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Memorial to Percival Sidney Warren 1890-1970 C. R. STELCK University of , , Alberta,

Percival Sidney Warren was a Fellow of The Geological Society of America for forty years (elected 1930). For over half a century he looked forward to the bulletin of the Society as his link with the general field of geology, during the many years he was permanent stratigrapher at a lonely outpost located farthest north in America. He accepted the responsibility of this post in the Department of Geology in the University of Alberta at Edmonton, and was recognized by the geological fraternity as the dean of western Canadian stratigraphy. His stratigraphic domain ran from the 49th parallel of latitude to the Arctic Ocean, and from the Canadian Shield to the Rocky Mountains. Dr. Warren belonged to that fortunate group of men that held no branch of geology to be less important, although he did confess to a greater love of the biostratigraphic side, with ammonites and brachiopods very definitely in first place. He was born at Brechin, Ontario, on April 15, 1890, near the shores of Lake Simcoe where, with his two brothers and two sisters, he learned the discipline of work at an early age. Hisplace of birthgave him wide stratigraphic scope, for his boyhood farm, in Ontario, was on Pleistocene glacial material caught along the boundary of the Precambrian and Paleozoic. To the north the Grenville Proterozoic rocks are located, and to the south the fossiliferous outcroppings of the Ordovician, with brachiopods along the trace of the Trent canal, waiting to be collected. The young farm boy collected, and the future geologist obtained an early insight into, and love for, natural history as expressed in geology. His parents were John Bortse Warren and Mary Gibson, of Irish Canadian stock that had settled in Canada before the war of 1812. He attended the collegiate at Orillia, Ontario, and originally planned to become a doctor; however, ill health caused him to take outdoor work and he became a member of a survey crew in the cobalt area of Ontario. Here mining discoveries enhanced the glamour of geology; he resolved to pursue formal education in that line, and taught school for a while to save toward this goal. Warren entered the University of Toronto, in 1913, in honors geology, but interrupted his education to enlist in the army, in 1915, with the 26th Battery of the Canadian Field Artillery. His military experiences in World War I had a profound effect on his subsequent career. He was wounded at Passchendaele, which earned him the opportunity to attend the Khaki College at the University of London. He also used

129 130 THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA this opportunity to visit the classic stratigraphic sections in England, and his fossil collections, used later in teaching, were filled out with specimens collected while he was convalescing. He never lost this connection with military studies, and for the next forty-five years was a guest lecturer to the armed forces in military history and geography. His chief specialties were the peninsular campaigns of Wellington and the military geography of the Paris basin. Promotions continued; during World War II he was colonel-in-charge of the Canadian Officers Training Corps at the University of Alberta. During the war years he had had close fraternity with the American officers in charge of the Canol project, and as a result he was able to obtain official permission to study the Canol fossil collections from the Northwest Territories and the Yukon. At this time Canol reports were all stamped “confidential.” Dr. Warren received the A.R.C.S. (London) in 1919; then returned to Canada in 1920, where he completed his B.A. degree from Trinity College at Toronto University. The great paleontologist, Dr. W. A. Parks, encouraged him to return to the University of Toronto in the field of paleontology (he had contemplated mineralogy first), and he obtained the Ph.D. from there in 1920. His thesis was on the stratigraphy and paleontology of the Banff area in the National Park in Alberta, although the federal government had commissioned him primarily to go in and find out why the hot springs at the spa were dwindling. The flow had been restored by the time he reached the mountains, nevertheless he went on to solve the problem. His solution is still accepted. It is this: the amount of rainfall and the amount of flow are proportional. This thesis became the classic Memoir 153 of the Geological Survey of Canada-the Banff Memoir. From 1920 to 1970, for half a century, Dr. Warren’s name was linked with the University of Alberta and, indeed, that institution was known by many geologists around the world only through his presence. His descriptions of fossils from the frontier of Canada brought him international recognition, although Warren himself travelled very little in a global sense. He joined the staff at Alberta as a lecturer in geology in 1920; rose through the academic levels to become professor of stratigraphy in 1934, and head of the Department of Geology in 1949, succeeding Dr. J. A. Allan. In 1955, he retired to become emeritus professor, and was followed in the headship by R. E. Folinsbee, a former student of Warren. Warren continued to teach advanced stratigraphy for many years, where his students vicariously responded to the thrill of his first-hand stories of Dowling, McConnell, Kindle, and the other pioneers of western geology. In addition to his teaching career at the University, he served as provost during the post-war years, when the veterans were returning to college. For a long time, he was chairman of the men’s athletic board and strongly supported intracollegiate sports. He established the Warren Cup at the University of Alberta for cross country running, which had been his own specialty until wounded in World War I. He was an avid fan of interhouse basketball and hockey, and personally played a tight game of badminton until well past three score and ten. PERCIVAL SIDNEY WARREN 131

Dr. Warren acted on the advisory boards of the Research Council of Alberta during the years of its resurgence as an important scientific center after the second world war. He was the author of the paleontological sections in numerous field reports turned out by the Research Council, collaborating with J. A. Allan and R. L. Rutherford on these. These two men and Warren constituted the triumvirate of geology at the University for almost thirty years. Three very good friends, they also conveyed a real sense of friendship to the students, which became a hallmark of the Alberta department throughout the years. For many summers Warren was associated with the Geological Survey of Canada, leading parties in the foothills of Alberta, , eastern Alberta, and southern in cooperation with Drs. G. S. Hume, M. Y. Williams, and F. H. Me Learn. However, much of the research that Warren carried out was financed mainly by the meager salaries paid to professors in those days before World War II. After the war, the resurgence of interest in the oil potential of western Canada brought a flood of fossils into his office and the spectrum of interesting oil geologists who follow . His office was a forum of biostratigraphic debate during the period of exploitation of that startling new idea of D. 0. Boggs, that coral reefs were part of the Canadian paleoecology. The excitement of the discovery of the Devonian Peace River Island and its fringe of reefs was readily communicated to the students, as the raw data from the new oil discovery of one day was in the lectures of the following week, explicitly interpreted. Always generous with scientific information, Warren extended help to the field man, the office worker, and the visiting authority. If help in interpretation of new collections could be given, it was, and freely. His collections were open to those who came. His philosophy was simple. Knowledge was to be shared. As a classroom teacher, Warren excelled beyond all else. He was rated one of the best lecturers on campus since he had the ability to get across his own clarity of observation, always carefully differentiating between the facts and the conclusions. Hard rethinking of the facts caused Warren to reject Schuchert’s Paleozoic picture of the paleogeography of western America. The portrayal of the Pacific transgression into Alberta was part of his lectures even before 1950. His early recognition of the Devonian components of the Exshaw shale, the Upper Devonian position of the Waterways Formation, and the Middle Devonian elements of the Flume Formation showed a clarity of observation slightly better than the observations of those who disputed it later. Dr. Warren was one of the founders of the Alberta Society of Petroleum Geologists (1928) and was an honorary member of the Society until his death. He was an honorary member of the Edmonton Geological Society from its inception, and this society awards a P. S. Warren Prize annually for papers of distinction, and an academic P. S. Warren Prize for introductory geology. This latter course was taught for thirty-one years by Dr. Warren and inspired many to embark on a geological career. The student’s geological society at the University of Alberta is named the P. S. Warren Society. Perhaps this honor by students, while he was still alive, meant more to him 132 THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA than other honors he received. He was recognized by his own. He once said to me,“We live on academically only in our students.” Dr. Warren was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1931 and served as president of section four from 1950 to 1951. He represented the University of Alberta at the Tercentenary of the Royal Society in London, England, in 1960. He was a member of the Paleontological Society and of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. He was one of the group that founded the Little Theatre movement in Edmonton and was a long time patron of the Edmonton Symphony and the Women’s Musical Club. He was appreciative of good music, good art, and good conversation, or an evening of bridge. His wife, the former Evelyn Runcinan, predeceased him in 1951. He is survived by his two daughters: Margaret (Mrs. R. B. Ferguson) of Winnipeg, Manitoba, and Mary (Mrs. J. E. Campbell) of Edmonton, Alberta, and by four grandchildren. Professor Warren passed away in Edmonton on February 23, 1970, after a short illness. He had been soldier, scientist, and teacher. He was always a gentleman in all of his relationships with his fellow scientists, university confreres, and his students. We were all honored who knew him. BIBLIOGRAPHY OF PERCIVAL SIDNEY WARREN 1925 A Kinderhook fauna from , Alberta: Am. Jour. Sci., 5th Ser., Vol. 10, No. 59, p. 448-450. 1926 The invertebrate fauna of the upper part of the Edmonton Formation on the , Alberta: Roy. Soc. Canada Trans., Vol. 20, sec. IV, p. 1-7. ------A marine fauna in the Birch Lake sandstone, Alberta: Roy. Soc. Canada Trans., Vol. 20, sec. IV, p. 9-14. 1927 Banff area, Alberta: Canada Geol. Survey, Mem. 153, 94 p. ------A new cycad from the Kootenay coal measures of Alberta: Roy. Soc. Canada Trans., Vol. 21, sec. IV, p. 47-50. 1928 (and R. L. Rutherford) Fossil zones in the Colorado Shale of Alberta: Am. Jour. Sci., 5th Ser., Vol. 16, p. 129-136. ------(with W. S. Dyer, E. J. Whittaker, and M. Y. Williams) sheet, Map 204A: Canada Geol. Survey, Publication No. 2150. ------The Paleozoics of the Crowsnest Pass, Alberta: Roy. Soc. Canada Trans., Vol. 22, sec. IV, p. 109-120. 1929 Sedimentary record in the Rocky Mountains at about the 51st parallel: Canadian Field Naturalist, Vol. 43, No. 2, p. 23-27. 1930 Description of new species of fossils from parts of Peace River and districts, Alberta: Res. Coun. Alberta, Rept. 21, Appendix, p. 57-68. ------Three new ammonites from the Cretaceous of Alberta: Roy. Soc. Canada Trans., Vol. 24, sec. IV, p. 21-26. 1931 Invertebrate palaeontology of southern plains of Alberta: Am. Assoc. Petrol. Geol. Bull., Vol. 15, No. 10, p. 1283-1291; also in Stratigraphy of the southern plains of Alberta, Donaldson Bogart Dowling Memorial Symposium: Am. Assoc. Petrol. Geol., Tulsa, p. 1 55-163. ------A Lower Jurassic fauna from Fernie, B.C.: Roy. Soc. Canada Trans., Vol. 25, sec. IV, p. 105-112. PERCIVAL SIDNEY WARREN 133

1932 A Middle Devonian fauna from Nordegg, Alberta: Canadian Field Naturalist, Vol. 46, No. 8, p. 184-186. ------(with J. A. Allan and R. L. Rutherford) A preliminary study of the eastern ranges of the Rocky Mountains in Jasper Park, Alberta: Roy. Soc. Canada Trans., Vol. 26, sec. IV, p. 225-249. ------A new pelecypod fauna from the , Alberta: Roy. Soc. Canada Trans., Vol. 26, sec. IV, p. 1-36. 1933 (with A. K. Miller) A Propinacoceras from North America: Am. Jour. Sci., Vol. 26, No. 153, p. 259-299. ------The age of the Devonian at McMurray, Alberta: Canadian Field Naturalist, Vol. 47, No. 8, p. 148-149. ------New Coloradan species from upper Peace River, British Columbia: Roy. Soc. Canada Trans., Vol. 27, sec. IV, p. 109-120. ------Geological section in Crowsnest Pass, Rocky Mountains, Canada: Trans. Roy. Canadian Inst., Vol. 19, Pt. 2, No. 42, p. 145-160. 1934--Present status of the Fernie Shale: Am. Jour. Sci., Vol. 27, No. 157, p. 56-70. ------Palaeontology of the Bearpaw Formation: Roy. Soc. Canada Trans., Vol. 28, sec. IV, p. 81-100. 1935 (with F. H. McLearn) Geological Map, Regina sheet, Saskatchewan: Canada Geol. Survey, Map No. 267A, Publication Nos. 2271 and 2341. ------(with F. J. Fraser, F. H. McLearn, L. S. Russell, and R. T. D. Wickenden) Geology of southern Saskatchewan: Canada Geol. Survey, Mem. 176, 137 p. ------(with M. B. B. Crockford) The Cache Creek Series of British Columbia: Roy. Soc. Canada Trans., Vol. 29, sec. IV, p. 149-161. ------Fauna of the Lea Park Shale: Trans. Roy. Canadian Inst., Vol. 20, Pt. II, No. 44, p. 223-229. 1936 (with A. K. Miller) A Timanites from upper Devonian beds of America: Jour. Paleon., Vol. 10, No. 7, p. 632-636. ------Two new fossil fish from the : Roy. Soc. Canada Trans., Vol. 30, sec. IV, p. 55-58. 1937 An Aptian horizon in the Cretaceous of the Lower Mackenzie valley: Jour. Paleon., Vol. 11, No. 1, p. 69-72. ------Age of the Exshaw Shale in the Canadian Rockies: Am. Jour. Sci., 5th Ser., Vol. 33, No. 198, p. 454-457. ------A rhynchonellid brachiopod from the Bearpaw Formation of Saskatchewan: Roy. Soc. Canada Trans., Vol. 31, sec. IV, p. 1-4. ------The significance of the Viking moraine: Trans. Roy. Canadian Inst., Vol. 21, Pt. II, No. 46, p. 301-305. 1938 (with A. E. Cameron, Appendix by R. Ruedemann) Geology of the South Nahanni River, N. W. T.: Canadian Field Naturalist, Vol. 52, No. 2, p. 15-21. ------Age of the Selkirk and Rocky Mountain uplifts in Canada: Am. Jour. Sci., Vol. 36, No. 211, p. 66-71. ------The Blairmore conglomerate and associated sediments: Trans. Roy. Canadian Inst., Vol. 22, Pt. I, No. 47, p. 7-20. 1939--(with G. S. Hume) Creek, Alberta: Canada Geol. Survey, Map 501 A. ------(with G. S. Hume) , Alberta: Canada Geol. Survey, Map 502A. ------The Flaxville plain in Alberta: Trans. Roy. Canadian Inst., Vol. 22, No. 48, Pt. II, p. 341-349. 134 THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA

1940 (with C. R. Stelck) Cenomanian and Turonian faunas in the Pouce Coupe district, Alberta and British Columbia: Roy. Soc. Canada Trans., Vol. 34, sec. IV, p. 143-152. ------Sedimentation in the Cordilleran geosyncline in Alberta and British Columbia: Proc. Sixth Pacific Sci. Congress, 1939, p. 245-251. 1942 (with G. A. Cooper and others) Correlation of the Devonian sedimentary formations of North America: Geol. Soc. America Bull., Vol. 53, p. 1729-1794. ------The Spirifer argentarius fauna in the Canadian Rockies: Roy. Soc. Canada Trans., Vol. 36, sec. IV, p. 129-135. 1944 The role of Sphaerospongia tessellata in the Mackenzie River Devonian: Canadian Field Naturalist: Vol. 58, No. 1, p. 28-29. ------The drainage pattern in Alberta: Trans. Roy. Canadian Inst., Vol. 25, Pt. I, p. 1-14. ------Index brachiopods of the Mackenzie River Devonian: Roy. Soc. Canada Trans., Vol. 38, sec. IV, p. 105-135. 1945 Triassic faunas in the Canadian Rockies: Am. Jour. Sci., Vol. 243, No. 9, p. 480-491. 1947 (with C. E. Decker and C. R. Stelck) Ordovician and Silurian rocks in Yukon Territory, northwestern Canada: Am. Assoc. Petrol. Geol. Bull., Vol. 31, No. 1, p. 149-156. ------Cretaceous fossil horizons in the Mackenzie River Valley: Jour. Paleon., Vol. 21, No. 2, p. 118-123. ------Description of Jurassic ammonites from the Fernie Formation, Alberta, in Geology of Highwood-Elbow area, Alberta, by J. A. Allan and J. L. Carr: Res. Council Alberta, Rept. 49, Appendix, p. 67-74. 1948 Chimaeroid fossil egg capsules from Alberta: Jour. Paleon., Vol. 22, No. 5, p. 630-631. ------(with J. M. Weller and others) Correlations of the Mississippian Formations of North America: Geol. Soc. America Bull., Vol. 59, No. 2, p. 91-1 88. ------(with M. B. B. Crockford) The occurrence of the crinoid Uintacrinus socialis, in the Cretaceous of Alberta: Canadian Field Naturalist, Vol. 62, No. 5, p. 159. 1949 Fossil zones of the Devonian of Alberta: Am. Assoc. Petrol. Geol. Bull., Vol. 33, No. 4, p. 564-571. ------(with C. R. Stelck) The late Middle Devonian unconformity in northwestern Canada: Roy. Soc. Canada Trans., Vol. 43, sec. IV, p. 139-148. 1950 (with C. R. Stelck) Succession of Devonian faunas in Western Canada: Roy. Soc. Canada Trans., Vol. 44, sec. IV, p. 61-78. 1951 Some stratigraphic features of the Upper Devonian sequence of the Canadian western plains: Proc. Athabasca Conf., Edmonton, p. 46-54. ------The Rocky Mountain geosyncline in Canada: Roy. Soc. Canada Trans., Vol. 45, sec. IV, p. 1-10. 1952 Memorial to Ralph Leslie Rutherford (1894-1952): Geol. Assoc. Canada Proc., Vol. 5, p. 127. 1954 (with C. R. Stelck) The stratigraphic significance of the Devonian coral reefs of western Canada, in Western Canada Sedimentary Basin-a symposium, R. L. Rutherford Memorial Volume: Am. Assoc. Petrol. Geol., Tulsa, p. 214-218. ------Some glacial features of : Roy. Soc. Canada Trans., Vol. 48, 3rd Ser., sec. IV, p. 75-85. PERCIVAL SIDNEY WARREN 135

1955 (with C. R. Stelck) New Cenomanian ammonites from Alberta: Res. Council Alberta, Rept. 70, Appendix, p. 63-80. 1956 (with C. R. Stelck) Devonian faunas of western Canada: Geol. Assoc. Canada, Spec. Paper No. 1. ------Memorial to John A. Allan (1884-1955): Geol. Soc. America Proc., Ann. Rept. for 1955, p. 89-92. 1958 (with C. R. Stelck) The Nikanassin-Luscar hiatus in the Canadian Rockies: Roy. Soc. Canada Trans., Vol. 52, sec. IV, p. 55-62. ------(with C. R. Stelck) Continental margins of western Canada in pre-Jurassic time: Jour. Alberta Soc. Petrol. Geol., Vol. 6, No. 2, p. 29-42. ------(with C. R. Stelck) Lower Cenomanian ammonoidea and pelecypoda from Peace River area, western Canada: Res. Council Alberta; Geol. Div., Bull. 2, Pt. 2, p. 36-48. 1959 (with C. R. Stelck) Evolutionary trends within Gastroplitan ammonoids: Roy. Soc. Canada Trans., Vol. 53, sec. IV, p. 13-20. 1960 (with C. R. Stelck) A new Freboldiceras from the Canadian Arctic: Roy. Soc. Canada Trans., Vol. 54, sec. IV, p. 21-26. 1961 (with C. R. Stelck) Pacific floodings of the Canadian Rocky Mountain area: Proc. Ninth Pacific Sci. Congress 1957, Vol. 12, p. 50-57. 1962 (with C. R. Stelck) Western Canadian Givetian: Jour. Alberta Soc. Petrol. Geologists, Vol. 10, No. 6, p. 273-291. 1968 (with C. R. Stelck) (text of) Geology of natural gas in Mesozoic strata of western Canadian plains, by Edmonton Geological Society, in Beebe, L. (ed), Natural gasses of North America: Am. Assoc. Petrol. Geol. Mem. No. 9, p. 671-682. 1969 (with C. R. Stelck) Early Neogastroplites, Fort St. John group, western Canada: Bull. Can. Petroleum Geology, Vol. 17, No. 4, p. 529-547.