprehensive cartography training and research program. Phil Muehrcke left the department in 1973 for Wisconsin. The direction was continued with Carl Youngmann for the next ten years. When Sherman retired in 1986, this program was discontinued and replaced by computer mapping and the GIS undergraduate and graduate programs.

John Sherman was an acting chairman in 1963 and in 1964 was confirmed in the regular position. It was difficult to follow Donald Hudson, the ambitious and dedicated leader. The personal tragedy of Sherman's son's death in Vietnam in 1967 had a major impact on his enthusiasm.The ten years period of Sherman's chairmanship represent a difficult time for the University and for the department. It brought a major enrollment expansion of the university, but also a time of major confrontations. Geography was often challenged for its role and justification of its continuous existence. The department was spared most of the confrontations and disruption by an early involvement of students in departmental matters. Students were encouraged to organize and to express their views, their representatives were asked to serve on various departmental committees, including the hiring committee. The tense atmosphere on campus was not conducive to constructive academic pursuits.

In 1966 John was able to organize a Summer Institute in Advanced Cartography for college level cartographers, financed by the Department of Education; but could not obtain the financing for a permanent National Cartographic Institute that he envisioned in 1972 and hoped to have at the University of Washington.

Throughout his career, John was the catalyst, the enabler. His numerous achievements are better evident in the theses and dissertations of his students than in his own bibliography. The long list of theses and dissertations completed under his guidance span from elementary map making to analyses of map symbols, map colors, shaded relief, map-bibliographies, optical systems, automated cartography, and more recently maps for the blind. His engagement in the theory and practice of remote sensing brought him in close collaboration with the faculty in the Department of Engineering, Forestry and Urban Planning. Nowhere is stated how John worked on land tests of satellite recordings, by helping to determine the resolution of satellite observation - the Woodland zoo animals serving as the tests. The Lunar model that he constructed (in 1964) for simulated lunar landing is not listed in his own list of achievements. His research contribution encompasses his role in NASA related project of remote sensing imagery from high-altitude aircraft and satellites as a data source for regional and economic planning (with Arthur Grey and Joe Colcord) in 1971-72; his role in implementation of automatic techniques (computers and plotters) for the costruction of maps and other graphics for the blind and partially seeing.

The UW campus was the first to disseminate Braille inscriptions at elevators and various campus facilities. This is all John Sherman's accomplishment. The students and visitors take the Campus map for granted. The multi-colored campus map was produced by John Sherman in 1950s - and revised repeatedly to reflect the changes. His were the maps of the Arboretum, of the City of Seattle, of King County, of the Olympic Peninsula, of the Columbia Basin, of the State of Washington.

The present Map Center in the UW Library owes a great deal to John Sherman. From the depository of "old maps", to formal depository of US maps, air photographs, the accumulation of duplicate maps and Atlases from the Library of Congress; it started as just a depository and occasionally a map-mounting facility, but developed during the decades into a rich and elaborate collection of map material, the largest on the West coast.

But first and foremost, John Sherman was a teacher. He guided the students from the introductory elements of sharp pencils, clean eraser, to smooth lines on the tracing paper, to intricacies of dark room and photo reproduction. He was an attentive learner. For doctoral research of his students, he was learning with them, patiently and methodically.

The technology moved on. John Sherman was acutely aware that the manual map production in which he excelled would be challenged by the advanced technology of quantitative measurements and analyses and subsequently by automated mapping, computer graphics and computer mapping, which ultimately emerged as Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Although he himself did not acquire versatility in the new technological tool, he welcomed it and encouraged his cartography colleagues and his students to venture into the new horizons. He was concerned that the rigidity of the new technology would obscure the artistry of creative map making.

.The profession acknowledged John Sherman's contribution by according him in 1973 a Meritorious Award of the Association of American Geographers. The geography department at University of Washington on June 5, 1987 renamed the cartography room the John Sherman Cartographic Laboratory.