Rocknocker: A Geologist’s Memoir - George Devries Klein

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take a rock quiz first. When I went to his office, he handed me two dark olive gray rocks. I looked at them and identified one as basalt and the other as an altered greenstone. Turned out the “basalt” was greywacke, and the “greenstone” was a basalt. Moreover, they came from the Keweenawan Peninsula in Michigan on Lake Superior, near my field camp area. Waters told me to take Gates’ course before taking petrogenesis.

      During the late winter, I applied for a summer job with the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC) indicating a preference for an assignment in the Canadian Rockies. I was hired as a Senior Geological Field Assistant, but sent back to Newfoundland.

      I took a quick trip home to go to the White Plains NY Federal Court House in late April, 1955, to receive my citizenship papers and was sworn in as a U.S. Citizen.

      Hopkins turned out to be a very unhappy experience. In May, about two weeks before the semester ended, Cloos announced that all first year students were required to take a written prelim exam, although earlier he told me I should take it my second year. I appealed and was turned down. I took it and did badly. Cloos asked me to find another graduate school.

      The following week, I visited Lehigh and Penn State. Because it was late in the year, they turned me down. I then applied to the University of Kansas, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Illinois, and the University of Minnesota. Only the University of Kansas accepted me and in time, I appreciated their acceptance more and more.

      Coincidentally, Amsden, Byerly, and Vokes also left that year. Amsden went to the Oklahoma Geological Survey, Byerly went to the U.S.G.S, and Vokes became chairman of the department of geology at Tulane University.

      The semester ended, I passed all course exams, and went to Newfoundland. I flew to Gander and took the train to Terra Nova on the eastern side of the Island. I was the last to arrive and was met by the party chief, Stuart Jenness (PhD, Yale, field geology; GSC), Reg Bates (a local Boatman), Colin Bull (local cook) and Frank Nolan (Junior Assistant). Frank, an undergraduate at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, was Nova Scotia’s junior tennis champion.

      GSC provided a jeep and I was taken to the base camp. There was also about 3 inches of snow 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

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