on the ground and it was still snowing. We pitched our tents despite the conditions.
Frank and I were tent mates, sharing a two-man tent. Reg and Colin shared a tent. Stu had his own tent which also doubled up as a field office. We also had a rifle in Stu’s tent which could only be used on his approval, literally “in the name of the Crown” in case provisions ran low.
We mapped a mixed Precambrian and Lower Paleozoic metamorphic terrain. Most of our mapping was completed by running traverses through the Newfoundland bush, muskeg and rough terrain. Stu assigned Reg to work with me because he felt Frank Nolan needed a lot more supervision. We plotted our outcrop data on our base map and transferred them every night to Stu’s master map in camp. Camp meals were acceptable, but Colin had the habit of overcooking roast beef. Moreover, Stu arranged to have grapefruit shipped in for breakfast and Colin kept cutting them vertically instead of across the mid-section. We tried to explain it to him and it never registered.
On weekends, Reg went home, and Stu gave me the jeep to do roadside mapping. One week, Frank returned to Nova Scotia for family reasons, so Stu and I worked together. It was a good learning experience for me. He also told me a lot about the graduate program at Yale and how it was structured with a series of hurdles.
During August, Reg and Colin decided to brew homemade beer. Frank and I helped get it started and after the beer was bottled, we left it in a nearby creek to mellow and cool. Frank didn’t want to wait and got roaring drunk. In the middle of the night he got sick and threw up all over the tent. I helped him up clean up the mess. Frank was, of course, very embarrassed and profusely apologized to all of us for days.
We finished mapping by Labor Day and said our good-byes. I went home to visit my parents and made preparations to go to Lawrence, KS.
LESSONS LEARNED:
1. An academic environment is extremely unpredictable and guidelines or verbal understandings and instructions, particularly with students, can be reversed almost capriciously.
2. A graduate student must prepare for all contingencies.
3. When faculty advise taking preparatory courses (such as the hand-specimen petrology course), accept that advice.
Chapter 6
University of Kansas and Nova Scotia (1955-1957)
The University of Kansas (KU) was founded by New England settlers to the Lawrence, KS, region. Instruction began in 1866 to 29 male and 26 female students. It was the first university established on the Great Plains. Joe Naismith started a basketball tradition at KU. The inventor of Vitamins A and D is a KU graduate. The first extraction of Helium as a gas was completed in a KU chemistry lab.
The history of geology at KU is partially summarized from two books by Merriam2. From inception, natural science was taught by a professor of mathematics and natural sciences, Francis H. Snow, an entomologist who also held interests in geology and paleontology2. In 1890, he became Chancellor of KU. That year, Samuel W. Williston (MD, PhD Yale, paleontology) was hired to teach geology, paleontology and biology to replace Snow. He left later for the University of Chicago.
In 1892, a new department of Physical Geology and Mineralogy was established and Erasmus Haworth (BS, MS, Kansas, PhD, Johns Hopkins, economic geology; Kansas, Private Consultant) was hired as its first department head. He also became Director of the Kansas Geological Survey in 1895. In 1910, W. H. Twenhofel was hired as a faculty member and became State Geologist in 1915. He left a year later2. Raymond C. Moore (BA Denison, PhD, Chicago; paleontology and stratigraphy; KU) was appointed to the geology faculty in 1916. He was promoted to a full professorship in 1919, serving also as Department Head until 19402.
The Department expanded, especially after World War II. By virtue of Moore’s working style and its location, KU became a globally recognized center of paleontology and stratigraphy during his service. Moore died in 1975.
KU began offering a Master’s degree in geology in 1875, and a PhD program was approved in 18942. The first PhD in geology (paleontology) was awarded in 1899 to Joshua W. Beede.
After arriving in Lawrence in early September, 1955, I rented a room and settled in. That evening, I decided to find Lindley Hall, the geology building built during the early 1940’s, and met a micropaleontology graduate student, Quinn Lockel. Quinn showed me around and told me some things about his first year there.
Next morning, I returned to get office space and select courses with the help of the department chairman, M. L. (Luke) Thompson (BS, MS, Mississippi A&M (now Mississippi State University), PhD, Iowa, micropaleontology; Kansas, Wisconsin, Kansas, Illinois Geological Survey). Luke was a world-class micropalentologist specializing in Fusulinidae. I enrolled in aerial photograph and geomorphology (both taught by Dr. H. T. U. Smith; PhD, Harvard, geomorphology; Kansas, Univ. of Massachusetts), economic geology (taught by Bill Hambleton, B.A. F&M, MS., Northwestern, PhD, Kansas; also Associate Director of the Kansas Geological Survey), and a groundwater course with Frank Foley (BA, Toronto, PhD, Princeton; hydrogeology, Director of the Kansas Geological Survey). I then registered and completed a routine medical exam.
After the medical exam, I was directed to a door which opened to a large room with ten desks, each with an attractive, well-groomed co-ed. I was motioned to sit with one of them and she asked me where I was from, why I came to KU, and where I spent the summer. I thought this odd so finally asked, “Why are you asking me these questions?” She laughed and explained that KU admitted a large number of students from rural areas and all new students had to complete an elocution screen. That screen was to identify students who needed an elocution course and make their spoken English more main-stream American. She explained she majored in elocution and I passed, and could leave.
Because I had no financial aid, I inquired about part-time work and the department secretary networked me to the Kansas Geological Survey which needed a student draftsman. I spent the year drafting measured columnar sections that were on file and thus quickly learned Kansas geology. My supervisor was Bill Ives, who also worked part-time on his PhD. I also met other Kansas Geological Survey geologists, learned how such an organization functions, and its mission. I valued the experience, although the pay was not great.
The semester started and I discovered that both the undergraduate structural geology and the mineralogy courses ran field trips to the Arbuckle Mountains in Oklahoma, Magnet Cove, AR, and the Eagle Picher Mine area of southwest Missouri. I joined them, saw great geology and collected some nice mineral specimens. It was well worth the time.
In Oklahoma, we stayed at an old hotel in Sulphur, OK, and Louis Dellwig (BS, MS, Lehigh, PhD Michigan; structural geology; KU; served as an Army Captain during World War II and had most of his left shoulder blown away during the Battle of the Bulge) invited the teaching assistants and me to his hotel room to share a bottle of scotch he brought with him. Oklahoma was a dry state and KU did not permit alcohol at any campus functions. Louis told us that after the sacrifices he made during World War II for his country, no bluenoses were going to tell him where, when and what to drink. Louis was a lovable, yet crusty individual, and he became my Master’s thesis supervisor.
The geomorphology course also had a one-week field trip to the Rio Grande Valley of New Mexico. We camped the first night within a V-shaped highway intersection near Guymon, Oklahoma, and were kept awake most of the night by passing trucks. I remember having dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Santa Fe with Ralph Lamb (BS. MS, Kansas, Chevron - later Exploration manager in Latin America) and Billy D. Holland (BS, Texas, MS, Kansas, Humble, chief geologist for Pogo Petroleum, president of his own oil company). They helped make decent choices for the
