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John William (Sir William) Dawson: Geologist and Educator,
by Susan Sheets-Pyenson, Sept. 1998, p. 14–15. “Despite
Dawson’s claim to follow ‘a quiet middle course’ in his scientific
work, he loved to plunge into the heat of scientific controversy.”
Kenneth Orris Emery (1914–1998): Pioneer Marine Geologist,
by Donn S. Gorsline and Kelvin S. Rodolfo, Nov. 2003, p. 18–19.
“The difficult years spanning the Great Depression and World
War II were ‘sink or swim’ times for an entire generation and they
greatly affected Emery’s development as a person and scientist.”
William Maurice Ewing: Pioneer Explorer of the Ocean Floor
and Architect of Lamont, by William Wertenbaker, Oct. 2000,
p. 28–29. “During the extraordinary expansion of marine geology
after World War II, he was the indispensable leader of the
discipline.”
Robert M. Garrels (1916–1988): Pioneer of Modern-Day
Sedimentary Geochemistry and Geochemical Cycling, by Fred
T. Mackenzie, Oct. 2007, p. 25–27. “His one overriding goal was
to understand the origin and evolution of the surface environment
of Earth from a geologist’s point of view.”
Robert Minard Garrels (1916–1988), by Lee R. Kump, Feb.
2016, p. 20–21. “One of many pieces of advice Garrels (1916–
1988) gave his students was, ‘If you find yourself saying it’s hard
to imagine … imagine harder!’ Imagining hard is what character-
ized Garrels’ approach to the earth sciences.”
Model Survey Geologist: G.K. Gilbert, by Joanne Bourgeois,
Feb. 1998, p. 16–17. “It would have been hard to predict that a
rather sickly, quiet boy from Rochester, New York, would become
one of the most famous geologists to explore the American West.”
Charles Frederick Hartt—A Pioneer of Brazilian Geology, by
William R. Brice and Silvia F. de M. Figueirôa, Mar. 2003,
p. 18–19. “With today’s mechanical and computer-aided tools, it is
easy to forget that 100 years ago geological work was accom-
plished on foot or from the backs of animals, using only great
determination, a hammer, and a compass.”
Arthur Holmes: An Ingenious Geoscientist, by Cherry L.E.
Lewis, Mar. 2002, p. 16–17. “Holmes lived just long enough to see
the dawn of plate tectonics. In 1963, the theory of seafloor spread- mentary from a seat next to Walter Cronkite of CBS-TV.”
ing was proposed, validating his theories by then almost
forgotten.”
Clarence King: Pioneering Geologist of the West, by K.R.
Aalto, Feb. 2004, p. 18–19. “Under King’s sound leadership, the
USGS became a successful government agency, and by personal
example, he put an end to internecine warfare among geologists
mapping the American West.”
Andrew Cowper Lawson (1861–1952): How a Boy from
Canada Became a Legendary Professor of Geology at
Berkeley, by Gerard V. Middleton, Apr./May 2006, p. 50–51. “A
ruthless critic, he was rarely persuaded to alter his own opinions.
His personality earned him the nickname ‘The King’ at Berkeley.”
www.geosociety.org/gsatoday
Sir William Edmond Logan, Father of Canadian Geology: His
Passion Was Precision, by Charles H. Smith, May 2000,
p. 22–23. “He raised Canadians’ pride in their geological endow-
ment and competence and in their stature in the international
community. He laid the groundwork for the Geological Survey of
Canada, which continues the work Logan began.”
A Scientist Concerned about Society: Kirtley F. Mather
(1888–1978), by Kennard B. Bork, July 1996, p. 8–10. “The
Bolivian work generated an unanticipated response—a search
committee from Harvard University was sufficiently impressed
by Mather’s presentation at the 1923 meeting of the Geological
Society of America that he was invited to join the Harvard
faculty.”
Grand Vision of Edwin D. McKee, by Earle E. Spamer, Nov.
1999, p. 18–19. “We geologists are all attached to places—our
home landscape, the place we did our first field work, a locality
where we discovered something—but few of us devote our careers
to one place and use it as a prism through which to view the
world. Edwin McKee fell in love with the Grand Canyon and did
just that.”
Raymond Cecil Moore: A Great 20th Century Geological
Synthesizer, by Daniel F. Merriam, Aug. 2003, p. 16–18. “Moore
had a steel-trap mind and total recall so that he never forgot a per-
son, detail, or place.”
Israel Cook Russell (1852–1906), by K.R. Aalto, Feb. 2009,
p. 14–15. “Russell traveled alone some 5500 km on horseback
through the northern Great Basin, undertaking reconnaissance in
a region he was to visit repeatedly throughout his career. He rather
liked the wild.”
Francis Parker Shepard, 1897–1985, by Joseph R. Curray, Dec.
2001, p. 20–21. “Shepard conveyed his enthusiasm to all those
around him and to two generations of graduate students over his
long years of teaching.”
Eugene M. Shoemaker and the Integration of Earth and Sky,
by Mary G. Chapman, Apr. 2001, p. 20–21. “He helped train the
Apollo astronauts in geologic fieldwork around Flagstaff, and, as
the first lunar landing was televised, gave expert geologic com-
George Gaylord Simpson (1902–1984), by Léo F. Laporte, Sept.
2004, p. 16–17. “Later, in college, he had come to the conclusion
that ‘life is the most important thing about the world, the most
important thing about life is evolution.’”
William “Strata” Smith, by Hugh Torrens, Sept. 2015, p. 38–40.
“For much of his life, Smith was ignored or treated as an outsider;
in any case, there was not yet much of a proper geological com-
munity that could take interest in such an unusual man.”
Laurence L. Sloss and the Sequence Stratigraphy Revolution,
by Robert H. Dott Jr., Mar. 2014, p. 24–26. “By the 1930s,
Laurence L. Sloss noted that stratigraphy was beset with
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