Memorial to George Henry Crowl 1910-1987 RICHARD P. GOLDTHWAIT P.O. Box 656, Anna Maria, Florida 34216 If you met George Crowl, you knew George Crowl. He was one of the most affable, easy-to-meet geologists of this century. He loved to josh people, and he attended lots of scientific meetings—mostly in the eastern United States—where he did just that. His joys in life were his peers, his family, and his former students. He followed avidly the careers of geology majors from Ohio Wesleyan University for over forty years. George H. Crowl died on June 10, 1987, immediately after a happy 55th reunion at Wooster College, an earlier visit with one son, the Ohio Academy of Science meetings in Akron, and the annual field reunion of Midwest Friends of the Pleistocene. He was his usual jovial self right to the end, in spite of a series of warning heart attacks spread over a decade. As always in early summer, he had planned to get back into the field in Pennsylvania—just to check out some problems in glacial geology. George left a very devoted family. He had married “Ginny” (Virginia Anderson) on October 19, 1935. They had two sons; George H., Jr., of Clovis, New Mexico; and Roland W., of Hudson, Massachusetts; and a daughter, Judith L. (Dyrhsen), of Yuba City, California. He also enjoyed six grandchildren. George was born on April 10,1910, in Wooster, Ohio. He was the third child of Henry F. Crowl (an undertaker) and Jessie F. (Wilson) Crowl. Like most ambitious Woosterites, he attended Wooster College (class of 1932) and acquired his love for geology in small classes taught by Karl VerSteeg. Then it was off to Harvard University to broaden his horizons. There he benefited from assisting “Uncle Kirk” Bryan (as we knew him). George tried the oil fields for four years, as all of us “Depression Masters” were tempted to do (they didn’t want Ph.D.’s). He worked for Gulf Oil, Tidewater, Shell, and later, Carter (Humble) Oil. During this time, he traveled to Kuwait, Arabia, and Venezuela. After several years of petroleum geology. George returned to academe, working his way from instructor to assistant professor at Rutgers University, then Hamilton College, and finally Penn State. One year at Vanderbilt University was spent teaching Air Force ROTC. Each position lasted only a year or two, but through this time, he continued to pursue his doctorate. During one year of residence on a Libby Fellowship at Princeton University. George became a favorite of his mentor. Paul MacClintock. By 1950, George had completed exams and a dissertation, “Erosion surfaces of the Adirondacks.” The busy “campus hopping” ended after seven years, when George landed a permanent job at Ohio Wesleyan University in September 1947. Delaware, Ohio, became his home and remained so for forty years. He was an assistant professor and acting chairman of the geology department until he completed his Ph .D. at Princeton; then he became chairman of the department and served as such until 1962. In 1951 he was made an associate professor, and in 1955, full professor. This was his major mission in life, to teach general geology, structure, and geomorphology to undergraduate students. George taught in the out-of-doors whenever he could, so we traded ideas for field trips all over central Ohio and adjacent states. For two summers (1950 and 1956), he taught in the 8-week course at Ohio 33
Transcript
Memorial to George Henry Crowl 1910-1987
RICHARD P. GOLDTHWAITP.O. Box 656, Anna Maria, Florida 34216
If you met George Crowl, you knew George Crowl. He was one of the most affable, easy-to-meet geologists of this century.He loved to josh people, and he attended lots of scientific meetings—mostly in the eastern United States—where he did just that. His joys in life were his peers, his family, and his former students. He followed avidly the careers of geology majors from Ohio Wesleyan University for over forty years.
George H. Crowl died on June 10, 1987, immediately after a happy 55th reunion at Wooster College, an earlier visit with one son, the Ohio Academy of Science meetings in Akron, and the annual field reunion of Midwest Friends of the Pleistocene. He was his usual jovial self right to the end, in spite of a series of warning heart attacks spread over a decade. As always in early summer, he had planned to get back into the field in Pennsylvania—just to check out some problems in glacial geology.
George left a very devoted family. He had married “Ginny” (Virginia Anderson) on October 19, 1935. They had two sons; George H., Jr., of Clovis, New Mexico; and Roland W., of Hudson, Massachusetts; and a daughter, Judith L. (Dyrhsen), of Yuba City, California. He also enjoyed six grandchildren.
George was born on April 10,1910, in Wooster, Ohio. He was the third child of Henry F. Crowl (an undertaker) and Jessie F. (Wilson) Crowl. Like most ambitious Woosterites, he attended Wooster College (class of 1932) and acquired his love for geology in small classes taught by Karl VerSteeg. Then it was off to Harvard University to broaden his horizons. There he benefited from assisting “Uncle Kirk” Bryan (as we knew him). George tried the oil fields for four years, as all of us “Depression Masters” were tempted to do (they didn’t want Ph.D.’s). He worked for Gulf Oil, Tidewater, Shell, and later, Carter (Humble) Oil. During this time, he traveled to Kuwait, Arabia, and Venezuela.
After several years of petroleum geology. George returned to academe, working his way from instructor to assistant professor at Rutgers University, then Hamilton College, and finally Penn State. One year at Vanderbilt University was spent teaching Air Force ROTC. Each position lasted only a year or two, but through this time, he continued to pursue his doctorate. During one year of residence on a Libby Fellowship at Princeton University. George became a favorite of his mentor. Paul MacClintock. By 1950, George had completed exams and a dissertation, “Erosion surfaces of the Adirondacks.”
The busy “campus hopping” ended after seven years, when George landed a permanent job at Ohio Wesleyan University in September 1947. Delaware, Ohio, became his home and remained so for forty years. He was an assistant professor and acting chairman of the geology department until he completed his Ph .D. at Princeton; then he became chairman of the department and served as such until 1962. In 1951 he was made an associate professor, and in 1955, full professor. This was his major mission in life, to teach general geology, structure, and geomorphology to undergraduate students. George taught in the out-of-doors whenever he could, so we traded ideas for field trips all over central Ohio and adjacent states. For two summers (1950 and 1956), he taught in the 8-week course at Ohio
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34 THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA
State University’s geology field station at Ephraim, Utah. Many of his “majors” attended. George kept up with his subject: in 1967 he attended NSFs Institute in Quantitative Geomorphology at Colorado State University.
George’s interest in each student didn’t end with his or her graduation. He kept track of graduate schools and guided majors to challenging graduate work. Then he goaded or cajoled them if they lost faith or weakened. For this devotion, he was awarded the Adam Poe Medal of Ohio Wesleyan University at the time of his retirement in 1975.
On leave from Ohio Wesleyan, George spent two years (1952-1954) teaching in Burma, at the University of Rangoon. He also taught for a year in India (1966) at Saugar University. Even after retirement, he taught one semester each at Dalhousie University (Nova Scotia, 1976), University of Minnesota at Duluth (1978), College of Wooster (Ohio, 1981), and his own Ohio Wesleyan (1980). His favorite lecture subject in later years was glaciers and climate. He developed the topic as an honor lecture for Alumni College at his retirement.
With all of this teaching activity, you might think there was no time for research. On the contrary, as George and I often discussed, to be an inspiring teacher of geology you need to have a hand in the developing ideas of several lines of research. Summer vacation was the only time available to do that research. For seven summers, George was technical officer (party chief) for the Geological Survey of Canada. The Permian-Carboniferous and Pleistocene geology of Prince Edward Island was the subject of study. George and I went to Greenland during the summer of 1963, on the Sukkertoppen Expedition, to study the history of the ice caps. In 1965, George fielded his own (National Science Foundation) expedition to an adjacent area. In 1968, George developed an enduring interest in a fourth area of research: the Pleistocene history of eastern to north-central Pennsylvania. As temporary geologist with the Pennsylvania Geological Survey, he began this work with seasonal grants. As a geologist, in 1986, he was in his 19th season of that field study. Of his more than thirty publications, half concern the Pennsylvania work; some were written with W. D. Sevon and D. Marchand. George wrote a chapter on the Quaternary history of Pennsylvania which is yet to be published. In addition, he lectured to geology groups in Pennsylvania and often led local field trips.
George Crowl loved nothing more than a good geological argument with his peers. This made him an auspicious member of the Friends of the Pleistocene. In fact, he ran (with G. Connally and W. D. Sevon) the 38th reunion of eastern Friends in Lower Delaware Valley, Pennsylvania, and was co-leader (with D. Marchand) of the 41st reunion in north-central Pennsylvania. George attended about half of the 50 eastern meetings and 34 midwest meetings. He was equally active with the Geological Society of America, going often to Northeastern or North-Central Section meetings and occasionally to the annual meeting. He became a member in 1949 and was elected a Fellow in 1962. As recently as 1983 and 1985, the GSA Abstracts with Programs included abstracts of his papers on Appalachian peneplains and pre-Woodfordian drifts of Pennsylvania. He was a regular at many biennial meetings of the American Quaternary Association (AMQUA) and most quadrennial International Union for Quaternary Research (INQUA) congresses. George was also active in the American Geophysical Union and the American Assocation of Petroleum Geologists, and he was a section officer for the National Association of Geology Teachers. His most regular appearance was at Ohio Academy of Science meetings, each April for 40 years. He was a Fellow of the Academy and served as vice-president of his section in 1956-1957.
Ginny joined him for extensive trips to the United Kingdom (1977), to New Zealand (1973), to France (1969), and northward into the Canadian Rockies (1965). Even in the year just before his death, they added botany- and geology-oriented trips to Puerto Rico and Iceland.
Whenever I stopped by George Crowl’s office unexpectedly and he was away on some joyful geology trip, I was greeted by a big sign: “Gone Fishin’.” If that was George’s idea of heaven, I imagine he is there now, for he was a devout Methodist!
MEMORIAL TO GEORGE HENRY CROWL 35
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF G. H. CROWL1950 Erosion surfaces in the Adirondacks [Ph.D. thesis]: Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton
University, 84 p.1961 (with Frankel, L.) Drowned forests along the eastern coast of Prince Edward Island,
Canada; Journal of Geology, v. 69, p. 352-357.1969 Geology of Mount Stewart-Souris map-area, Prince Edward Island, Canada: Canadian
Geological Survey Paper 67-66, 26 p., map.1970 (and Frankel, L.) Surficial geology of Rustico map-area, Prince Edward Island, Canada:
Canadian Geological Survey Paper 70-39,15 p., map.------ (with Frankel, L.) Permo-Carboniferous stratigraphy and structure of central Prince Edward
Island: Canadian Geological Survey Paper 69-17, 26 p.1971 Pleistocene geology and unconsolidated deposits of the Delaware Valley, Matamoras to
Shawnee On Delaware, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania Geological Survey General Geology Report No. G-60, 40 p., map.
1975 The style of the late Wisconsinan glacial border in northeast Pennsylvania: Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, v. 17, p. 42-43.
1977 (with Stuckenrath, R., Jr.) Geological setting of the Shawnee-Minisink paleo-indianarcheological site (36-Mr-43): New York Academy of Sciences Annals, v. 288, p. 218-222.
1979 (with Sanger, J.) Fossil pigments as a guide to the paleolimnology of Brown’s Lake, Ohio: Quaternary Research, v. 11, p. 342-352.
1980 The Woodfordian age of the Wisconsin border in north-central and northeastern Pennsylvania: Geology, v. 8, p. 51-55.
------ (and Sevon, W. D.) Glacial border deposits of late Wisconsinan age in northeasternPennsylvania: Pennsylvania Geological Survey General Geology Report 71,68 p.
1981 (with Cotter, J.F.P.) The paleolimnology of Rose Lake, Potter County, Pennsylvania; A comparison of palynologic and paleo-pigment studies, in Romans, R. C., ed., Geobotany II: New York, Plenum Press, p. 91-116.
------ Glaciation in north-central Pennsylvania and the Pine Creek Gorge, in Berg, T. M., leader,Geology of Tioga and Bradford Counties, Pennsylvania: Guidebook for the Annual Field Conference of Pennsylvania Geologists, 46th, p. 39-44.
1988 Surficial geology of Jersey Shore quadrangle, in Pohn, H. H., and others, Geology and Mineral Resources of the Jersey Shore quadrangle, Lycoming and Clinton Counties, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania Geological Survey General Geology Report (in press).
