Harry Hess Centennial WebEdition Supplement, July, 2006 From the Spring 2006 issue of The Smilodon

Harry Hess in the early 1960’s.

Introduction to this WebEdition Supplement to the Spring 2006 issue of The Smilodon The authors of the original letters were asked to provide about 250-300 words. However, very few could keep to that amount. So it was necessary with limited publication space to edit the letters to fit the space available. A word count of the published, but edited, letters that appeared in The Smilodon is 6,092, whereas the word count of the complete letters (not including the late arrivals) amounts to 13,427. So only about 45% made the printed edition. Since many held to the smaller word limit, the big cuts were made in only a few very long letters. However, it was felt that so many interesting comments were made that the entire original texts as submitted should be made available. So here they are! We have made few changes, principally putting in the class numeral, and other information for identification purposes. In addition five letters arrived too late to meet the deadline. Their comments are included at the end. In addition, more photos were submitted than we could use, so we have included here all of those submitted, including a repeat of the original ones in the Spring 2006 Smilodon.

W. E. Bonini, Editor Laurie Wanat, Production Editor The Smilodon, July 1, 2006

The Smilodon, a Web Supplement 1 July 1, 2006 Remembering Harry Hess

One hundred years ago, on May 27, 1906, Harry Hammond Hess *32, faculty 1934-69, was born in New York City. Although his life was shortened by a heart attack at the age of 63 in 1969, he had a profound influence on geologic thought in the 20th Century. Arthur F. Buddington *16, faculty1917-59, wrote an obituary in which he recounted the five lives of Hess’ remarkable life, “(1) as a family man, (2) a member of the family of Princeton University, (3) a mineralogist, geologist, geological geophysicist and oceanographer, (4) an officer in the U. S. Naval Reserve and a statesman- scientist, and (5) the organizer, fund-raiser, and administrator of the Princeton Caribbean Geological Research Project.” Hess’ intellectual accomplishments are well recorded in the literature, so here we look at Hess as a person and his influence on a generation of students - especially, on a group of students graduat- ing Princeton in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Graduate students of that era gathered in Calgary, Alberta, last September to celebrate the beauty and geology of the Canadian Rockies at the Third Princ- eton GeoGrads Reunion. One evening at the Buffalo Mountain Lodge in Banff was set aside to Hess the typist, 1932, at Princeton. remember Harry Hess. Here are some of the thoughts and memories of him. Acknowledgements: Roger Macqueen *65 was most helpful in putting everything together, including supplying some photos; Rosemary Barker recorded and transcribed some presentations; Ted Konigsmark *58, Peter Mattson *57, and Dave MacKenzie *54 sent photographs; and Don Wise *57 took over 200 photos during the Reunion, many of which are in the printed edition. We owe special thanks to Harry’s son, George B. Hess, Professor of Physics, University of Virginia, for family photos that appear in this issue. For space reasons, many essays were shortened, but the complete series of contributions will be appear on the Departmental website in early July. http://geoweb.princeton.edu/. Please note that the contents of this document may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without permission. For more information on reprinting, please contact us at [email protected].

Harry Hess Talk By Dick Holland ’47, Faculty 1950-1972 myself to join the BC Geological Survey (then the BC Dept. of In the spring of 1950 I was asked to come to Princeton to be Mines, Mineralogical Branch), Harry said that I should try to start interviewed for a job in the Geology Department. I had graduated mapping the Queen Charlotte Islands. His thought was that its from Princeton in Chemistry, and was then in my third year as a west coast dropped sharply from alpine elevations to deep oceanic graduate student at Columbia. Harry Hess, the incoming Chair- depths and that there must be a reason. At the time the Queen man in Geology, asked me what 1 planned to do in my research. Charlotte Fault was not known and the islands were virtually terra I outlined some of my ideas. Harry was pleased, and it became nova. As chance had it, six years later the BC Government was obvious that he was going to offer me a job. I demurred somewhat: trying to encourage iron mining in the Province but at the same “You know, I’m not quite 23 yet, and I don’t think I’m ready to time was cutting funds for geological surveys. I, with the help of teach anybody anything, especially not at Princeton”. Harry’s my boss Stuart Holland (Princeton *33), proposed that we start response was perfect: “You know, Dick; if we didn’t think that a mapping project to outline favourable areas for magnetite skarn your lectures ten years from now would be better than the ones deposit that industry could then fly. The government could hardly you are apt to give in the fall, I wouldn’t offer you the job.” Of refuse. course, my reaction was: “My God, they’re going to keep me for Consequently, I did map the whole of the Charlottes. The very ten years!” As it turned out, I stayed for twenty-two. January 5, large QC earthquake on the fault was the year before I started 2006 and I showed the small number of old soundings along the west coast were contoured wrongly and, when corrected, displayed a Atholl Sutherland Brown *54 on Harry Hess’ thinking trench tracing the fault. Harry always thought globally and guided 16 Jan 2006. A Note on Harry Hess and his thoughts leading students to critical projects. Incidentally, we also found magnetite toward conceptualizing the Mohole, deep drilling and the theory deposits.” of Plate Tectonics. The facts of the following note may be well left to others in more elaborate form. Dave MacKenzie *54 In 1951 Harry gave a course supposedly for senior undergradu- In the early 1950s, the attention of many petrologists was on the ates that he called Advanced General Geology. It was attended by granitization controversy. But Hess saw that the keys to understand- all the resident graduate students because not only was he thinking ing earth’s features lay at the other end of the petrologic spectrum, out loud but he welcomed discussion. With guys like Gene Shoe- the ultramafic rocks, and in island arcs and ocean basins. Yet his maker present there was no shortage of this. During these sessions breakthrough hypothesis of sea-floor spreading in the early 1960s he started describing the dearth of sediments and sedimentary was preceded by concepts that later turned out to be discredited rocks in the deep ocean basins and gave figures for the amount that byways. One invoked a primary peridotite magma as the source of was missing. He felt there had to be a method of recycling them. alpine-type peridotites. Even in the face of contrary experimental I believe this soon led him towards concepts of possible solutions data, he was reluctant to abandon the idea. Another concept he and methods of testing. championed was the tectogene, a down-buckling of the earth’s crust 17 Jan 2006. A further brief note on Harry Hess and his global to explain the strong negative gravity anomalies associated with thinking that might be of interest. “In 1952, when I committed many island arcs. Here is Jacques Béland’s *53 take on the tecto-

The Smilodon, a Web Supplement 2 July 1, 2006 Memories of Harry Hess by Reg Shagam *56, December 20, 2005 To understand this let me remind you of a problem in the Coast Ranges of Venezuela which puzzled about 6 graduate members of Harry’s Caribbean crew. An E-W belt of quartzo-feldspathic metamorphics (Caracas Group) along the coast is in fault contact with an E-W belt of basic volcanics (Villa de Cura Group) to the south. The paucity of fossils and lack of radiometric age data stymied all efforts to establish the age relationships of the two belts. If the volcanic belt was the younger how come one never found the volcanics intrusive into the quartzo-feldspathic belt? If the reverse how come one never found pebbles of the volcanics in the Caracas Group, moreover what happened to the thick pile of sediment which presumably once overlay the volcanics in the latter situation? Harry solved the problem by proposing obduction of marine volcanics onto the continental margin. Keep in mind this was mid- to late-fifties...BPT (Before Plate Tectonics !). Harry’s Tectogene, or tecto-Jean drawing by Jacques Béland *53. idea when told now draws yawns; at the time it was mind-boggling science. gene or tecto-Jean. I am sending the figure and Jacques’ approval Years later I asked him: “Harry, what gave you the idea for the by mail. (see figure). So even with his extraordinary intuition, the obduction of the Villa de Cura?” “You did” I looked at him open- path to sea-floor spreading and plate tectonics led to some dead- mouthed; “Huh?” “Yes. You mapped that fossiliferous limestone ends. Note: Jacques has given me written approval to include his near the top of the sediments and showed its constant spatial re- figure. lationship to the volcanics. Then Ron Oxburgh *60 and Alfredo Memories of Harry By Les Coleman *55, 3 January 2006 Menedez *62 showed how the relationship persisted around the I first met Harry nearly a month after arriving in Princeton in sharp ‘elbow’ of that contact as it was traced to the west. Clearly August, 1952. I was in the office collecting my mail when Miss the steep fault separating the two belts must once have been sub- Law said, “Coleman, you should meet Dr. Hess”. I turned around horizontal and then subsequently rotated. There was no possible expecting to see the distinguished looking gentleman I had visual- continental source for the volcanics; they must have slid in from ized when I applied to Princeton - an image resulting from reading the Caribbean!” several of his well-ordered and elegantly reasoned papers and from Once explained it was pretty obvious (and especially to me). his Germanic surname. Instead I saw an almost scruffy, far from The message was: “Trust your eyes and link them to your mind”! clean-shaven character in khaki slacks and an open-necked shirt Harry had done such a thing many times before. Another instance with a cigarette hanging out of the corner of his mouth of same was when he suggested that the beveled edges of guyots After the academic formality then prevailing at Canadian uni- represented drowned wave-cut benches. How many would have versities, the easy going camaraderie between faculty and graduate thought of the idea that a short gently sloping surface under 1-2 students at Princeton was a revelation. For me, it was epitomized km of water in the middle of the Pacific Ocean was a wave-cut by my associations with Harry. Among my most vivid memories of terrace?! those years, is working evenings in his lab alongside him and Bob To a degree Harry’s mind operated on the Holmesian principle: Smith*54, then his other research assistant. All of us (then) smoked “Eliminate the impossible; what remains, however, implausible and Bob and I learned that if you were sitting next to Harry at the microscope bench, you didn’t put your cigarette down on the edge of the bench next to him or soon he would unwittingly be smoking it. We also learned that if we were out of cigarettes, we could help ourselves to the Chesterfields, of which there was always a carton, in one of the left hand drawers of his desk in the office next door. Conversations those evenings covered a wide range of topics which, among others, included the persuasive evidence being presented for continental drift and that, on the basis of what we then believed about the physical properties of the crust and mantle, it wasn’t possible. This, of course, was only a year or so before Harry came up with the solution to the problem, i.e. seafloor spreading. While sartorial and housekeeping neatness might not have been among his obvious traits, Harry’s mind was brilliant and orderly; he was endowed with a wonderful sense of humor; and was one of the most considerate and generous persons that I have been Maracay, Venezuela, 1951. Left to right: Marge and Jim MacLachlan *52; John privileged to know. Maxwell, faculty; Raymond Smith *51; Harry Hess, faculty; in front of the Yellow Monster. Photo by Dave MacKenzie *54.

The Smilodon, a Web Supplement 3 July 1, 2006 Hess on a field trip at the 2nd Carib- Even the microprobe can’t beat that. bean Geological Congress, Rosario, But, for me, there’s much more to Harry Hess. He seemed Puerto Rico, January 1959. Photo by to respect my observational abilities and always gave me serious Peter Mattson *57 responses to question I posed from problems that arose in my re- must be the truth”. It sounds search , even very esoteric problems. And he listened and responded simple but very few have been carefully to hypotheses. He didn’t challenge. He was collegial to us able to match Harry at that all from the day we entered grad school. Five minutes with him at game. Me either. a GSA or AGU meeting recharged my intellectual batteries more than anything or anybody else ever did. I can’t say that he and I were close buddies, but close enough. I miss him to this day. Stories about Harry Hess I’ll close with something more general, but still revealing. Hess from Bill Poole*56, January told me that, as Captain of the USS Cape Johnson, he never 25, 2006 returned stateside with any alcoholic beverages aboard. Any such Your call for stories about stores left were always donated at his last port of call, and always Harry Hess brought out of to enlisted personnel. my fading and not altogether trustworthy memory, this one Harry Hess by Peter Mattson *57, December 2005 about Harry’s smoking. Harry Leila and Peter Mattson *57 spent about ten months in south- Hess (‘Triple H’ or ‘H cubed’ western Puerto Rico in 1954-56, Peter doing thesis research and as some of us called him, to Leila coping with everything else. Harry visited from time to time, ourselves) in the early 1950s exercising loose direction and giving encouragement. I mostly re- was a smoker, a great smoker, a member his dropping cigarette ashes everywhere, but advising me nearly constant smoker it seems. to keep my geologic map up-to-the-minute, outlining and coloring I can still picture those nicotine-painted finger tips. On one oc- to make it understandable to him and others. Leila remembers casion, he was invited to lecture to geology staff and students at burning the toast at an early breakfast (I remember this as our Columbia University and several Princeton grads accompanied honeymoon; Leila humpfs), and Harry calmly scraping off the him. Schermerhorn Hall it seemed to me was a modern building burned parts and eating the rest. As a holdover from less healthy characterized by cleanliness and clanging doors, quite different tropical locales, Harry ate no salads and consumed beer and rum, from the venerable, well-worn Guyot Hall. Harry stepped up to but little water. We rinsed all our fresh vegetables in weak Clorox the front of the room full of people, pulled out a cigarette despite solutions. many signs forbidding smoking, and lit it with a match while his He did, however, get me successfully through the thesis and de- eyes searched the room for an ashtray. Not finding one, he casually fense, and even did most of the preparation of the thesis for GSA tossed the match to the floor in front of the audience and proceeded publication while I was in the Army. As I remember, it included the to lecture. It was hard for us from Princeton to suppress a giggle last large colored geologic map published in the GSA Bulletin, part while seeing the look of astonishment on some of the faces of the of a 1960 special issue devoted to Hess student Caribbean theses. Columbians. Harry was a smoker! Largely due to Harry’s inspiration, the map showed that south- western Puerto Rico had a basement of serpentinized peridotite, Contribution from Manny Bass, January 18, 2006 possibly still part of the mantle or at least a very thick thrust slice Of all the class notes I ever took in any class, and school, I’ve coming from the mantle. Later work by fellow Hess student Emile referred to those from Hess’ Advanced Mineralogy, Saturday morn- ing, Fall, 1951, more than any others. His topics were thematic and the theses sounded repeatedly throughout my geologic experiences. But I learned almost as much just watching him work. Late one morning after Advanced Mineralogy, Shagam *56 and I talked to Hess about something or other standing around his x-ray machine. As we talked he powdered a sample in an agate mortar, smeared an aliquot on a slide with water or alcohol, let it dry, mounted the side on the holder, set the diffractometer, at 25o , I think, started the machine, and, about 0 seconds later, the stylus went off-scale, to return about 215 seconds later to baseline. Hess said, “Andalusite.” Elapsed time, about 12 minutes. I recovered from a gaping jaw enough to ask what he’ just done. A few years later the x-ray diffractometer was my standard tool for unknown minerals, and it plus the petrographic microscope for fine-grained rocks. A 40o whole-rock diffraction pattern, about 40 minutes on the machine, of an aphanititic volcanic rock or mudstone completes Gathering at the end Caribbean Geological Congress, Rosario, Puerto Rico, Janu- a “90%” description, including structural state of most feldspars, ary 1959. Left to right: Emile Pessagno *60 and spouse (name thought to be of an oceanic basalt, or a rhyolite or ignimbrite from the basement Betty), Annette Hess, two ;unknowns, and Harry Hess, standing. Photo by Peter of the Central US about as fast as any other set of tools I know of. Mattson *57

The Smilodon, a Web Supplement 4 July 1, 2006 building. Dr. Hess (it was not until later that he would become “Harry”) shortly wandered into the room and was soon involved in the discussion. To bolster his argument, one of the older gradu- ate students triumphantly referred to something that Harry had published in a paper some years before. I shall never forget Harry’s reaction. Harry cocked his head, gave his little smile and chuckle, and with a twinkle in his eye said “Oh – I don’t believe that any more! Here’s what I think now.” And with that, Harry went on to enthusiastically describe his new idea. At that moment I knew I really liked Harry. Although the discussion was about mountain building, Harry taught several other valuable lessons. The first, and most obvious lesson, was to always look at a problem with the newest and best information available. Quickly discard old ideas that no longer fit – even if your name is on them. The second lesson is to always seek the scientific truth. The truth may be difficult to see, and there may be digressions and U-turns in getting there, but the important 1959, field trip, 2nd Caribbean Geological Conference, Rosario, Puerto Rico. Left objective is to get to the truth. The third lesson is that, with a smile to right: Verners Zans, Jamaican Geological Survey; Harry Hess; Bill Benson, NSF. and chuckle, you can enjoy, and help others enjoy, the trip toward Photo by W. E. Monroe, USGS, courtesy of Peter Mattson *57 scientific truth. During my subsequent career in oil exploration, there were Pessagno *60 and myself showed Jurassic and early Cretaceous many times when new data and new decisions came rapidly. At radiolarian cherts resting on the peridotite, thus limiting the age those times, I often recalled the lessons learned that afternoon and of the mantle in the northeastern Caribbean. tried to use them as a guide toward making the right decision. It was comforting to know that Harry was there, at least in spirit. Professor Harry Hess by Finley Campbell, January 20, 2006 His broad philosophic overview of the place of Earth Sciences Comments by Ray Price *58, January 3, 2006 in the intellectual evolution of mankind was apparent in all of his I didn’t have the privilege of being a research student work- remarks. The tools to study the earth ranged from all of the basic ing under Harry’s supervision. However, I did take some of his sciences of mathematics, physics, chemistry, botany and biology graduate courses, and was deeply influenced by the example that employed within the social and humanistic constraints of accepted he set. I will describe a few my memories about his style and his logic. influence. I can recall when our student group plotted to seek intellectual The first day in his graduate course in mineralogy was truly clarification of various aspects of continental drift and plate tec- memorable. We were a diverse group of new grad students with tonics by seeking Harry’s advanced views on these topics in the dissimilar backgrounds in the subject. Some of us had completed mineralogy laboratory. There we could get him to draw relation- undergraduate courses in optical mineralogy, but at least one had ships on the blackboard and elaborate on his theories instead of never looked down a microscope. Harry wasted no time. After an having us measure 2V’s on pyroxenes from the Stillwater Complex. hour or two of lecturing he assigned us the task of determining feld- The mineralogy eventually was completed but the pre-universal spar compositions using a universal stage and the mineral samples stage discussions became a very important part of the laboratory sessions. At the personal level I will never forget the day he came up to me in a corridor of Guyot with a letter in his hand and said it was from a department head in a university asking for suggestions of a candidate to teach mineralogy and crystallography and suggested that I should apply. I did not think of myself as a mineralogist or crystallographer or of having a university career. Harry thought otherwise, and here I am almost 50 years later. Comments on Harry Hess By Ted Konigsmark *58, October 19, 2005 Fifty years ago, as a new graduate student in the Geology Depart- ment at Princeton, I found myself in an unused classroom near the mineralogy laboratory participating in an impromptu discus- sion with several other graduate students - the sort of discussion Hess in the San Juan de los Morros area, Venezuela, 1957. Photo by Ted Ko- that just “happens.” The topic of our discussion was mountain nigsmark *58.

The Smilodon, a Web Supplement 5 July 1, 2006 Hess in Washington, ~1967. was a Canadian and there was Harry Hess, and the question was, who was going to make it? Miss Law was sitting there taking notes, that he provided. This and they had this discussion. When unanimity was reached, Bud was a daunting chal- shouted to Miss Law “It’s Harry!” Indeed, in the fall, Harry came, lenge for all of us, but but it wasn’t the Harry that they had thought. They had voted for his message was clear the Canadian, but the man who showed up was Harry Hess. Bud --- “you can all learn the (Arthur Buddington) smiled gracefully and welcomed him; he techniques on your own never batted an eye, and that’s where things are a mystery! Whether if you have some guid- this is true or not I don’t know. If this story was invented, I wouldn’t ance and are focused wonder if Harry invented it! It was like him, you know. on meeting the chal- I’ve often wondered about that picture that hung in Harry’s lenge”. Another mem- house, the little admiral, do you remember? It was a little boy, orable occasion was dreamy-eyed, looking through a window at the sea and a sailing the appearance of an ship out there, and this was passed off as having been a painting of unusual invited speaker Harry when he was a little boy. I would not be at all surprised if in the Department. Im- that was a much later gift or whether Harry himself found it and manuel Velikovsky had took a shine to it. He wasn’t yet an admiral, but he had become published some truly deeply ingrained in the navy, but anyway of course, he wound up outrageous scientific an admiral. Well, you know the rest of his wonderful experiences, hypotheses in his attempts to explain some of the prevalent myths but mysteries remain, and I think it makes him all the more fasci- of the ancient world by revising contemporary understanding of nating. There is one little other thing I’d like to say. He was very archeology, geology, and astronomy. The grad students were ready receptive to student brilliance, and there is a man here, with us to ridicule Velikovsky and his ideas, but Harry introduced him tonight, who wrote a thesis. Harry read it, and after the guy had graciously, listened to him politely, and treated him courteously in defended it, Harry looked at it, and said, “That man has courage the ensuing discussion. Harry’s humility and respect for human - he’s got what it takes”. That from Harry was the most tremen- dignity set an example for all of us. dous compliment, and I’m still just wowed by the man. Thanks. As with many of the other speakers, one the most important Transcribed by Rosemary Barker. influences Harry Hess had on my career was an appreciation of the importance of integrating different scientific perspectives in the Comments by Hugh Greenwood*60, faculty 1960-67, January quest to solve the fundamental problems of how the earth works. 13, 2006 I was privileged to have known him. It is a privilege to offer a few comments on how Harry Hess deeply affected my science and my life. After finishing a Master’s Al Fischer, faculty 1956-84, comments on Harry Hess, degree at the University of British Columbia and working for a September 14, 2005 year and a half as a mining geologist in Noranda, Quebec, I finally Harry basically loved mystery stories, and he liked to be decided I should look around for a graduate school. Like many something of a mystery man. Many of you may recall some of young graduates I applied to several schools, wondering if I would his conversations. He liked to tell stories. A story would start out ever be accepted, and to my surprise was apparently acceptable to very straightforward; he would say: “You’re going to learn some all. But the men I most wanted to work with were Harry Hess things here”, and then things would become slightly funny and and Arthur Buddington, so in the event the decision was easy. peculiar and, after awhile, they’d be perfectly preposterous, and you would realize that he had been pulling your leg all along, and What I didn’t know when I arrived was that he was an admiral in the big challenge was where did he switch from fact to fancy? This the U.S. navy and was often away. It was hard to get his attention was impossible to tell, as he had rendered them so wonderfully. even when he was at Guyot probably because he had a lot more on There are many stories about Harry that are funny, peculiar, and his mind than the hopeful concerns of a new grad student. Eventu- undocumented, and I wonder how many he invented, and how ally after a couple of months I was able to show him what I had many other people invented. There is the story that he did not brought with me. I spread out my maps and specimens, filling the graduate from Geology at Yale, but from Electrical Engineering. entire laboratory with material that I thought would be my Ph.D. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but you could easily check up thesis. There were some 300 carefully collected specimens, and on that, so that we would know the truth. Anyway, he came to several large maps of the volcanic rocks of Lake Dufault Mines. I Princeton, having done a year’s fieldwork in Africa. They had no was going to do the definitive study on volcanogenic ore deposits base maps, they had nothing to work on, they were supposed to of the shield. Finally, Professor Hess came to look at it. He stood sample an area for copper ore, but there were no outcrops in the there and looked around smoking continuously for a good half- area. What they did, they had to determine true North, and then hour, and said “Very good, Greenwood,” a remark that puffed me lay out a grid for pace and compass traverses, and sample the up considerably for a moment. But then he said, “But you can’t soil. Mostly they sampled ant heaps or termite heaps to get stuff. do this for a thesis.” “Well, why not?” I asked. “You’ve done too Meanwhile Harry had applied to Princeton. The story goes, and I have no way of checking on this, that the admissions committee had sat down, and they had nine people, they had room for nine and they had chosen eight, and number nine came along, and there The Smilodon, a Web Supplement 6 July 1, 2006 Rabbit doodles by Harry Hess. much (already). Do something else.” Whereupon he wandered, rine to get below the near surface zone disturbed by waves. They smoking, out of the lab. convinced the US Navy of the value of this work and an ancient The thing is, the man was right - he changed my life in a way First World War submarine was assigned to the project. The only that I couldn’t have anticipated. He knew more about me than I problem was that it was not possible for a civilian to give a subma- knew about myself, and he hardly knew me at that time. rine captain the orders that would be necessary for maneuvering I should bring this up too. There should be declared a new the vessel to make the measurements. The solution was for Harry physical law. There is a thermodynamic physical law called Hess’s to join the navy. In those days it was the prerogative of senior US Law, but there is a more important Hess’s Law that I think we all admirals to simply create several commissioned officers by decree understand, and that is that all horizontal surfaces shall be covered each year. No previous experience necessary! An admiral was found with paper to the angle of repose. Astonishingly Harry could al- who had not used up his quota for the year and Harry instantly ways approach that pile, pause a moment, and dig into it to find became a junior officer in the navy. The final step was to find a whichever journal article or letter that was needed. He must have junior submarine commander with whom Harry would have equal been maddening for secretaries but he was fascinating to the rest rank. During the marine gravity work Harry could then consult of us. with his civilian adviser and give navigation orders to the submarine In another way for me he was life-changing. At the point when I captain! I cannot vouch for the veracity of the tale but that is how had barely finished my thesis, and was employed, if you can believe Harry told it. it, as a physical chemist at the Carnegie Geophysical Lab he called Many of Harry’s stories related to his time in the Navy during up one day, and said “Let’s have dinner at the Cosmos Club.” “But the Second World War. After the gravity work he had continued Harry, I’m not a member of the Cosmos Club, that’s only for the in the naval reserve and undergone some formal training. After elite.” Harry said, “Well, I’m a member, come and have dinner Pearl Harbor (I think) he was called to full time duty. and we can have a talk”. Well, we had dinner, and we had quite a At one stage he was in charge of an office that coordinated few glasses of this and that, and talked long into the night. I went intelligence on the movements of hostile submarines in the At- home, and said, “Sylvia, let’s start planning to pack up; I’m going lantic. The information available was normally imprecise and to be on the faculty at Princeton and I’ve got to go”. incomplete. Ideally it consisted of a location, a direction of travel, Harry made good changes in many lives. He sized people up, and a speed. The aim was to judge what the enemy submarines and made suggestions that seriously and beneficially affected the were up to and to warn allied convoys accordingly. He began by way they conducted their lives. To me, he will always be a great choosing teams of applied mathematicians and physicists but that man. was not a success because they felt that it was impossible to draw any conclusions from such poor data and regarded the problems as Some memories of Harry by Ron Oxburgh *60, Feb 26. insoluble. After several experiments he ended up with a team that 2006 was largely geologists who as he commented were “the only group There are three kind of Harry story – stories that Harry him- that was comfortable with making confident predictions on the self told about his past, stories about Harry, told first hand, and basis of terrible data”. If I remember rightly both Franklyn Van stories that have been passed by word of mouth from generation Houten *41 and John Maxwell *46 were at various times in that to generation of students becoming embellished on the way! team. Harry used to smile wryly and comment on how highly his I will limit myself to the first two. Harry would tell his stories unit was regarded by the Navy. He explained that if the convoys either late in the evening over a Cuba Libre or during the inter- encountered no submarines where predicted, it was assumed that minable waits – they could be for almost anything - that tended they were submerged, and if they did the prediction was accurate! to be an inescapable feature of work in the Caribbean in the late He also had comments on the relative effectiveness of German and fifties. Italian submarines. He believed that because the Germans were very I think that earliest chronologically was Harry’s account of how efficient, once he had obtained a speed and a direction he knew he got into the navy. In the thirties he had become very interested where they were going, and to that extent they were predictable. in the work of the Dutch geophysicist, Vening Meinesz who had The Italians, however, were by nature unpredictable and he claimed devised a way of making gravity measurements at sea. Harry con- that where they went depended on the weather and the inclination vinced him of the value of making gravity measurements at sea of the captain, and he could never predict where they would turn around deep ocean trenches and island arcs – both of which were up and they were consequently more effective. poorly known at the time. Accuracy was, however, poor and they When he got a ship of his own he was able to interpret naval had the idea of improving the measurements by using a subma- orders and procedures in his own way. During the latter part of

The Smilodon, a Web Supplement 7 July 1, 2006 Hess, circa 1945, in the Navy. For the earlier years of the Caribbean project in Venezuela, the country was under a fairly unpleasant military dictatorship and it the Pacific war he normally was very easy to be thrown in jail for the most trivial act. Harry cruised with his acoustic was put in jail by the police - I think only overnight - for walking depth sounder continu- across the Plaza Bolivar without wearing a jacket. This was showing ously pinging the sea floor. disrespect to Simon Bolivar, the Liberator. When he pointed out The rationale was that no that others were not wearing jackets he was told that they did not military vessel would be own jackets but would wear them if they had them. These were crazy enough to announce trying times and the approach that Harry found was most effec- its presence by doing this tive for coping with officialdom was not to be able to speak any and that everyone would Spanish at all but to be endlessly patient, smiling and seeming to think that he was a non- have no other wish in the world other than to oblige, if only he combatant survey vessel. could understand. On at least one occasion when stopped by the This allowed him to accu- traffic police and asked for his papers, he immediately responded mulate a many thousands by opening the hood of the car and with gestures demonstrated of miles of surveyed tracks the motor. When they made it clear that they were not interested that ultimately saw the light in the motor he operated the lights and showed them that they all of day in his seminal paper worked; then the trunk. Then he opened his suitcase and started on the bathymetry of the taking out his possessions. When they made it clear that they were Pacific that was published in Bulletin of the GSA in 1948. The captain’s not interested, he took them round to the front of the car and eccentricities became well known on the ship and all understood that opened the hood once more. At that point they threw their hands he was interested in rocks. His crew did indeed bring him rocks even in the air and gave him up as a harmless lunatic and went to look to the extent of grabbing rocks from the beaches of Pacific islands for bribes elsewhere. where they had been landing forces under fire! My first encounter with Harry was in 1957. I traveled from the At some stage his ship’s crew had acquired a jeep, which made UK to Trinidad by banana boat and thence to Venezuela. After I’d life on shore a lot easier. Ultimately this jeep reached the end of its been a few weeks in the field with Gordie Taylor *60 in Margarita, serviceable existence and was more trouble than it was worth. The Harry arrived in the course of his annual Caribbean tour. We met problem was that it was logged as part of the ship’s equipment and up in Caracas and then headed for the Araya peninsula, which was they could find no way of disposing of it in any way that would a potential thesis area for me. There was no land access to the pen- satisfy the bureaucrats. Finally Harry had it pushed over the side insula, an arid desert, and the only approach was by sea. For us this of the ship. It was then recorded as sunk, an acceptable way of meant a trip of several hours in small and stinking wooden fishing ending the life of a piece of naval equipment! boat. The outward trip was calm and easy and gave us a very hot He used to horrify the captains of fuelling tenders while refuel- and thirsty day in the field. In the evening, however, a storm blew ing at sea. The conventional technique was apparently for both up and the return trip was memorable. The problem was that it vessels to sail on nearly parallel converging courses and then to was necessary to carry a number of large rocks in the bottom of the cruise at speed, close together, while the fuelling bowsers were con- boat for ballast. The boat rose to the crest of each large wave and nected and to remain that way until the operation was complete. then crashed down into the next trough followed a moment later Collisions were common. The captain of the ship being refueled by the rocks which showed every sign of going straight through always directed the operation and Harry’s approach was to order the rotting planks of the bottom. Harry simply sat in the stern, the tender to come to a dead stop while he did the same with his chain smoking and watching the rocks with philosophical calm. ship along side but several hundred feet away. He then sent bow Subsequently he confided that he too had thought that we would and stern lines across to the tender and winched his ship sideways not make it to land. until the two ships were alongside and the fuel lines connected. One winter in the early sixties (?1961/62) Harry was invited to Not very elegant, he admitted, but he never had a mishap. come to the UK to speak at the annual British Geology Students’ Scientifically, he said that his greatest excitement arose from meeting—sadly it no longer happens. It was being held in Cam- an idea and some calculations that were totally wrong. After his bridge that year and I traveled from Oxford to hear what he had discovery of guyots he did a calculation that suggested (in a pre- to say. It was breath-taking—one of the first, if not the first, public sea floor spreading era) that the different heights of the erosional expositions of sea-floor spreading, complete with the seams on the guyot tops reflected the progressive filling of the ocean basins with baseball analogy to explain the topology of ridges and trenches. Sir land-derived sediment; the deepest were oldest and had been eroded Edward Bullard who was Professor of Geophysics in Cambridge at a time when the oceans were less full of sediment and sea-level at the time had been invited to give the vote of thanks. He had was lower. I don’t know whether this was ever published. not liked the talk. He was of the Harold Jeffrey’s school and was As a salutary tale about not paying enough attention to detail, absolutely clear that if the Earth had the elastic properties necessary he described how for years he had been aware of certain discrepan- to explain its seismic structure, it had to be too strong to admit cies in the x-ray data that he was accumulating on pyroxenes, and of the kind of motions Hess was suggesting. In his speech he had simply chosen to ignore it as experimental error, improbably thanked Professor Hess for his most interesting talk but confessed large though it was. Much too late, in his view, he recognized that to being unsure whether it owed more to the science of Physics or he had been seeing the difference between othopyroxenes and Metaphysics! Only a few years later Bullard had Alan Smith *63 clinopyroxenes. The Smilodon, a Web Supplement 8 July 1, 2006 working on fits of the continental margins! In the UK at that time map flat to free his hands to light another cigarette. He would then central heating was not common and that winter was exceptionally need to point something out and put the second cigarette down cold. Harry was staying at the home of the Cambridge Professor of etc. etc.—it was not uncommon to see him surrounded by four Geology, Bulman, the graptolite specialist. I asked him whether he cigarettes alight at one time. was comfortable. He hesitated and then said that his bedroom was I was at the time, and continue to be, astonished by the way in on the cool side—“you know if you touch the walls your fingers which Harry could carry in his head the details of so much Ca- stick.” ribbean stratigraphy. His summer Caribbean trips lasted four or At the end of my second field season in Venezuela I returned to five weeks as he visited his various students distributed around the Princeton in the Fall and Ursula came out from the UK and we islands or on the mainland of Venezuela. Astonishingly he seemed got married in the Princeton Chapel. It was a great departmental to be able to shift overnight from one geological scenario to another wedding but that is another story. Of course Harry was there and and instantly recall and then discuss the excruciating details of was due to propose the health of the bride and groom. The only stratigraphy to which his graduate students exposed him. problem was that in the chapel Annette spotted that he was wear- Although some of his students were accompanied in the field by ing the jacket from a blue suit and the pants from a brown one their wives others were not. After his visiting his students Harry so he was sent home to change before the reception at the Dick always made a point of somehow coming across the wives who were Holland ‘47’s house! back in Princeton for the summer and giving them first hand news In 1959 some Shell geologists organised a field trip in the Ven- of their husbands’ progress, It was much appreciated. Equally at ezuelan Coast Ranges. They had been working in a region adjacent the tenser time of thesis writing, he would from time to time have to that which I was mapping and Harry and I were invited to join a word with the wives who as often as not were doing the typing. them. It had been an interesting but long day and, unusually, we My wife Ursula recalls one such occasion when she was suffering had encountered a number of barbed wire fences. There were several from my waxing lyrical about the amazing colours of the rocks very polite Swiss in the party and a ritual developed according to which all looked grey to her. She asked him whether the rocks which one of the party would rush forward to hold the strands apart were really like that. The reply was “Don’t worry, I never read the so that the rest of the party could crouch through. One member of colours in their theses!” the party, H, stood out; he was a man totally devoid of any sense of humour but invaluable before the days of data bases because he Reminiscences of Harry Hess by Eldridge Moores *63, De- simply knew everything that had been written about South Ameri- cember 28, 2005 can geology. Right at the end of the day we came across a fence that Harry Hess was one of the most influential and memorable we could walk across because it had fallen down on its side where individuals I have ever met. His personal invitation was perhaps the posts had rotted at the bottom. On this occasion Harry, who the single most important factor tipping the scales in favor of my had not previously participated in the ritual, ran forward grabbed attending Princeton. My first encounter with him occurred when the fence and picking it up held the strands apart for H who was I first arrived. Miss Law escorted me into his office, and I was non- at the front of the party. H duly started to step through the fence plussed. There was the famous man surrounded by stacks of paper but half way through he stopped dead and then looked up at Harry and clouds of cigarette smoke, looking up of sleepily, and saying and said, ‘But Professor we could have walked over this one.’ The something like “Oh, hullo Moores.” I said something like “Thanks rest of the party was incapable with mirth for about ten minutes. for all you have done for me”. And his response was something Harry’s mineralogy lectures were probably the worst classes that akin to “Well, we hope to do a lot more”. It was an unusual and I ever attended. They consisted of Harry’s writing semi-legibly on warming experience for someone fresh out of the super pressure the black board and muttering incomprehensibly with his back to cooker of Caltech. the class and a cigarette in his mouth. In a curious way they were Hess was a quiet lecturer. extremely effective because what became clear from those mutter- He was not particularly dy- ings that we could interpret, and the words on the board that we namic or even well organized. could read, was that there were various topics that we were sup- But one soon learned to posed to understand but of which we had no comprehension. As listen carefully. Similarly, in consequence we all went away and studied furiously and ended up a conversational situation, quite competent mineralogists. when Harry started to speak, Harry’s smoking was legendary. One wrinkle that I learned very one learned to stop and listen early—from Gordie Taylor I think—was that Harry could only carefully, because he would think when he was smoking. This meant that if you were taking invariably say something him to a really complex outcrop where you needed his help, it fresh and worth listening to. was essential to make sure that you had matches and a carton of My field experiences with Chesterfields in your pack. You knew that if you ran out of either, Hess began with an adven- Harry would first lapse into silence and shortly afterwards suggest turous summer in Haiti fol- that it was time to go back! He loved maps whether in the office or lowed by a month in Jamaica. in the field and loved to gaze at them and ponder their significance. Three students—Martand This was a highly tobacco-intensive activity. He would normally Hess trimming a specimen, Magne- have one cigarette alight. He would then need to put this down tigorsk, USSR, 1937. Photo by A. F. to open up the map. He would then find something to hold the Buddington.

The Smilodon, a Web Supplement 9 July 1, 2006 As I was finishing my thesis in Nevada, I heard from John Max- well about a project on a northern Greek ophiolite. I convinced John and Harry to let me have a crack at it, although Hess at the time took a dim view of the interpretation of a close relation- ship between the peridotites and extrusive rocks of the ophiolitic suite—thinking instead that they were independent. I traveled to Greece in Summer, 1963, returning to the US in October, 1964. Hess and Maxwell paid me a visit in Summer 1964, along with Don Wise *57 and Ron Oxburgh *60. Maxwell, Hess and I subsequently visited several Italian ophiolite exposures. We received a letter from Hess after the trip, thanking us, in his usual humble way, for the trip, and saying that he now believed the ophiolite story. The following year he published an article in the Colston Research Hess in his office circa 1960. volume relating ophiolites to ocean crust formed by spreading. Harry took a liking to the local wine of northern Greece, so Joshi *63, Bill MacDonald *65, and I went to Haiti together, when I left, I bought him a bottle from the restaurant—it was 75¢ spent about 6 weeks, and then picked up Harry in Port-au-Prince for 1 1/2 liters, with a rag in the top, but with a 50¢ deposit on and toured the areas in which we had done reconnaissance—mainly the bottle. I found a cork, but I expect that by the time my trunk in the north. Arriving back in Port-au-Prince with a day to spare, returned to Princeton, it was well converted to vinegar. we decided to drive to the south coast. Many hours later (one As I was writing up the Greek work, I ran onto the Memoirs could average about 10 mph on Haitian roads), we came late in the of the Cyprus Geological Survey. The Troodos complex, Cyprus, afternoon to a critical point—a bulldozer parked on a tight curve looked like a possibility for ocean crust formed by sea floor spread- with a soft shoulder high up on a hill, and luckily, the first other ing. After a two-day reconnaissance with John Dickey *69 in vehicle we had seen that afternoon—a Haitian Army Jeep with an Summer, 1966, I wrote a report to Hess and Maxwell about it. officer negotiating his own vehicle past the barrier using the locals Apparently the report convinced Fred Vine, faculty 1965-69, that (about 50-100 of which would appear out of the bush whenever it was a place worth looking into. He approached Hess and asked you stopped). We did the same thing. But we were “blancs”, and to take a look at it, but Harry apparently thought that it wasn’t “Papa Doc” had recently made an anti-American speech. As we worth his effort. Vine came to me and suggested that we look at got back into the vehicle, Hess quietly said between puffs of his it together. We went to Hess with this proposition, and he gave cigarette, “I think you’d better get going (puff). These fellows have his blessing. With a year’s delay because of political difficulties, machetes (puff) and it looks like they are going to use them”. We Fred and I went to Cyprus in Summer 1968. My wife Judy and got out of there pronto. Reaching the local town, we forded the 14-month-old daughter Geneva accompanied me. mouth of the river (with Hess directing us to disconnect the fan On the way back from Cyprus, Judy and I (and Geneva) stopped belt first), found a gas station, and had dinner at the local hotel. off in Princeton. I went to see Hess. When he learned that my At 8 PM, we started back for Port-au-Prince so Harry could catch family was with me, he told me firmly to bring them around to his his plane the next day. It took us over 6 hours to make the 60 miles house late that afternoon. As we walked in the door, Harry barely back to our hotel. This involved some 50-75 fords of a Bilharzias- looked at Judy and me; he focused solely on our toddler, saying containing stream, during two of which we drowned the engine. “Hello, let’s go get some toys.” The two of them disappeared while After the first drowning (I was driving), for a moment there was Annette entertained Judy and me for over an hour. Harry and dead silence in the vehicle. The only lights were from lightning in Geneva eventually emerged with her calmly munching a cookie. the mountains ahead, and the tip of Harry’s cigarette. I climbed We all have our Hess stories, and mine are just as numerous, out, dried off the spark plugs with my handkerchief, the Jeep funny, and fun to relate as others. But despite the terrible over- started right up, and off we went. Arriving back about 2:30 AM commitment that Hess experienced, I was impressed that he on at the hotel’s self-service outdoor bar, Harry said, “I think we’d several times showed a sensitivity and concern for graduate students better have a drink” “And make it a strong one.” He took a long who were not his own. For example, one point in Haiti, he asked draft, put it down, and said, “I don’t think you should work in me about Alan Smith *63, who had met his future wife Judy, and the Southern Peninsula.” As we were driving Harry to the airport, whether it was the right thing for him to do. I assured him that past one of the most horrible seaside slums anyone can imagine, Judy was a fine person, and he seemed relieved. Harry suddenly brightly announced “I know just what these people Harry was not always tuned into the “real world.” On one of need—a brassiere factory. It would give them something to do, and our visits to the Hess home, Annette told us that on the way home it would give every woman a lift!” from Europe, she had realized that Harry’s smallpox vaccination We spent a few days more in northern Haiti, while Harry wrote was out of date. So she made a point of looking for someone who a hand-written penciled letter to the head of the Geological Survey might be forgiving. She spotted a burly fellow at one immigration in Jamaica, informing him he was sending two students to work counter who sported a big anchor tattoo on his arm. So she steered there. Martand Johsi and I went to Jamaica, while Bill MacDon- Harry to his line. The man said, “Well, Admiral, you have a little ald went to the Dominican Republic as a field assistant for Curry irregularity here, but we’ll keep it in the Navy family,” and waved Palmer *63. I would have continued working in Jamaica except them through. for family problems—and I always regretted it, once telling Harry We all thought at the time that Hess was perhaps the one geolo- so. I think that he forgave me. The Smilodon, a Web Supplement 10 July 1, 2006 gist who had mastered the entire field of geology. In addition, he taking it again. This was the Fall of 1963 and all the evidence and was humorous, compassionate, unassuming, and humble. A truly concepts supporting sea-floor spreading were presented to us with inspiring person. chalkboard, grubby slides and the ever-present cigarette. Harry Hess didn’t appear to prepare his lectures fastidiously. He knew Bill Barnes *63 Remembers, January 30, 2006 what he wanted to tell us and came armed with enough slides to I used to walk to Guyot with Harry in the evening sometimes, as get the ideas across. He wasn’t dogmatic or strongly assertive, but we were both Owls rather than Larks at the time. I can’t remember he was powerfully persuasive. In fact, he did not introduce the much of our conversations and indeed there was very little of that, term ‘sea-floor spreading” into the literature. Bob Dietz did, in anyway. I do remember something about his not being able to digest 1961, in a short and sketchily documented paper in Nature that milk as a baby and having beer in his bottle instead! I’m not sure if I he wrote after having some discussions with Harry. According to got that directly from Harry or if it was just a story floating around graduate student scuttlebutt, Harry’s colleagues were incensed and about him at the time. It does sound apocryphal! What I most wanted an editorial showdown immediately, but Harry apparently remember from the mineralogy course I took from Harry when responded, no doubt in his quiet drawl: “Don’t bother, it’s probably I first arrived at Princeton is that he always had a lighted cigarette all wrong anyway.” going in both ash trays at the ends of the demonstration bench in True or not, his reported response has remained with me to this the lecture room, plus another between his lips. I remember the day and has been a huge source of inspiration. He bore Bob Dietz bemused look on his face when he would pick up one from an no ill will, indeed they were good friends, and he was always aware ash tray and try to put it into his mouth, only to realize there was that a hypothesis was just that. It was no more or less than the best already one there. As grad students we were used to him being a explanation that you could envisage to account for the available few minutes late for lectures, but when, as was often the case, he data at the time, and new data, or better insights, could rapidly didn’t show up after 10 minutes or so, one of us would go and ask displace your “good idea.” Miss Law where he was, only to find out that he was in Caracas Fred Nagle *67 knew him far better than I did and said that, or Washington or wherever! when faced with a problem, he would often ask himself: “What Reminiscences of Harry Hess by Sebastian Bell *67, December would Harry do?” Fred also dared tease him, something I was too 5, 2005 shy to attempt. Fred told me of one evening in the Dominican I think I was the only soft rock geologist who had Harry Hess Republic, when Harry had been enjoying Cuba Libres and became as his supervisor at Princeton. This was not my original intention quite boastful about his time in the Navy during the War. He was and certainly not his! My entry into Princeton’s graduate program particularly proud of the speed at which he could leap out of his was smoothed by Ron Oxburgh *60, who inspired me to apply bunk and get his clothes on when the order to report to “General from Oxford, introduced me to Al Fischer (who was to nurture my Quarters” was blasted over the cabin loud speakers. Fred decided growing interest in paleontology) and must have written enough to verify this claim. The following morning, while Harry was still to Harry for me to find myself on the “short list.” Harry sent me asleep, Fred entered his bedroom with a saucepan and a geological a brief air letter containing an offer of a Teaching Assistantship hammer, and while he beat the one with the other, he screamed: and asked me to let him know my decision quickly as there were “General Quarters, General Quarters” as loud as he could. Harry others waiting in the wings. Naturally, I wrote back affirmatively apparently leapt from his bed and was about to throw off his as soon as I had informed Ron Oxburgh and Professor Wager pajamas, when he realised Fred was standing in front of him. He (who performed a happy pirouette at the news—his wife was a was not amused. “Don’t you ever do that again, Fred.” But the former ballet dancer). visit was a success. Harry did not engage in much fieldwork dur- In September 1963, Miss Law steered me into Harry’s office. ing his lifetime, but he He was standing behind mounds of unshelved books, some open, had an instinctive feel some on his desk but many on the floor around it, and was wear- for it. It was more than a ing tan canvass trousers and an open necked shirt. I was somewhat three-dimensional sense taken aback. On field trips, at lectures, and even when pirouetting, of rock relationships; Professor Wager had always worn a three-piece suit and tie. “Have rather it was an intuitive you got any problems?” Harry asked and I didn’t know what to understanding of what say. Did he mean physical disabilities, or perhaps psychological was most likely. Fred is shortcomings? But he was reassured when I told him I was living no longer with us. If he in the Graduate College. “I’ve put you in my old office, 505, in were, he would tell of the Tower. You’ll be with two Canadians (Roger Macqueen *65 how Harry sorted out and Pete Temple *65)—they’ll look after you.” I acquired a bi- his field studies after a cycle a few days later and passed Harry on a corner along Prospect day of visiting apparent- Avenue. He waved to me and said “Hi there, Sebastian.” I must ly unrelated outcrops. have responded in some manner, but certainly not spontaneously. “When are you going English professors didn’t wave at their students and would never to show me a rock that have said “Hi”. Roger and Pete introduced me to the Geology Department at Annette, George, and Harry. October 1939. Photo courtesy Princeton and told me about the course that Harry taught for of George Hess. the new graduate students. It was fantastic and they would be The Smilodon, a Web Supplement 11 July 1, 2006 Harry, Annette, Ontario, 1956 reconnaissance mapping of the much of the Coast Range foothills Photo courtesy of George Hess. several years previously. I learned from Jake that road cuts were a waste of time and that mapping freshly eroded rocks along the is in place, Fred?” Fred was streams and rivers was the only way to go. Moreover, as Harry no mapping an olistostrome! doubt knew, Creole had the best base maps of my area and I was My original thesis soon supplied with them. By the end of the summer, Billy and I had intentions evaporated as mapped a 5 kilometre wide cross section through the Camatagua 1963 and 1964 unfolded area, aided in no small part by a much more reliable Jeep. at Princeton. The lure of Harry encouraged us to discuss our theses with others, and being paleontology lessened as I part of the Caribbean Project meant that there were several fellow became more enamored of graduate students grappling with geologically related problems. structural geology and sedi- Visiting speakers were hoisted on us as well. He urged Bill Mac- mentology. There was the Donald *65 to invite Warren Carey to dine with us at the Graduate possibility of a thesis in the College one evening saying that he and Annette needed a night foothills of the Venezuelan off! Coast Ranges. “It’s south of Realising that my Spanish was still even worse than my early Robin Harvey *64’s area, attempts to map the Coast Range Foothills, Harry arranged for “ Harry told me. “There’s one of Princeton’s geology undergraduates, Mike Robinson ’66, turbidites there.” However, to assist me in the field in 1965. Mike was from Texas and Spanish Ron Flemal *67 had first was his second language. He also suggested that we should consider claim on it. But then he living in San Juan de los Morros. The town had better facilities switched and went to California to study red beds with Van than San Sebastian, where Billy Otalora had (unknowingly at the Houten, and the Camatagua Area was mine. time) arranged for us to rent the former village brothel as our field Well, it was not quite mine! Harry realised that I couldn’t manage camp. Harry was right. We ate better in San Juan and found an on my own with no Spanish, so he lined up Billy Otalora as my field English-speaking Trinidadian mechanic to service our Jeep. assistant. Billy was Colonel Otalora’s son and therein lies another Harry came down that summer and I drove into Caracas to story of Harry’s sensitive philanthropy. Guillermo Otalora *61 meet him. As always, he stayed at the Hotel El Conde and the had quit the Colombian army and come to Princeton in middle next morning we walked down to the Centro Simon Bolivar and age at Harry’s invitation, and there he had completed first an un- took the lift to the 19th floor of the Torre Norte, where the Direc- dergraduate degree and then a Ph.D in Geology. Otalora brought cion de Geologia of the Ministerio de Minas e Hidrocarburos was his family with him plus, I suspect, some Colombian funds, but housed. not enough to sustain them all reasonably. He was effectively in Alberto Vivas was Director and Alirio Bellizzia the Head of the exile due to his being at bitter odds with the Government of the Geological Survey. Both men held Harry in the highest regard and day. Harry provided him with support, a home and a new purpose it was touching to see with what great delight and effusive friend- in life. After finishing his doctorate, and with no change in the liness they greeted him. They hung on his words, as did Alirio’s regime in Bogota, the Colonel stayed on at Princeton x-raying geologist wife Cecilia. After he had left, they would repeat what he rocks that were likely to be found on the Moon. Harry acquired had said and reverentially restate his opinions. Everybody respected an NSF grant for this work and he assigned it to the Colonel. him and loved him too. During those days we also visited Victor Apart from Billy Otalora, Harry provided me with a cheque for Lopez, former Director of the Servicio Technico, forerunner of the 1000 bolivars written on a Caracas bank that he said contained Direccion de Geologia. He was then a Professor in the Geology Caribbean Project funds. I didn’t need it, which was fortunate, Department of the University of Caracas. Victor received us in a because all the ink on it dissolved one afternoon when I and my huge boardroom with a long table down the middle. This was ap- wallet fell into the Rio Guarico! parently his desk for he sat at its head with a secretary on his left Before the summer of 1964 was over, Harry was in Venezuela hand. Victor had, in a past life, amassed millions taking options on visiting me and Billy, as well as Ben Morgan *67 and Judy Morgan. property in Caracas and then reselling them to the Perez Jimenez Initially, we traveled to other parts of the Coast Ranges. Harry had administration for freeway construction. A bid to overthrow the arranged for Alfredo Menendez *62 to take us to see the Tiramuto next Government landed him in jail and he was now making a Volcanics that he was now interpreting as a klippe of Villa de Cura. comeback. Victor Lopez spoke with a complete lack of deference The Villa de Cura Group was a widespread volcanic terrain that and most pompously to Harry, who let it all slide off his back was suspected by then to be allochthonous. When Harry visited and treated him as graciously as he did everyone else. As we left, my field area, I was keen to show him that I was not floundering. Harry shook his head. “Victor once offered to make me Minister We progressed along the main road examining tropically weath- of Mines here. He was going to be President in a week or two he ered sediments that I thought must be metamorphosed and which said, but I told him it wouldn’t work – I had classes to teach back displayed a disappointing lack of sedimentary structures. in Princeton.” Harry did not comment on my approach or my interpretations. Harry took me with him to Shell where I heard him explain He was more concerned that our Jeep be replaced by a better one paleomagnetism to their Chief Geologist. In a few sentences he and wanted to make sure that the area was mappable. “You should told him what it was, what it had achieved, what it might do and talk to Jake Pierson,” he said and took me back to Caracas to meet why Shell probably didn’t need it. This was not Harry Hess, the him. Jake worked for Creole, Esso’s affliliate, and had undertaken The Smilodon, a Web Supplement 12 July 1, 2006 often ponderous lecturer of Guyot Hall, this was a quietly brilliant terminated the proceedings early, saying that he had to get over man who was comfortably astride a field that was not his own. He to the Registrar’s office before it closed to “make sure these people enjoyed these visits to oil companies. but they were a necessary duty get their degrees”. because, in this way, he reported to the companies who supported In May of 1969, Harry wrote and asked me to introduce two the Caribbean Project and collected their annual contributions. new graduate students to the Venezuelan Coast Ranges that sum- He made sure that they all received copies of the Princeton theses mer. Support was, of course, provided and I did it with pleasure. and had opportunities to meet their authors. Then, in August, I learned of his death. Ben Morgan *67 sent me a There was also part of an afternoon spent in the company of beautiful letter describing the memorial service and a visit he made Guillermo Zuloaga, then in the twilight of his career, but who had to Harry’s office to say his own farewell. The next year my wife known Harry since the nineteen thirties. Guillermo mentioned Jill and I were in Princeton on our way to Venezuela. We visited contracting bilharzia (liver flukes) and how it had made him incred- Annette Hess in the new house that they had recently moved into. ibly sleepy. But he’d been cured, although the treatment wasn’t nice. The living room carpet was somewhat worn and had been with There was little discussion of the Coast Ranges, which Zuloaga them for many years. Annette told us that Harry had walked up had been one of the first geologists to interpret seriously; instead and down it pondering the implications of seafloor spreading. he and Harry talked about the climate of the Caracas Valley which To have been one of Harry Hess’s graduate students was a co- he was now studying. lossal privilege and an honour that I cherish to this day. He was In San Juan de los Morros, we booked Harry into the best hotel the most caring of men, often horribly overworked and over-com- and it was there that he told me he was resigning the Chairmanship mitted, yet always concerned for our welfare, and he was a person of the Geology Department and that John Maxwell would be tak- of genuine humility. I am sure this is what made him the great ing over. Without thinking, I said: “Oh Harry. I am so glad,” and scientist that he was. There was no space in his life for ego-tripping, immediately wondered how he would take that, and if I should but as much room as he could make for amassing information and explain that I meant I was happy that he would no longer have attempting to place it in a logical context. He lived in an age that to bear the strain of running the department. There was no need; did not demand constant publication and so what he wrote was he knew what I meant. He nodded and said: “Me too.” I cannot timely, relevant and not repetitive. What he did not write often recall exactly what we looked at in the field that summer. Probably, came out in conversation and, as he would have wished, frequently we visited the serpentinites along the northern border of the map took flight in the publications of others. In this way he is still with area. Harry made it clear that he thought all was going well. us and, hopefully, with some of our students and collaborators. In January 1966, I went into Caracas to deliver my final monthly report to Alirio Bellizzia and to get my map drafted. I learned to my surprise that Harry was there. I’ve no idea why he had flown Further from Sebastian Bell *67, regarding Hess, January 21, down and he didn’t tell me. Maybe he felt he needed a break and 2006 wanted to sit again in the calm shade of the Plaza Bolivar. I shared Thanks for doing a Readers Digest job on my text. I’m looking with him my fear that I had contracted bilharzia. I was often very forward to seeing the Smilodon issue. I hope someone has described sleepy. Both he and Alirio Bellizzia agreed that I probably had Harry arriving at Maiquetia Airport with a suitcase full of baby ingested liver flukes and they arranged for me to take tests at the things for Jess Bushman *58’s wife and their newborn child. Her Hospital in the University of Caracas. I would be back in the States mother had asked Harry to take them down and he told her to before the results would be known, but would be informed of them. put them in a safety deposit box at Grand Central station and send Harry promised that he’d arrange for me to get all the treatment him the key (which in that era was considered a perfectly reason- I needed. Shortly after I returned to Princeton, he called me into able thing to do!). So Harry didn’t know what was in the bag and his office and showed me a cable stating that I had no symptoms no doubt was as surprised as the Customs Officer who lifted out whatever! diapers and nursing bras- Before leaving Venezuela, I encountered Victor Lopez in a cor- sieres. As he did so, he ridor in the Direccion de Geologia. “Tell Hess,” he said, “that I will enquired of Harry: “Por be in Princeton next week.” I did and Harry replied. “I hope he la senora?” As you know, doesn’t come. He’s such an old windbag these days.” Victor didn’t Harry had little small show up. talk, so he just shook his Harry never hassled his students. He left us to get on with our head and said “No.” The research and with writing up our work, but he was always ready Customs Officer looked to discuss an idea, or proffer advice if asked. He was anxious for Harry over and a gleam us to be successful and insisted that Mike Piburn *67 return to came into his eye. He Venezuela for three weeks to tie up some loose ends before finalising slapped him on the back his thesis. He knew I would need a job and encouraged me to go and offered him the ulti- to the GSA meeting in San Francisco in the Fall of 1966 to present mate compliment: “Che myself to potential employers. He gave me a cheque for $300 for hombre!” I cannot re- the trip and I’m sure it was written on his own account. member who it was who I defended my thesis on a Friday afternoon in May 1967 at the Harry Hess, Northern Rhode- end of a week when Mike Piburn and Walter Alvarez *67 had sia, 1928-29. Photo courtesy of also presented their research. I had the easiest time because Harry George Hess.

The Smilodon, a Web Supplement 13 July 1, 2006 Harry Hess and Annette given Emmons’s Memoir and a couple of hours you can use the U- Burns, wedding picture, stage anytime you want”. Sure enough, in later years when I had to 1934. Photo courtesy of do some petrofabric work, I picked up Emmons and after a couple George Hess. of hours did just that. Later, when teaching my students how to came to meet Harry use the U-stage, I would tell them this Harry story without going and witnessed this through his song and dance. That was type-locality of Harry’s lab event! I think Ben teaching, a low key way of showing how to do it yourself, all with Morgan told me the a twinkle in his eye. story first, but I heard The other set of examples involves the last of Harry’s many sci- it repeated several entific endeavors, namely the space science program and plans for times. Of course, it exploration of the moon. As a member of the National Academy of is possible no one Sciences, he chaired the Space Science Board, an advisory commit- from Princeton saw tee to NASA and Congress on scientific aspects of the overall lunar this happen and Har- program. A National Academy administrative secretary took care of ry himself was the the details but Harry chaired and “ran” all the meetings. His basic source! problem was riding herd on a group of strong-minded engineers, politicians, physicists, chemists and the like, none of whom knew Some Harry Hess a thing about field work in general and certainly not how to apply tales by Don Wise such concepts to geologic exploration of another planetary body. *57, January 19, He needed some additional committee voices with a bit of field 2006 experience. During the early 60’s, Harry had encouraged and sup- Harry’s lectures were rarely well organized. Commonly they ported me in fighting through to publication of a paper proposing were a smorgasbord of miscellaneous data and ideas delivered in a origin of the moon by fission from the earth. Probably because of quietly humorous monotone, punctuated with cigarette lightings this and through Harry’s intervention I ended up as a field geolo- and occasional absent-minded attempts to light the chalk. Rumor gist sitting on that board as Harry tried to keep some semblance has it that he once put a cigarette into his pocket instead of the of sanity and balance between science and engineering. Through chalk resulting in a minor coat fire. Nevertheless, the superb content much of the later part of the 1960’s I was privileged to watch and of those lectures periodically included some of the most brilliant occasionally help as Harry chaired these critical meetings. observations and ideas of our time and more than compensated A typical meeting would go something like this. About nine for his sleep-inducing style of delivery. o’clock we would convene around a huge table and Harry would One memorable “lecture” occurred in his graduate mineralogy say “Well, we’ve got a problem here. Uh, Smith from NASA will course when Harry “taught” us how to use the universal stage to tell you all about it.” With that Harry slumped down in his chair, get feldspar composition. It went something like this, as delivered while Smith started to go through a big stack of view graphs. At the with a slight mumble across a cigarette drooping from his lower table Harry sat with eyes mostly closed, stirring periodically to light lip., “Well, we’re gonna do the universal stage today; we’ve got the another cigarette. After Smith, we were treated to additional view microscope here; if you look in the top here, you can focus the graphs and complexities from Jones from JPL, and so on. About eyepiece; it’s a long tube made out of brass; the light comes in the noon Harry said, “Well, I guess we better break for lunch. We’ll bottom here with a mirror so you can adjust it, and you have this meet back here at one.” The afternoon was spent discussing and universal stage here; it’s got five axes; you can rotate it here and arguing about the problems raised by Smith and Jones. Typically here, and so on, this way, that way”. This went on for about half an these involved selecting instruments to go on spacecraft, evaluat- hour, and then: “Once you have the thin section mounted, bring ing proposals and investigators, picking target sites on the moon a feldspar crystal to extinction; then use this axis to get a second and the like. The basic problem in those days was that NASA had extinction. Read off those two angles and then use the Emmons grandiose exploration plans, most of which were ill conceived Universal Stage Memoir to get the composition of the feldspar. Do from an exploration viewpoint or far beyond the practical limits of that for these slides for lab when I get back next week. Uh, does dollars or time. On the scientific side, many were determined that anyone have a car here. I have to catch a train at the Princeton sta- their particular discipline or instrument had to be at the heart of tion in ten minutes?” And he was gone—that was it ! We all spent the exploration. Harry’s function was to maintain some common the next week sweating blood, trying to read Emmons and learn sense in the middle of a dream world of engineering possibilities how the whole U-stage procedure worked. When Harry got back and unrealistic demands of some famous but lab-only scientists. the next week, a very tired group of grad students had mastered All this took place as Harry would sit there apparently half asleep. basic use of the U-stage and turned in their results. By about 4 o’clock it was obvious that we were at a complete im- About ten years later, Harry, John Maxwell, and I were visiting passe. Then Harry’s quiet voice would break in. “Look-it. These Eldridge Moores *63 to look over his thesis area in Greece. We are the facts: this, this, and this. What you really want to do are were having a relaxed dinner after dark on a rooftop Greek restau- this and this. The different groups will react in these ways with rant when I finally got up enough courage to ask, “Harry, what this timetable. A recommendation probably should be such and in the heck was going on with that lecture you gave us about the such.” There would be dead silence for about a minute while reality U-Stage. It seemed to be absolute nonsense?” He laughed, and said sank in and it became obvious that this was exactly what should “You know, if I had described it in detail, you would have thought be done. There would be a 15-minute discussion of how the of- I taught you how to use the stage. What you really learned was that The Smilodon, a Web Supplement 14 July 1, 2006 ficial recommendation should be worded, a vote was taken and Hess at Asbestus, Siberia, 1937. the meeting adjourned. In most of these meetings, Harry would Photo by A. F. Buddington have said the fewest words of anyone in the room but exercised around the Rub al Khali on the greatest influence on what was ultimately decided. the way back to Dhahran, Working through the Space Science Board, Harry had a major he explained that he was scientific influence on the Ranger, Orbiter, and Surveyor series of returning to the States from spacecraft missions and their triumphal culmination in the Apollo a consulting trip in SE Asia. 11 landing in June, 1969. In August of that year, the space science More to the point, he asked community convened in Woods Hole to plan for the next Apollo me a lot of personal ques- missions. Harry opened and chaired that meeting which included tions in the course of what I three of his former students: Noel Hinners *63, Chuck Helsley felt was a very comfortable *60 and me. After the morning coffee break, Bill Ruby took over conversation. One thing the chair per Harry’s request. A bit later as we were having an really impressed him; as he outdoor lunch, word was quietly passed that Harry had gone to a looked down on the vast sea doctor’s office, had a heart attack and died in the waiting room. It of sand, he exclaimed, “Now was a far more somber group that met that afternoon, but at least I can see how the Navajo Harry had lived to see the successful end of his contribution to sandstone was formed!!” In the most ambitious geologic expedition ever mounted. Chairing retrospect, that was my ini- a session to build on that achievement seemed a fitting stage on tial interview by the Geology which to end his brilliant career. faculty. Added after the Deadline: Finishing up four years of A Harry Hess story from Alan Smith *63, March 8, 2006 exploration in the Arabian The one I like best, which like most stories may be embellished, desert, I anxiously awaited concerns a graduate student, a senior professor, and Harry. As word from Princeton. Suddenly, we received a large packet from you may remember, one graduate student was dirt poor. He used Housing with applications for family housing - but not a word to sleep in the Department (I believe) and cook his breakfast over from the Geology Department. Then, out of the blue, I received a a Bunsen burner (so it is said) at the crack of dawn, or earlier in personal telegram that simply said, “Dear Bill, Veni, Vidi, Vici ..... winter, so that when people came in the smell had dissipated. One H. H. Hess.” That was it!! When I came back down to earth, I was day, a senior professor came in early, caught him at it and finished able to complete my annual field report and set sail for home. a dressing down with the threat to tell ‘Professor Hess’ what had Based at my parents’ home in Plainfield, I made my way down been going on. The student was very worried and hung around to Princeton one day, found Guyot Hall and met Dr. Bud (Arthur on the ground floor until Harry entered—probably at about 10 Buddington *16, faculty 1920-59) in his lab. After some warm o’clock or so—smoking his proverbial cigarette. The student fol- pleasantries, he broached the subject of my qualifications in Ger- lowed Harry up the stairs, explaining what had happened, apolo- man and handed me Edvard Suess’ monster volume Das Antlitz gizing for it. Harry never said a word until he reached his office der Erde saying, “Here, take this and translate it! Professor Hess when he turned to him, took the cigarette out of his mouth with will be back here in a couple of weeks.” the words: “Didn’t hear you,” and went into his office. Now this When all hands were back at Guyot, I met Miss Law and she is a story that brings out each professor’s character. But you may introduced me to The Man himself..!! Harry was happy to learn not want to use it. Besides which, there may be other and better that we were settled in the Harrison Street housing project. Then, versions around. he asked me what I had in mind for a thesis. I confidently replied, “I want to ‘do’ the Miocene of the Persian Gulf Basin.” “Oh!” he said. Response from Bill Brown *57 on the HHH Centennial Issue, “You’ve seen enough of that. I suggest you look at something new. April 28, 2006 By the way, have you ever met Erling Dorf...?” Within minutes, Dear Bill (Bonini ’48, faculty 1953-96) I am at a loss for words it seemed, I was face-to-face with Erling, who promptly asked, to express my feelings of joy and gratitude to you and Laurie “Do you know anything about Yellowstone Park?” And the rest is (Wanat) for the “Harry Hess Centennial” issue of The Smilodon. history! I hope it’s not too late to share a few of my recollections of Harry, Like all my “brothers,” I still stand in awe of Harry and the perhaps to be incorporated in the Departmental website in early privilege he accorded me to study under the most terrific group of July. men I have ever known. Thanks again, Bill—and to all the guys Through the good graces of Cottie Seager (Aramco Exploration, who paid tribute to Harry. Manager) and Bill Furnish (Chair, Iowa Dept.) I was introduced to and made application to Princeton in 1954. To illustrate how A Note from Bela Csejtey, Jr. *63, May 19, 2006 Harry sometimes “did business,” one morning in the winter of As a 1963 graduate of the Department, I read with great inter- early 1954, I was told by Dhahran radio (without explanation) est in the latest issue of The Smilodon the reminiscences about Dr. to meet the weekly DC-3 that serviced the exploration camps. Hess, but was deeply saddened of learning the passing of Dr. John When the plane landed, a very distinguished gentleman stepped Maxwell, my thesis adviser in Montana. I was planning to attend out, came over to me, extended his hand and said, “Bill, I am Ed- the geol grads reunion in Canada last September, but some health ward Sampson (’14 *20, faculty 1925-59).” As we rode together problems prevented me from doing so. The Smilodon, a Web Supplement 15 July 1, 2006 While reading The Smilodon, a number of my own experiences shuffled off down the hall, pausing to casually say as he left, “Oh, with Dr. Hess came to mind, but would like to share with you just I’m Hess.” one. In the fall of 1956 I was a 4th year geology student in Hun- When it was time that Fall to talk with Harry about a future gary, but escaped to Austria after Soviet troops brutally suppressed thesis topic, I thought he would be delighted to learn that the the Hungarian Revolution. Escaping from Hungary I could not USGS had offered me full thesis support to map a quad in the Sierra bring with me any personal papers or school documents. Neither Nevada. I brought in maps, showing what was known about the did I know anybody who could vouch for me in the West or in area, and thought he would be impressed to know that there was the USA where I emigrated to in early 1957. Needless to say, none a small serpentinite body amongst the metamorphic and granitic of this was planned but dictated by unforeseen events. In the US rocks. Instead he told me that “there was very little to be learned I wanted to continue my geologic studies, although my English about serpentinites anymore”, and that what I needed to broaden was practically nonexistent at the time. my experience was “familiarity with stratigraphy and paleontology”. While I was searching for possibilities to continue my studies, He offered me a chance to map an area in northern Colombia as one day in the spring of 1957 I showed up at the Geology Depart- one of his Caribbean students, and I accepted with joy, despite a ment of Princeton, wanting to talk to somebody. To my surprise, lack of enthusiasm for a soft rock thesis. So far as I know, Harry Dr. Hess graciously granted me an interview. First he asked me to could not possibly have known that there indeed were serpentinites make a list of all my geology subjects I studied in Hungary, then in this unstudied part of the remote Guajira Peninsula, but indeed he talked to me and asked a number of questions. I realized the there were, and the “sedimentary” origin of these rocks became a importance of this interview, and I was understandably a little major focus of my thesis and subsequent early papers. nervous. Finally Dr. Hess took me to the classroom next to his Marti and I had (unexpectedly) gotten married while I was on office, pulled a number of rock specimens from the cabinets along a post-General Exam winter trip to California in 1963. After re- the wall, and handing them to me said: “Can you tell me what this turning to Princeton (where Walt Alvarez *67 and others kindly is?” or “What can you tell about this one?” I did my best in my staged a memorable “Post-Marital Batchelor’s Party” at the Grad broken English, when finally he handed me a very odd-looking College), we had little time for adjustments to married life before I rock, a kind I never saw before. I looked long and hard at it trying headed back to Colombia for final fieldwork. Marti stayed behind to come up with a plausible answer, but I just could not. Finally, to earn enough money for her airline tickets. Harry planned to realizing that this might nix my chances to continue my studies, visit Walt Alvarez and me in the field in the spring of 1963, but with a heavy heart I said, “Sir, I don’t know.” In a split second he the rainy season had begun early in the Guajira Peninsula, and it came back, “I don’t know either.” At this I was not only pleasantly wasn’t possible to drive to Maicao to meet him for his field visit. surprised and relieved, but felt instant admiration for the greatness Instead, he managed to charter a Cessna 195 to fly out to a dry area of the man. In addition, I was flabbergasted, because in the rigid of the Alta Guajira, where Walt and I met him. We spent several European university system a remark like this from a professor to superb days looking at field discoveries and problem areas by day, a lowly student was simply unheard of. and sleeping in hammocks wherever we could at night. For all of Later in the year I was informed that Princeton accepted me. Harry’s Caribbean students, his field visits were the highlights of In the first few months, I was slated to join Dr. Hess’s Caribbean our existence, and the one time we would ever be able to casually project, but my special status in the US as a political refugee per- discuss field problems and thesis foci, as we knew he had more mitted only a single entry into the country. In other words, if I left important problems to deal with in Princeton. I had been hoarding the US for the Caribbean, even as a student, I might not have been questions for Harry all spring, and kept asking his opinions about readmitted. So Dr. Hess arranged for me to join Dr. Maxwell’s mapping problems and regional correlations within the broader project in the Montana Rockies instead. Caribbean context. He never answered my questions in any serious Looking back, my fieldwork in the Rockies and my association way, however, and I lost hope of ever learning his thoughts. with Dr. Maxwell was one of the happiest if not the happiest pe- Harry had an “important NAS meeting” to attend in California riod of my life. Since leaving Princeton, nowhere did I ever meet after his field visit (critical decisions about lunar astronaut qualifica- such a group of brilliant scientists and decent human beings, both tions needed to be made), and when no airplane arrived to take him faculty and fellow students, as at Princeton. I feel privileged and back to civilization on the appointed day, we had to figure some am grateful for the opportunity to have been associated with such means to transport Hess back to Maicao and its airport. There was an outstanding Department and people. no room in the Land Rover for Walt, so Hess and I headed off alone for the long drive to Maicao (normally 6 hours or so). An Harry Hess --- A Wonderful Human Being and Friend endless sea of mud now covered the area to be traversed, however, Notes from Jack Lockwood *66, Marrakech, Morocco, June and mud was incredibly deep in the truck tracks we had to follow. 14, 2006 We frequently became near-hopelessly bogged down in deep mud I first met Harry in 1961, the day I arrived in Princeton, when wallows under a blazing sun. Sometimes we were able to recruit he sauntered by my new office, dressed in non-descript clothes, a few dozen Guajiro Indians to pull us out of mud holes, but in puffing an always present cigarette. I had no idea what the famous other places no help was to be found, and we relied on the Rover’s man looked like. He never introduced himself, nor asked my name, capistan winch and a long manila rope. This required anchoring and I assumed from his demeanor that he was a janitor. I asked one end of the rope to a tree, with Harry pulling the other end him a number of trivial questions about the weather, where to park to maintain tension around the winch. Once the Rover started to my car, where I could dispose of packing boxes, how to obtain move, Hess had to keep the rope tight as he backed away from keys, etc. He answered in a methodical, janitor-like manner, then the road. Mud holes and prickly pear cactus were frequently en-

The Smilodon, a Web Supplement 16 July 1, 2006 countered, and more than once poor Harry backed into vicious would decline it and continue the assistantship. He listened, asked “pringamosa” (a stinging nettle that instantly raised painful welts). what the exact difference was (not even glancing at my figures), Miraculously, we eventually reached Maicao very late at night, told me not to send my answer to NSF that day, put on his hat completely exhausted, and managed to find two DDT-greasy and coat, and left. Less than an hour later Miss Law phoned that rooms in a small hotel. There were no showers, and Hess was still he wanted to see me. Harry gave me a check for the amount, told mud-covered for his flights to attend the forthcoming meeting at me to endorse it to the university, and to take the fellowship; the the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab, but he seemed in no mood to sleep assistantship could go to another. Years later I heard from two dif- after our harrowing journey. We would have enjoyed several Cuba ferent faculty sources that Harry’s creative financing used to send libres, but the bars were closed, and all I had to offer was a bottle the Nassau Hall Vice President for Administration up the wall. of cheap scotch and a maid could only find some warm bottles This story is about graduate-student times outside the class- of orange soda. Harry said “better than nothing”, so we poured room. Glenn Poulter *57 and I were in the Naval Reserve. Harry scotch into the soda bottles, and stayed up for a few hours to relax convinced us to join the Princeton-area Naval Reserve Research and reminisce about the day’s adventures. Harry had some delight- Company, which met once a month somewhere at a military base fully randy comments to make about the buxom maid that night, or research lab in central New Jersey or northeastern Pennsylvania. but said nothing of more import, until about 2 or 3 in the morn- Glenn or I would drive. Although we had security clearances, the ing, when he announced he was tired and needed to sleep a little offerings were pretty tame, and so the conversation going and com- before his early morning flight to Cartagena. “But, first—about ing was rarely naval research. Much was about geology, but also your questions”, and he proceeded to answer every single geologic included such current-events topics as the cold war, public educa- question that I had asked him over the past week—wonderfully tion, and national support for science (Harry had a great imitation detailed answers that integrated my Guajira findings with the grand of Admiral Byrd’s broadcasts from Little America, complete with scheme of Caribbean history and tectonics. He had obviously been the hisses, crackles, and fading of short wave, touting Quaker Oats formulating his answers over the past several days! or whatever sponsor was contributing to the expedition). Invariably I helped Harry carry his luggage up the steep aisle of the DC-3 we would be invited into 150 FitzRandolph Road (Harry’s home) the next morning, bade him adieu, and thought this was the end to continue for another hour over room-temperature beer. Many of Harry’s input for this visit. I headed off on my own 3-day driv- times in the past 50 years I’ve thought to myself how remarkable ing adventure through deep mud to Cartagena, where I was to that Harry could predict what so many future contentious points meet my new bride, Marti, who had finally earned enough money would be. for her airline ticket to join me. When I arrived in Cartagena, I checked the “Princeton Apartado Aereo,” and found an envelope Harry Hess by Carl Bowin *60, Woods Hole, MA, June 25, containing a long letter Harry had written to me while flying to 2006 Bogota a few days earlier. I expected more thoughts about my map Harry’s easy-going yet attentive persona was infectious, and all problems, but instead found a warm personal letter about married his ‘Caribbean Project’ students shared a bond with him, that we life. He wrote that adjusting to a primitive field life in the Guajira all cherish. When I first met him in his Guyot office, (which of would not be easy for Marti, and that I would need to be gentle course looked just like the photo in The Smilodon, Spring 2006, p. and understanding. He wrote about the critical need for me to 3), I was struck that his office was quite different than those of the focus on Marti’s problems, and to realize that her concerns would geological giants I had known at CalTech (BS) and Northwestern be far more important than mine. It was a wonderful “fatherly” (MS). I must have very much liked its carefree style, for my own letter—a window into the deep concern that Harry felt for all his office at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), students. commonly imitates his. He soon explained that I would be doing my thesis study in the Dominican Republic (not Venezuela or Harry Hess from Ralph Moberly *56, Hawaii, June 23, 2006 Puerto Rico as I believed I had expected). It wasn’t until many Acknowledgment of Harry’s influence on my decision to enter years later that I’ve been able to piece together much of the story undergraduate geology was in my Hess Volume paper on the ad- behind that surprise change. Seems a man, William D. Pawley, of- vancement of arcs as the lithosphere sinks away before them (GSA fered Harry financial and logistic support, if he could have his next Memoir 132, 1972). This story is about graduate-student support, “Caribbean Project” student study a large serpentinized periodtite and cutting red tape. I was offered a teaching assistantship for the body in central Dominican Republic (DR). And, I was that next first two years in graduate school, and my tuition was paid through student. That man, I’ve later learned, happened to have been the the GI Bill. My first year was the first year the new NSF offered one who in 1941 started the Flying Tigers under Commander one-year fellowships, and I applied for one. Successful fellowship Claire L. Chennault, which was a way for the US Government to news, however, came with further rules than were in the original help the Chinese fight the invading Japanese, while staying behind announcement. The fellowship was for instruction and research, the scenes. disallowing teaching or other service, so I could not hold both Pawley also was involved with the CIA in Nicaragua, and owned fellowship and assistantship. I could not receive funds from two the bus line in Havana, Cuba during Batista’s time. Seems he had federal sources at the same time, so I had to choose between the TA an affinity to dictators, and when Sergeant Trujillo forced a coup, and NSF. I went through some calculations that included tuition and took control of the Dominican Republic, Pawley rushed in to and all, and saw that I would receive a few hundred dollars more bankroll him. Trujillo was so grateful, that he gave the country’s from an assistantship plus the GI Bill than from NSF alone. I went mineral concession to Pawley. Northwest of the Capital city, Santo in to tell Harry that I had won the fellowship, but explained why I Domingo (then changed to Ciudad Trujillo), lay a small moun-

The Smilodon, a Web Supplement 17 July 1, 2006 tain of serpentiized periodtite with a thick layer of laterite rich in integral of gravity over an area. Gravity varies as one over the square nickel-iron. This deposit was mined by bulldozers and trucks that of distance to mass sources, whereas its vertical integral represents carried the ore to a nearby smelting plant, and out came ingots of an equipotential that is proportional to one over the distance. The nickel-iron. I now have to surmise that Pawley, the astute business particular gravity equipotential that coincides with sea level is called man, anticipated that the next Princeton student would find him the geoid. So, because there are gravity anomalies over the Earth’s more laterite deposits for a most modest investment. surface and oceans, the geoid has irregularities in its slope (due to After each 60 days in the DR, I had to visit another Caribbean deflections of the vertical), and may be as much as a few minutes country for a few days and return to get another tourist visa. These of arc. And, if a submarine does not know the correct ‘deflection breaks from geologic mapping provided nice chances to see other of the vertical’ at its location when it launches an ICBM, that islands, and other student’s field projects before completing my missile’s warhead could miss an intended hardened target 6,000 thesis and graduating. Currie Palmer *63 and Frederick Nagle miles away. *67 carried on in the DR, completing Princeton theses on the Harry Hess was a Rear Admiral in the US Navy, and attended north flank of the Cordillera Central and the north coast region. briefing in Washington, DC, when the significance to the Navy of Harry had a copy of my thesis bound in leather by Princeton gravity at sea was presented. Also, occasionally attending those Navy University Press with elephant hide end papers, with matching briefings was J. Bracket Hersey, a seismologist, at WHOI. Harry slip case, for presentation to Generalisimo Rafael Leonidas Trujillo and Bracket would often chat after these meetings at the Cosmos Molina, Benefactor de la Patria, y Padre de la Patria Nueva. Pawley Club where they stayed. After the Navy’s ‘gravity’ briefing, Bracket presented the bound thesis to Trujillo. Soon thereafter, Trujillo mentioned to Harry that he would like to start a gravity program was assassinated during an evening walk along the cities’ coastal at WHOI, and Harry said, ‘he knew just the man.’ My ten days of avenue. Turns out, I had come to know one of the assassins. So, gravity measurements had made me an expert. Shortly thereafter, I my studies for Harry gained me experiences in a lot more than drove to Woods Hole on Cape Cod for an interview with Bracket, peridotite geology. and got the job of starting a gravity program at WHOI. Bracket There was not a suitable teaching position opening, so Harry had applied to the Navy for funding, and I set off first to get a gravity me stay on as an Instructor for a year. During my time mapping meter. In visiting the Coast and Geodetic Survey and seeing how on the flank of the Cordillera Central (the highest mountain in the it took several people three days to manually process the strip chart Greater Antilles under the tropic sun, I came to wonder whether records obtained previously at sea, it took 3 milliseconds to realize gravity measurements might help in deducing the mountain’s I needed a digital computer to process the data at sea while it was structure under the ground. Prof. William ‘Bill’ Bonini ’48, being collected. Bracket had the money from the Navy, I had the faculty 1953-96, gave me 15 minutes of instruction and loaned desire, and so the World’s first digital seagoing computer (an IBM me Princeton’s Worden student gravity meter. My Jeep was still 1710 Control System) went to sea on the Research Vessel Chain in in the DR, being taken care of by the company run by Pawley’s 1962 to process data in real-time from our LaCoste & Romberg brother, Edward. So, accompanied by a geology undergraduate, sea gravity meter S-13. John Whetten ’57 *62, we returned to conduct gravity measure- No doubt I was primed to think of incorporating a computer ments, around the country, in ten days. Turns out that those ten from earlier using an IBM 650 computer that an off-campus days changed a geologist into a geophysicist. contractor let Princeton students use at night, and that Charles Again, it wasn’t till rather recently, with the increasing informa- Helsley *60 told me about. I started using it to try to learn how tion available via the Internet that I’ve been able to piece together long it may have taken some long chiastolite crystals to grow in what brought about that conversion, and, of course, Harry was the contact metamorphic aureole of a gabbro intrusion in northern responsible. In the late 1950’s and early 60’s, the US Navy was very Maine I had mapped for my Northwestern University Masters’ much concerned with being able to measure gravity from ships at thesis. One afternoon I explained these heat flow relations for heat sea, which is tricky to do on a platform that moves up and down emanating from a vertical dike to Harry. A few days later he had and rolls back and forth. The Navy was not particularly interested his copies of “Youthful Age of the Ocean Basins,” and I was the in using gravity to learn about the structure of mountains and sole acknowledgement. seamounts under the sea, as we geologist are, but in the vertical

The Smilodon, a Web Supplement 18 July 1, 2006