St. Lawrence University Geology Newsletter

Spring 2015

pg. 1 of 8

SLUGAC 9: Charting Path Forward (September 25-27, 2015)

Please mark your calendars! The theme of the conference highlights one of the original goals of SLUGAC, which is to

provide students with an alumni perspective of the world that awaits them after SLU.’ As alumni did for you, be

altruistic. Give your experiences. http://tinyurl.com/SLUGAC9 Please browse the site and participate.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

GEO CLASS 2015

JOSEPH PRESCOTT BARNS

EDWARD HIGGINS BERKE

HANNAH CELIA DRUMMOND

SEAN CHRISTOPHER GANNON

JACQUELINE ASHLEY GREY

AUSTIN THOMAS HART

CATHERINE ELIZABETH HEINRICH

DAVID WARREN HILL

ANDREW VINCENT HOWE

NORA MADIGAN KINSLOW

EVAN FRANK KONCEWICZ

KELAN ROBERT KONCEWICZ

LUKE MAURICE LENDWAY

ETHAN JAMES MATCHINSKI

DANIEL PRESTON MILAVEC

PAXTON ALEXANDER ROUNTREE-JABLIN

DAVID LAWRENCE SMITH

LAURYN MELISSA TANNENHAUS

SEND US YOUR NEWS!

WE WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU.

This 1995 Mark Klett photo was made at SLUGAC 2. It records Mark Erickson

presenting the first W.T. Elberty, Jr. Medal to Bill Elberty ’53 for his lifelong

support of the St. Lawrence University Geology (and Geography) Department.

Bill had been a student of Doc Bloomer and eventually taught at SLU under

the chairmanship of R. O. B. and then of Bill Romey before retiring from the

chair of Geography Department. The W.T. Elberty, Jr. Medal, the highest

award the department can give, is made in Bill’s honor, usually at SLUGAC, to

acknowledge the tradition of consistent participatory support of the Geology

program in the same altruistic manner as shown by Dr. Elberty. the award is

made by a committee of alumni based upon a list of candidates nominated by

alumni and faculty of the department.

Nominations are now being sought for the Elberty Medal. Details, including a nomination form and a list of previous medalists, can be found

on the SLUGAC 9 website. http://tinyurl.com/SLUGAC9 Please browse the site and participate.

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Message from the Chair,

We are at the end of another busy and productive academic year during which faculty and students were active in

research, presentations at professional meetings, fieldtrips, department seminars, clubs’ activities, and campus life in

general. Our May commencement with 18 majors graduating was a great success!

Notable award since the last Newsletter has been received by two geology faculty. Jeff Chiarenzelli and Judith Nagel-Myers

participated with colleagues from chemistry and mathematics in a grant to the National Science Foundation entitled

"Liberal Arts Science Scholars Program". The award of $618,524.00 will go towards making the college more affordable

for S-STEM students at St. Lawrence University. Jeff has also been appointed as the MacAllaster Professor of North

Country Studies. The position recognizes a faculty member who makes a three-year commitment to focus research on the

North Country, as well as teach one course each semester that incorporates a significant focus on North Country related

history, issues, and events. Major journal publications included Alexander Stewart’s paper in Journal of Military Geology, Mark Erickson’s in

Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science, and two of my papers in Sedimentology and Marine and Petroleum Geology. Eleonor Jones ’16

received an NSF-funded scholarship to attend the North American Dendroecological Fieldweek in Maine.

Student research was successfully presented both on campus at the Festival of Science, as well as at the professional meetings. The latter included

the 50th GSA Northeastern Section Meeting in Bretton Woods, the AGU-GAC-MAC-CGU Joint Assembly in Montreal, and the AAPG Annual

Convention in Denver. Having gone through one of the coldest Februarys on record in the North Country, the students also eagerly participated

in our fieldtrips later in the semester. The major trips this spring took them to Jamaica, Colorado, and Alaska. A group of students also partici-

pated in geochronological research at the Arizona Laserchron Center in Tuscon.

After two years as a visiting assistant professor, Jennifer Gifford will be

leaving St. Lawrence to join the Department of Geology and Geological

Engineering at the University of Mississippi. In her short time at St.

Lawrence, Jennifer has taught several of our core and elective courses, lead

fieldtrips to Ontario and New York, and has continued her research on the

Precambrian crustal evolution in Montana. We will miss her, but wish her

all the best in her future endeavors.

We continued our recent tradition of acknowledging graduating students

and the most regular geology seminar attendees at the Geology Barbecue,

which was held at Jeff’s new house several miles out of Canton. The

Golden Hammer Award went to Catherine Heinrich ‘15, the senior who

most students would like to work in the field with. The Silver Ring award,

which acknowledges the senior with the most knowledge and aptitude for

Geology, went to Ethan Matchinski ’15.

SLUGAC 9 is getting closer! If you

haven’t done so already, please fill out the registration form attached to this Newsletter (it is not too late to

register!). Our triennial meeting will take place on Campus, September 25-27, highlighting one of the

original goals of SLUGAC – to provide students with an alum perspective of the world that awaits them

after graduation. We also are happy to announce this year’s Bloomer Lecturer – Ken Johnson ‘85, Natural

History Museum, London – who will talk on Coral Reefs and Environmental Change: Looking Back

to See Ahead. In addition, you’ll be able to see our new geology classroom, which will soon see the light of

day thanks to generous gifts by a pair of anonymous donors and Bill van Wie ’67.

We look forward to seeing you soon in Canton!

Antun Husinec Dr. and Mrs. Robert O. Bloomer

Lecture Fund

We are pleased to report that Dr. William Van

Wie ’67 and Dr. Igor Effimoff ’68 have committed

a total of $10,000 to the Dr. and Mrs. Robert O.

Bloomer Lecture Fund. Their generosity and the

fund will in part allow the Geology Department to

bring eminent geologists to campus to deliver a

special lecture and to convene the Bloomer

Banquet for geology students, alumni and faculty

at least triennially during the St. Lawrence

University Geology Alumni Conference. We are

grateful for their support and continued commit-

ment to the Geology Department and our

students. For more information on the Dr. and

Mrs. Robert O. Bloomer Lecture Fund:

Associate Director of Parent Leadership Giving and

Major Gifts, John Pezdek, jpezdek@stlawu.edu or

315-229-5540

Research associate and mineralogy

expert George Robinson and his

wife Susan continue to assist the

department by developing new

displays and teaching aids. This

display in the back hallway of

Brown Hall pairs the rock cycle

and the different occurrences of

mineral deposits with respect to

their environment of formation.

New world class displays grace the

glass case in the hallway between

Madill and Brown Hall. We are

indebted to George and Susan for their help with our collection and its exceptional

display.

Judith tries out the white board

in our new classroom.

Hello Highly Valued Alumni,

As the spring semester winds down, no actually comes to a screeching halt and crash, the promise of summer

looms before us. I am preparing to leave for another field trip to Colorado and Utah with eight fine young-

sters. We will again be staying with alumnus John Kelly (’69) and joined by several others including Doug Reed

(’70) and Jeff Cook (’69). We have plans to visit many of the key geological localities on the Plateau including

Arches National Park and the Colorado National Monument. We will visit the famous Snowmass mastodon/

mammoth site near Aspen and world famous Glenwood Hot Springs. I will be chaperoned by department

technician, Mr. Matt Van Brocklin, who will keep me on the straight and level!

The spring semester flew by. Dr. Nagel-Myers and I took six students to the NE GSA meeting at Bretton Woods,

New Hampshire. It was an exciting venue and the students really dug their ski condo accommodations, complete

with foosball table! Oh and the meeting wasn’t bad either and they gave some excellent presentations related to

their research on a wide variety of fascinating topics from minerals to tree rings to the climatology of Arctic

lakes. Two weekends ago we held a build day for my New Developments in Alternative Energy class. We built a

variety of rocket stoves, emergency cook stoves, a soda can air heater, a peddle powered water pump, and a

variety of other simple, but effective, devices. We also toured my neighbors’ rustic homesteads and a new super-insulated passive/active solar

home. Good fun was had by all and the students transported their completed rocket stove, which we built on a pallet, back to campus in the bed

of my pickup. Where it wound up I don’t want to know, the stove that is, they did return my pickup!

Through a grant from the National Science Foundation, I will be joining Sean Regan ’10 on the Snowbird Tectonic Zone this summer near

Angikuni Lake, NWTs. Larry Aspler and I mapped this area back in the 1990’s and I never thought I would have a chance to revisit the Kazan

River, particularly with two SLU students along. Lisa Grohn ’17 and Mitch Gallagher ’17 will join us thanks to a Center of Intercultural and

Interdisciplinary Fellowship. They will also have the option of participating in any number of analytical studies that will occur in the fall when

we return. The Snowbird Tectonic Zone forms the boundary between the Rae and Hearne cratons and thus is a fundamental suture in the heart

of the Canadian Shield whose timing and origin is up for debate.

I am very fortunate to have the opportunity to participate in that most desired of academic perks, the sabbatical, next year. I have plans to

travel some, mostly to analytical labs, and begin a number of new projects in the North Country. I also hope to begin a writing binge and data

purge. I will be co-editing a special issue of the Adirondack Journal of Environmental Studies on Adirondack Geology with Bruce Selleck of

Colgate University and beginning the lengthy process of writing a couple of books on the mineralogy of Grenville Province with Drs. George

Robinson, Marian Lupulescu, and Steve Chamberlain. And if that doesn’t keep me busy I will be putting time into my farm/orchard aka.

Hippie House. I just put in 100 cold climate grape vines from Dave Franzi in Plattsburgh and hope I share his success, and abundance of wine,

eventually.

Take care and be well.

pg. 3 of 8

This spring I was on my pre-tenure sabbatical with projects in all manner of progress, from starting to

finishing. Primarily, my sabbatical was centered on transboundary water resources in Central and South Asia

(Afghanistan and Tajikistan). This project is coming along nicely as an upcoming chapter, “Dams in

Afghanistan” in Transboundary water from Afghanistan: issues of climate change, apportionment and land-use

implications, edited by Dr. J. (Jack) Shroder of the University of Nebraska, Omaha. Along these lines, our trip

to Tajikistan to work at the ministerial level on transboundary water issues has been bogged down by red tape

and is on the “back burner.” We are hoping to make it there soon with another trip “scheduled” for

Afghanistan in September.

In addition, I published a paper in the Journal of Military and Strategic Studies highlighting the importance of

geological-reasoning training to U.S. military counterinsurgency operatives; also, I have just resubmitted a

manuscript about U.S. Army-Afghan hydrological efforts and military aid to GSA Special Publications, which should be published soon.

Finally, my Central Asian efforts are being rounded out by working out the regional bio-palaeogeography

by using my scorpion collection from Afghanistan and Dr. Victor Fet’s samples from Uzbekistan,

Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. I just wrapped up a 10-day visit to Marshall University laying the

foundation for this research by identifying scorpions to the sub-species level. Future work will involve

additional identification, inclusion of DNA results and palaeogeographic/geological analyses associated

with their current distributions (Pleistocene dispersal?).

Because of sabbatical I was “student light;” however, Catherine Heinrich ’15 wrapped up here senior

thesis, “Dendrogeomorphic evidence of frequent mass wasting from reaction wood in black spruce,

Northway Jct., Alaskan Interior.” Thanks to Trent Hubbard ’94 (AKDGGS), we were successfully able to

evaluate some mass wasting along the ALCAN. Results suggest that as climate warms, permafrost will

continue to thaw leaving the landscape to be more vulnerable to failure. Specifically, the tree data showed

an onset of mass wasting in the area in the late 1980’s associated with above average rainfall and increased

temperatures.

This summer will be busy working with students and preparing my tenure portfolio. Melanie Swick ’16

will be developing a floating “barn-beam” chronology as a first step to dating historical structures using

dendrochronology in the region. As of now, there is no chronology available to do work like this. In addition, I will have Luis Henrique Aguiar

De Araujo, a funded, Brazilian Science Mobility Program undergraduate, who will be helping me begin work on a streamflow reconstruction for

the St. Lawrence River (hopefully, supported by the St. Lawrence River Research and Education Fund).

Dr. Alexander K. Stewart

Jeff Chiarenzelli

Henry Knox Stewart,

age 3

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Guten Tag.

The first half of 2015 was busy and fun. I went fossil collecting with my Paleo class to the Tug Hill region and we

returned with pockets full of trilobites, crinoids, and brachiopods. Another fun filled day lead my Historical Geology

class to the Museum of Nature in Ottawa, a must see for every aspiring Geologist at SLU. On other students-related

news, I am happy to have placed Rudy Bentlage ‘16 in an internship with the Museum of the Earth in Ithaca, NY over

the summer. This internship will be financially supported by the University with an SLU internship grant. These funds

enable our students to work at institutions that might otherwise not be able to support them and get paid through the

University; a great resource providing SLU students with many possibilities!

Cullen LaPoint ‘16 received a SLU fellowship and will be working with me on the

morphological evolution of Devonian bivalves this summer. She is going to do field-

work in Central NY collecting samples in June. We also secured funding from SLU for 2

research projects that are taking place this summer. Grant Reeder ’16 is going to model the effects of crushing

predation on different shell symmetries in collaboration with material scientist at Clarkson University, and

Jaleigh Pier ’16 is going to the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville collecting data on Eocene

invertebrates from Antarctica, examining the effect of climate change on organism interactions.

I have been elected to serve on the faculty council for the next 2 years. This is an

exciting opportunity for me to represent my colleagues and learn first-hand about

important undertakings and events here at SLU. I also have been appointed the

new chair of the Northeastern Section of the Paleontological Society. I will be

representing the Paleontological Society at the Northeastern Section meetings of

the Geological Society of America and the Northeastern Section at the National

Meetings and the annual Paleontological Counsel meetings.

Finally, we have almost completed the new classroom. By the time the semester starts it should be ready to be used.

This is close to my heart, because it was the first project I got involved with when I started here at SLU 2 years

ago, and it is wonderful to see the remarkable result of the help and collaboration of so many people!

Cheers Judith Nagel-Myers

Greetings SLU Geo-Folk,

As is my habit, let’s leave all that department news and reminders of events to come to those better suited for that

business. Instead, I will get right to “North Country Weather Report”. The weather has been slowly morphing from

spring to summer during the month of May, and at this point late in May it is downright summer like! To get to this

lovely fine weather, we first endured a long tough winter that reminded me of childhood winters enjoyed in the mid

70’s. Our first major snowstorm that hit was after Thanksgiving and dropped over 40 inches of snow in two days at

our place… Fortunately it didn’t stay and was mostly gone after several days. After that, it appeared as though we

might be again spared a real winter and maybe get a ho-hum winter. Our late November and early December

temperatures fluctuating between the mid 20’s and mid 40’s with the occasional front providing light snow off and on

for several weeks. There was even a bit of dismay voiced by some that we might have a greenish Christmas… We

didn’t have a lot of snow for the holidays, but the country side was white and the scene very holiday like.. That sort

of weather and dismay of lack of snow and cold, all changed sometime around the 3rd week in January. The bitter

cold had arrived and by February the temperatures would drop below zero every day, sometimes staying well below zero for a week at a time;

those freezing temperatures would stay with us through the first week of March. But even with the bitter cold the snow came and often came

hard. Because of the cold, the type of snow we got last winter was unusual for us, consisting of dry cylinders and beads with little moisture

content and zero engineering ability. Couldn’t make a snowball for the odd sneak attack if you wanted too! It wasn’t long and we had snow

enough for most enthusiasts to snowshoe, ski, or sled, but the snow was light and fluffy to the point where snowshoes sank deeply and if

snowmobilers got off of the trail.. well, they were in deep and in need of assistance to get back up and onto the trail. By mid-February we had

over 3 feet of snow in our pasture and there were drifts over 4 feet high, even our 4 wheel drive tractor was beginning to have trouble delivering

round bales to the horses. There were many times I had to use the tractor’s bucket to get “unstuck” and then I would need to keep the drive

“lock” activated so that our green machine was in all wheel drive. And winter lingered… to the point where many were wondering if it would

ever warm up. At our small farm we burned two extra face cord of firewood than in years past, and we burned through the 12 extra 1000

pound round bales of hay that we get on top of what I know we will need “just in case”. Winter before last for instance, which was no slouch of

a winter either, we ended up composting all 12 of those extra bales, which has been pretty much normal for the past 15 years. Not this past

winter! Last winter season we went through all the “just in case” hay and ended up having to get another 4 bales from a nearby farmer who

had extra. But spring did finally come, slowly, but it did come. Spring remained cool and dry until May, when one could finally feel summer

coming. And it sure is nice! It has been very dry here but we have been getting a little rain this last week in May.

“And that’s The Way It Was”! Hope you all have wintered well and are looking forward to a great summer. SLUGAC will be happening this

fall, hope to see many of you and maybe get a chance to visit with a few… It is a busy few days! Be safe my friends, and be well.

Matt VanBrocklin

I just wanted to give you a life update since I am now employed! I just received an offer working as an entry level geologist at CDM Smith

which is a consulting firm that specializes in environmental remediation! I will be based in NYC which is big and scary but I am really excited

to continue working as a geologist!

Michelle Goldberg ‘14

pg. 5 of 8

Dear Friends.

I am holding up the Newsletter! Thought I had done this a month ago! That’s what retirement does for one! It

seems to me I have been super busy since the last time I wrote in the Fall ---but what have I done??

About a year and a half ago Jim Nelson from the Timber Lake and Area Museum in South Dakota asked me to

identify their Fox Hills gastropod collection. With my brother’s help with photography, that process is now

complete. Some of the results are interesting and serve to point out the differences between the Fox Hills

habitats in the type area and that farther north where I did my original study. I will begin to put some of that

information together when summer is over.

In the mean time, I have been continuing to work with john Hoganson in ND on a number of projects. We

recently published a discussion of some additional specimens of Ischyodus rayhaasi -- the Fox Hills ratfish—that were collected by Mike

Everhart in Colorado. They extend the range of the species and give us more understanding of the distribution of the species in the Western

Interior Seaway. You can find that paper in the Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science if interested in details.

I am continuing to develop the Johnsonburg Butterfly Garden at the Presbyterian Center at Glovers Pond, NJ. I returned yesterday from a 4-

day visit there to do planting and move soil! The first butterfly that I know visited was a red admiral but I saw 8 other spp. in the garden at

one time or another. If we can keep the deer out-they also visited the garden while I was there—we may have an attraction by the middle of

the summer. I imagine some of this will be on the J’burg web site as time goes on.

Two days before that I returned from 3.5 weeks in Bismarck, ND, working on the great shark paper caper that John, Bud and I have been

involved in for many years. John and I have completed the systematics and now have only the “fun stuff” to write! On that trip we visited

Bud and Mardi Holland in Grand Forks to drop off a hard copy of the files for Bud to work with. It was great to see them both. While in ND it

only snowed twice – as the lilacs were blooming and warblers were beginning to show up. It’s that kind of Spring I guess. Also while there, I

conducted an evaluation of the remains of a mosasaur fossil that have been donated to the state fossil collection.

My service projects continue along the same vein as they have for a while. I am just winding down from a tour on the Board of the PRI/

Museum of the Earth in Ithaca – stop in if in that area. I remain an Elder of the Church-on-the-Park in Canton and serve as a Director of the

Randolph Company, our camper association in Vermont. There we are trying to decide how to keep the shoreline in place in the face of rising

lake levels—of course that means my camp because it is closest to the shore! This makes it particularly difficult to interest the association in

preserving their shore b/c they assume I am only interested in saving my camp! There is no doubt that is a factor, but much more shore is at

stake than just the 16 feet in front of my place! Ah well, humanity was ever thus.

So give me something to look forward to!! Well, if you have not yet caught on, this is a SLUGAC year and you KNOW I look forward to those!

If there is any doubt that you can be a welcome member of the SLUGAC 9 event, let me point out that for students (and parents) who are

hearing about the layoffs in the oil patch again, it is really important for them to be able to have: 1) a perspective from those who are in the oil

patch and have been through such events before, and 2) a perspective from the majority of our alums who are engaged in the myriad of

enterprises that are not in the energy field but are applying their learning to many, many other areas from software production to highway

transportation, banking to landscape architecture, teaching to environmental assessment, etc. Please donate your presence and your

experience by attending SLUGAC – and have a very enjoyable reunion at the same time. Come see the new class room as well. The Bloomer

Lecturer will be one of the world’s foremost experts on coral reef evolution, extinction and problems --Ken Johnson ’85 from the British

Museum. That will be worth the trip by itself! If you have not made a SLUGAC before – this is your chance and I would love to see you on

campus. Check the web page for event schedules and please consider a corporate sponsorship.

I hope you all have a great Summer and look forward to seeing you in September!

Mark E.

Hello Everyone,

This past Spring semester was fantastic! The

Petrology class got to enjoy a new field trip up

to Bancroft, Ontario, at the end of the semes-

ter where we viewed a wide variety of meta-

morphic rocks that range from low- to high-

grade metamorphism. We were also able to

manage some excellent rock and mineral col-

lecting, enjoyed by all! The picture is the pe-

trology class investigating a granulite-facies

outcrop.

Ethan Matchinski ’15 successfully completed a

research project entitled, “Reassessment of the intersection of the Great

Falls Tectonic Zone and the Trans-Hudson Orogen through petrologic

and geochronological analysis of Deep Test Well derived samples”. He

presented his work at the AGU Joint Assembly meeting in Montreal,

Canada on May 6th. Ethan has since graduated and moved on to a

position in Northern California working for a water-resources consulting firm.

Now to the sad news, I have accepted a position in northern Mississippi and this is/was my last semester here as a Visiting Assistant Professor.

I have greatly enjoyed my time at SLU and have learned so much from the students, faculty and staff about teaching and living in the

academic community. I truly appreciate all of the opportunities given to me.

Thank you so much.

Jennifer Gifford

pg. 6 of 8

GEOL/BIOL 248: Alaska: Down to Earth

This was the second year in a row that we offered a dual-listed (BIOL/GEOL) field course

to Alaska (with Dr. Stewart and M. VanBrocklin, Geology and Dr. Eileen Visser, Biology).

Generally, “Alaska: Down to Earth” is an experiential field course for any student having

taken GEOL101 or BIOL101, which attempts to find consilience with the physical, biolog-

ical and human environments of this bountiful landscape. This course was supported by

the Center for International and Intercultural Studies, which provides the budget (based

on student enrollment) while we supply the expertise.

The itinerary is packed with

science and the human

environment from the “big”

city of Anchorage to the

permafrost-engineered

Glennallen, high and dry in

the “interior.” In addition, to

meet Dr. Visser’s tidal needs, we spend quality time in Valdez (her home town, where

she was raised “off the grid” in a cabin on the bay), Seward and Cordova. Students

get to experience a broad range of Alaska and all she has to offer; even the long,

one-way road to the old-mining town of Kennicott.

Next year (2016), the plan is for Dr. P. Jay Fleisher ’61 and I to lead students in

Iceland for a “fire-and-ice” experiential trip of this small nation. As of now, we are

beginning to make arrangements, but the cost of living in Iceland is making the trip

borderline affordable with our department field trip budget. We’ll make it work,

we’re geologists, but it will be tight. More on this to come!

Kayaking the Valdez Arm on the way

to Dr. Visser’s girlhood cabin.

A student way up on a degraded serac of the Matanuska Glacier.

This was a particularly unhappy year for me, and for the Geology Department, as I lost some friends and the Department some alums, “before

their time” as it were. I have never gotten used to the loss of a good friend, yet the older one gets the more it happens! Aren’t statistics just

wonderful!

In November, Linda Harrington alerted us to the untimely death of Jonathan W. Harrington, ’64, on November 16, 2014. I met Jon on one of

his visits to campus to see Bill Elberty not long after I joined the faculty. At that time, he was curious to know how the experimental program

we were working with was turning out for our students. Jon remained interested in the department throughout his life, often from afar, for he

ran his own geologic consulting company for more than 30 years. The Jon I knew was a paleontologist and a member of the Paleontological

Research Institution in Trumansburg, NY. On the occasions we met, Jon was as likely to talk paleo shop as he was to ask about the

department. He and Linda returned for SLUGAC at one point, and I think after that he felt the department was living up to its heritage. I

really enjoyed him, and I am sorry for his passing. As one might expect, Jon led a very full life, therefore I encourage all to visit

http://www.wright-beard.com/tribute/details/2956/Dr_Jonathan_W_Harrington_Ph_D/obituary.html for biographical information that

accounts for some of it. I extend condolences once more to Linda and to his family.

I had been equally shaken in October to receive a call from Dean Eppler telling me that his brother, Duane, had

passed away on October 12, 2014. If you were members of the class of 1971, or near-bye years, or if you have ever

attended a SLUGAC event, you, too, have known the sincerity, honesty and good humor of this Laurentian.

Duane was a member of the founding team of alumni who created SLUGAC, one who found a way to make a very

significant difference for the students of SLU, the Geology program and for the profession by their development

and support of the SLUGAC model. For his efforts, he received the W. T. Elberty, Jr. Medal, the Geology

Department’s highest award, at SLUGAC 5. He was a “Jim Street Geomorphologist” who, after a stint in the oil

patch in New Orleans, returned to glacial geology with CRREL, then ran his own consulting company, and finally

as a staff member at Tom Tom in Vermont. Because I was the neophyte faculty member in Brown Hall in 1971, I

came to know Duane very well and to respect his altruism and wisdom. His brother, Dean said, “Duane felt the

Geology Department and SLUGAC represented the best of both the University and what geologic education could

be about, and I know he was proud to have started a tradition that has inspired succeeding undergraduates to

pursue a career in Geology.” He was a great advocate for SLU Geology who gave of himself, his time and effort as well as his resources, to be

sure that we remained the best undergraduate geology program we could be. Like his brother’s, his laugh was distinctive, and his smile could

light up a room. More than most alumni or present faculty and students know, we will miss this compassionate giant of SLU Geology.

Mark Erickson

Duane Eppler

Great Sand Dunes National Park

Geology Major Mikayla Thomas’17 was selected out of 39 applicants for a GeoCorps position in the Great

Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve located in the San Luis Valley of Colorado at an elevation of

8,175 feet. http://www.nps.gov/grsa/index.htm She will be working for 12 weeks as Physical Scientist

assisting the Park Geologist with gathering resource data to better understand the Park natural

resources. This knowledge is critical in dealing with management issues, such as legal defenses in regard

to large-scale water development proposals as well as accurate, more detailed interpretation of the park.

pg. 6 of 6

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