Major Parlays (par·lay  (pärl, -l)tr.v. par·layed, par·lay·ing, par·lays

1. To bet (an original wager and its winnings) on a subsequent event

2. . To maneuver (an asset) to great advantage

This first one required a good bit of serendipity. In 1984 I parlayed my Winter Term Sabbatical in this way.  I first managed to get the Associated Colleges of the Midwest to fund my visit to its program in Costa Rica.  Then, because UW-Stevens Point was running a tour to Costa Rica’s famed National Parks, I was able to combine it with the ACM visit.  When the tour concluded, the ACM program was still on break.  It turned out that the Dartmouth College Ecology Trip was about to head for Cocos Island, some 300 km offshore.  I was able to join them and assist a geology student who was to work on the volcanic rocks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cocos Island provided the name for the Cocos plate that is subducting under Costa Rica so it was a wonderful experience to precede my visit to the ACM program.  Next I made a cultural stopover in Mexico City on my way to spend a week doing geology with UWO-Oshkosh colleagues who were involved in a project in NE Mexico.

The next one was almost as great but did not require so much fortuitous good timing.  In  1991 I joined a group of geologists studying the history of geology – a GeoVenture cosponsored by NAGT and GSA : Great Britain’s Classic Geological Sites.  We toured England, Wales, and Scotland with the guidance of local experts. I flew into Frankfurt and took the train to Bremerhaven where I met with Dick Werner and his wife. We traveled to local points of interest and ventured to Schwerin in East Germany.  Next stop was Amsterdam, before the British excursion.  Then crossed the channel to France – Paris, fast train to Lyon, southern France, biked to foothills of Pyrenees and back to Paris before heading home.

 Miscellaneous Memories

  During our 1974-75 family wanderjahr I had a peak experience while on a solitary cross country ski jaunt. Peak experiences are described by Maslow as ‘especially joyous and exciting moments in life, involving sudden feelings of intense happiness and well-being, wonder and awe, and possibly also involving an awareness of transcendental unity or knowledge of higher truth (as though perceiving the world from an altered, and often vastly profound and awe-inspiring perspective’.  I had left the family in our cabin and after skiing into what is now Chocolay Downs golf course, I paused and took in my surroundings.  Suddenly I felt at one with the universe, matching the description given by Maslow.

Two Significant Events in Sports History

I thought it cool that my Dad had seen Babe Ruth hit a home run.  In 1945 Jackie Robinson played in his first game against the Cubs in Wrigley Field.  Dad took me to that game and so I too have a memory of an important part of baseball history.  I have a vivid memory of Jackie going from first to third after his teammate hit a single.  The speed and power of his run and the slide into third seemed, even to this ten year old, that he would become an exceptional baseball player.

In 1996 I took my son David to PGA Milwaukee tournament on August 29, 1996. Tiger Woods was making his professional debut four days after winning his third consecutive U.S. Amateur title. He made the cut at the GMO and finished tied for 60th place, earning a modest $2,544.  We witnessed Tiger make his first professional shot!

Among Many More Geological Adventures

Many experiences connected to geology took place during  field trips, some of my own devising for my students, but also many in connection with professional meetings, Sabbatical trips, National Science Foundation Conferences, a Chautauqua Volcanology Course, Great Britain’s Classic Geological Sites, etc. I taught Field courses for the following institutions:

• University of Kansas, Canon City, Colorado
• Associated Colleges of the Midwest, Boundary Waters Canoe Area
• University of Illinois, Bighorn Mountains, WY (12 summers)
• University of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff, Arizona
• Associated Colleges of the Midwest, Bozeman, MT
• Indiana University, Tobacco Root Mountains, MT (2 summers)
• University of Arizona, Cochise County, Arizona
• University of Costa Rica, Costa Rica
• Lawrence University and Fort Lewis College, Newfoundland, Canada

 My Four Most Significant Outcrop Visits

1. Gubbio, Italy

On a longer European trip with  Al Swanson, we stopped at the site where iridium was first found.  The Alvarez Hypothesis: The original hypothesis is the basis for several subsequent variations on the theme that a large extraterrestrial object collided with the Earth, its impact throwing up enough dust to cause the climatic change. The iridium layer is what prompted the Alvarez team to blame an asteroid impact for the extinction — asteroids and similar extraterrestrial bodies are higher in iridium content than the Earth’s crust, so they figured that the iridium layer must be composed of the dust from the vaporized meteor.

2. Outcrop northwest of Ishpeming, Michigan where I am shown at an outcrop of ejecta from the Subbury meteoroid impact, which occurred some 1.8 b.y. ago.

This means the ejecta were airborne over 200 miles before settling here.  The outcrop contains some lapilli (small pea-sized particles) that are deformed by the Penokean orogeny that created the structures in the Marquette Iron Range.

3. Gros Morne, Newfoundland.  The Mohorovicic Discontinuity, which reflects the different densities of the crust and the mantle, normally occurs at a depth of 35 km beneath the continents and about 10 km beneath the oceans. But here you can literally stand with one foot on the gabbro of the ocean crust and the other on the peridotite of the ocean mantle. It is because of this unusual sequence of rocks and other aspects of Gros Morne’s geology and landscape that in 1988 Gros Morne was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site..

4. Hutton’s Unconformity at Siccar Point, Scotland.

This is where James Hutton first realized the historical significance of an unconformity.  The older rocks were tilted and eroded before the younger rocks were laid down.  The erosional surface (later termed an unconformity) meant that there was a gap in the rock record.  This is one of the sites that led Hutton to recognize the immensity of geologic time.  Hutton found, “no vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end.”

Miscellaneous Sources of joy

• Fly Fishing in the Bighorns…Tongue River and other streams…  hiking  all night, viewing the trout from a cliff. Fishing in Montana’s famous trout streams, e.g. Gallatin and Madison.  These opportunities were a consequence of teaching field courses in Sheridan, WY (University of Illinois) and Tobacco Root Mountains, MT (Indiana University).
• Finishing the 1981 Birkebeiner 51 km ski race (“the year of the thaw”).
• Canoeing in Canadian Boundary Waters as part of teaching for the Associated Colleges of the Midwest.
• Hiking to view the sunrise at dawn from the rim of a volcano in Bali.
• Scuba diving in Jamaica, Turk, Yap, Palau and the Great Barrier Reef, Australia and snorkeling at Cocos Island, Costa Rica
• Downhill and cross-country skiing
• Watching a Leatherback turtle lay her eggs on a Costa Rica Pacific beach.

Of all these experiences, my crowning joy comes from sharing the love and support of my wife Carol and children, David, Kirsten and Douglas.

  Carol

                                                                         David

 

 

 

 

Kirsten

                                                                       Douglas

Standing on the shoulders of giants’

I was blessed to have been exposed to wonderful parents, family, friends, teachers and other examples of how to be.  Fritiof Fryxell at Augustana was recognized his teaching skill, writing and scholarly achievements.  We knew how much he cared for each one of us, so we studied hard to make sure we didn’t disappoint him.  At Iowa, Dick Hoppin, a Cal Tech Ph.d., quickly got my attention on the first test.  It was clear that graduate school was a different level.  He suggested I tackle the Horn area of the Bighorn Mountains and he became my Ph.d adviser.  He also was responsible for recommending me and my project to John James Prucha of Shell Development Company, which provided financial support for my field work.  Prucha and his field assistant visited the Horn and Carol and I, in turn visited his project near Fort Collins, CO.  Prucha later became the Department Chair at Syracuse University.  He eventually was one of the triumvirate in charge of the university so when geology offers came his way, he sent them my way.  Thus, my University of Kansas job in Canon City led to my leading Monmouth, Knox and Lawrence geologists on Spring Field Trips.  In turn, I was invited to join the Lawrence geology department. Later, my consulting with Samuel Pees in Pennsylvania, New York and Argentina came about because Prucha’s administrative duties kept him too busy at Syracuse.

Men who lived during my lifetime who were most impressive for me:   J. Robert Oppenheimer, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Winston Churchill and Mahatma Ghandi.

My all time greatest humans: Jesus of Nazareth, Siddhārtha Gautama Buddha, Abraham Lincoln.

Among the most diverse and fascinating individuals is Clarence King, the first director of the U.S. Geological Survey.