Memorial to Robert V. Ruhe1918-1993H. E. WRIGHT, JR.

University o f Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455

Dozens of young Quaternary geologists and soils scientists had the privilege of watching Bob Ruhe in action at the annual field meetings of the Midwest Friends of the Pleis­tocene— appreciating his keen sense of observation of glacial stratigraphy and soil-profile development and their implications for the evolution of Quaternary landscapes.His perceptions and convictions were always strongly expressed, and on these occasions more listeners gathered around him than the excursion leaders.

Bob’s sphere of activity for most of his life was the Middle West. Born in Chicago Heights, he grew up in the Chicago area, where he played semi-professional baseball before entering Carleton College in Minnesota. His geo­logical interests were stimulated by the famed educator Larry Gould, who later became president of Carleton. Bob excelled in sports, and on graduation in 1942 he was offered a tryout with the Chicago White Sox. But with World War II going on, he joined the Marine Corps, where he served as an avia­tor. After the war he attended Iowa State University (M.S. 1948) and the University of Iowa (Ph.D. 1950), and his doctoral research in Iowa was supported by the Iowa Geological Survey.

Bob’s Iowa connections continued with his appointment as research geologist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture Soil Conservation Service in Ames, where he headed the Soil-Geo- morphology Group. This program, which had its roots in soil erosion and gully formation in the 1930s in the Southwest and also in the Appalachian Piedmont, finally became established through the initiative of Guy Smith. Ruhe was selected for the project because of his demon­strated skills in field observation and analysis of landforms, supported by his background in the stratigraphy of surficial deposits and his knowledge of soil-forming processes. His first project was in western Iowa, where the stratigraphie exposures of the Rock Island Railroad provided unusual continuity for the study of subsurface relations. Of particular interest to him was the process of slope development, inspired by the writings of the great German geomorphologist Walther Penck. Of course, all the answers could not be found in railroad cuts or on topographic maps, and Bob became famous for augering deep holes by hand to trace the patterns of subsur­face stratigraphie units. He combined the subsurface observations with detailed quadrangle map­ping of geomorphology and soils, assisted by many student protégés, including Ray Daniels. His extensive Iowa studies culminated in 1969 with the publication of the book Quaternary Land­scapes in Iowa, which was the basis for the GSA Kirk Bryan Award to him in 1974.

Ruhe’s responsibilities as director of the Soil-Geomorphology Group were not confined to Iowa, for the aim of the program was the comparison of processes in different climatic regions. Particularly extensive was the desert project in New Mexico, where he spent 1957-1960 head­quartered at New Mexico State University at Las Cruces in the Rio Grande Valley. His work on the role of clay and carbonate formation in desert soils was incorporated in concepts of soil tax­onomy developed by Guy Smith and others. The desert project was continued for many years in association with John Hawley and Leland Gile, both of whom attest to Ruhe’s keen observa­tional abilities and his high standards of scientific inquiry.

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Another project Ruhe initiated was in the North Carolina coastal plain, an area where most of the landforms are much older than those in glaciated areas, and where some of the soils may also be much older. There also the role of geomorphology and drainage relations are especially important in soil development. The work was carried on by Ray Daniels, who had been influ­enced by the Ruhe approach to energetic field work and critical inquiry as a student on the Iowa Project. A third project was in the Willamette Valley in Oregon, where a floor of Pleistocene lake sediments and a climate of summer drought created unusual conditions for investigation of soil development and drainage.

Ruhe is best known for his work on loess, paleosols, and buried geomorphic surfaces, work that was started in Iowa with the Soil Conservation Service but continued for many years after he left there. He was called upon to prepare review articles on these subjects, and he was an active member of the Commission on Loess of the International Union for Quaternary Research and president of the Commission on Paleopedology. However, he had other activities during his long career. In 1951-1952 he spent two years in what was then called the Belgian Congo, an assignment through the Economic Cooperation Administration of the U.S. state department. He published several papers on his research on the landforms and soils of the high plateaus of cen­tral Africa, and he returned many years later to advise on the organization of a soil survey for Rwanda.

From 1970 until his retirement in 1985 Bob was director of the Water Resources Research Center and professor of geology at Indiana University in Bloomington. During these years he continued research on problems of Quaternary geology and soil science, particularly on karst landscapes and terra rossa soils with Carolyn Olson. He also published the book Geomorphol­ogy: Geomorphic Processes and Surficial Geology during this period, as well as several review papers on paleosols and loessial soils in the Middle West. He served on committees of the National Research Council concerned with hydrologic drainage basins and with radioactive waste management, and at different times he was on the editorial boards of several journals involving soils, geomorphology, and Quaternary geology. He also applied his broad knowledge of surficial processes as consultant on projects concerned with water resources, power-plant sit­ing, and (in Colombia in 1976) regional planning for land, soils, and water.

Bob Ruhe had a strong personality, and with his solid knowledge based on vigorous field work and his critical mind he quickly dominated arguments on the genesis of soils and land­forms, whether in the field or with “a cool one” after a hard day of digging many auger holes in the hot sun. His former students and colleagues pay tribute to his effectiveness as a teacher, especially in the field. The annual reunion of the Friends of the Pleistocene has never been the same since his retirement from active participation. Yet his gentler side was subtly expressed with his inscription in a book presented to a student: “Thanks for sharing a love— the Quaternary.”

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF R. H. RUHE1948 Some notes on the Pleistocene geology of Shelby County, Iowa: Iowa Academy of

Sciences, v. 55, p. 281-286.1952 Topographic discontinuities of the Des Moines lobe: American Journal of Science, v. 250,

p. 46-56.------ Classification of the Wisconsin glacial stage: Journal of Geology, v. 60, p. 398-401.1954 (and Gould, L. M.) Glacial geology of the Dakota County area, Minnesota: Geological

Society of America Bulletin, v. 65, p. 769-792.------ Relations of the properties of Wisconsin loess to topography in western Iowa: American

Journal of Science, v. 252, p. 663-672.------ (and Cady, J. G.) Latosolic soils of central African interior high plateaus: International

Congress of Soil Science, 5th, Leopoldville, Transactions, v. 4, p. 401-407.

MEMORIAL TO ROBERT V. RUHE 43

1955 (with Smith, G. D.) How water shaped the face of the land: U.S. Department of Agricul­ture Yearbook, p. 121-126,141.

1956 Radiocarbon dates and Pleistocene chronological problems in the Mississippi Valley region—A discussion: Journal of Geology, v. 64, p. 191-193.

------ (and Scholtes, W. H.) Ages and development of soil landscapes with relation to climaticand vegetational changes in Iowa: Soil Science Society of America Proceedings, v. 20, p. 264-273.

------ Landscape evolution in the high Ituri, Belgian Congo: INEAC Publications, S6r. Scien-tifique 66, 91 p.

------ Geomorphic surfaces and the nature of soils: Soil Science, v. 82, p. 441-455.1957 (and Rubin, M., and Scholtes, W. H.) Late Pleistocene radiocarbon chronology in Iowa:

American Journal of Science, v. 255, p. 671-689.1958 (and Daniels, R. B.) Soils, paleosols, and soil-horizon nomenclature: Soil Science Society

of America Proceedings, v. 72, p. 66-69.1959 (and Scholtes, W. H.) Important elements in the classification of the Wisconsin glacial

stage—A discussion: Journal of Geology, v. 67, p. 585-593.------Stone lines in soils: Soil Science, v. 87, p. 223-231.1961 (with Cady, J. G., and Gomez, R. S.) Paleosols of Bermuda: Geological Society of Amer­

ica Bulletin, v. 72, p. 1121-1142.1962 Age of the Rio Grande Valley in southern New Mexico: Journal of Geology, v. 60,

p. 151-167.1964 Landscape morphology and alluvial deposits in southern New Mexico: American Assoc­

iation of Geographers Annals, v. 54, p. 147-159.------An estimate of paleoclimate in Oahu, Hawaii: American Journal of Science, v. 262,

p. 1098-1115.1965 (and Daniels, R. B.) Landscape erosion—geologic and historic: Journal of Soil and Water

Conservation, v. 20, p. 52-67.------ (and Williams, J. M., and Hill, E. L.) Shorelines and submarine shelves, Oahu, Hawaii:

Journal of Geology, v. 73, p. 485-497.------ (with Wright, H. E., Jr.) Glaciation of Minnesota and Iowa, in Wright, H. E., Jr., and Frey,

D. G., eds., The Quaternary of the United States: Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton Uni­versity Press, p. 29-41.

------ Quaternary paleopedology, in Wright, H. E., Jr., and Frey, D. G., eds., The Quaternary ofthe Unites States: Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton University Press, p. 755-764.

------ (and Daniels, R. B., and Cady, J. G.) Landscape evolution and soil development in south­western Iowa: U.S. Department of Agriculture Technical Bulletin 1349,220 p.

1967 Geomorphic surfaces and surficial deposits in southern New Mexico: New Mexico Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources Memoir 18,66 p.

1968 (and Dietz, W. F., Fenton, T. E., and Hall, G. F.) Iowan drift problem, northeastern Iowa: Iowa Geological Survey Report of Investigations 7,40 p.

1969 Quaternary landscapes in Iowa: Ames, Iowa, Iowa State University Press, 255 p.------ Principles for dating pedogenic events in the Quaternary: Soil Science, v. 107, p. 398-402.1974 (and Hall, R. D., and Canepa, A. P.) Sangamon paleosols of southwestern Indiana:

Geoderma, v. 12, p. 191-200.------ Holocene environments and soil geomorphology in midwestem United States: Quaternary

Research, v. 4, p. 487—495.1975 Geomorphology: Geomorphic processes and surficial geology: Boston, Houghton Mifflin,

246 p.------ Climatic geomorphology and fully developed slopes: Catena, v. 2, p. 309-320.

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1980 (and Olson, C. G.) Soil welding: Soil Science, v. 130, p. 132-139.------ (and Olson, C. G.) Clay-mineral indicators of glacial and non-glacial sources of

Wisconsinan loesses in southern Indiana, U.S.A.: Geoderma, v. 24, p. 283-297.------ (with Olson, C. G., and Mausbach, M. J.) The terra rossa limestone contact phenomenon

in karst, southern Indiana: Soil Science Society of America Journal, v. 44, p. 1075-1079.1983 Depositional environment of Late Wisconsin loess in the midcontinental United States, in

Porter, S. C., ed., The Late Pleistocene: Minneapolis, Minnesota, University of Minnesota Press, p. 130-137.

1984 Aspects of Holocene pedology in the United States, in Wright, H. E., Jr., ed., The Holocene: Minneapolis, Minnesota, University of Minnesota Press, p. 12-25.

------ Loess-derived soils, Mississippi Valley region: I. Soil-sedimentation system: Soil ScienceSociety of America Journal, v. 48, p. 859-863.

------ Loess-derived soils, Mississippi Valley region. II. Soil-climate system. Soil Science Soci­ety of America Journal, v. 48, p. 864-867.

------ Clay-mineral regions in Peoria loess, Mississippi River basin: Journal of Geology, v. 92,p. 339-343.

------ Soil-climate system across the prairies of midwestem U.S.A.: Geoderma, v. 34,p. 201-219.

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