Memorial to ’Paul MacClintock 1891-1970

A. L. WASHBURN University of Washington Seattle, Washington Vtil()5 Paul MacClintock was geographer, geologist, naturalist with the love of nature, athlete, musician, poet, phi­ losopher to those who knew him and friend to follow men. He was born in Aurora, New York, on 2 February, 1891, the son of Professor William Darnell MacClin­ tock and Porter Lander MacClintock. Ilis father was trained in the ministry and was one of the first twelve faculty members appointed to the University of Chi­ cago, where he was Professor of English Literature, a co-founder of the University’s Disciples Divinity House, and Dean of the College. He had the reputation of being one of the most able and popular teachers in the University, a reputation that was also to be achieved by his son at Princeton. Mrs. MacClintock, also an English scholar, was associ­ ated with Professor John Dewey’s Experimental School. There were four children: Paul, a brother Lander (of Indiana University), and two sisters, Hilda (the late Mrs. Janies D. Brown), and Elizabeth (Mrs. Clarence Efroymson of Indianapolis). Upon re­ tirement Paul MacC'lintock’s parents settled in Jacksonville, Florida, where “ . . . they brought to Jacksonville the nearest approach to the old French salon that has ever been seen here” (Illinois College Quarterly, 1939, p. 1 5). With the felicitous family background and as a member of the University of Chicago family, i( was natural for Paul to turn to an academic life that was liberating rather than confining. As a Chicago undergraduate he participated in a wide variety of activi­ ties. lie was a member of the varsity tennis team, Chairman of the Class Social Com­ mittee, President of the Glee Club, and a member of Tiger’s Head (honorary musical society), Skull and Crescent, Order of the Iron Mask, The Trident and Ring, and Alpha Delta Phi. He was a University Marshal when he graduated with a 15. S. in 1912. The University was a tremendously invigorating environment for geologists, particu­ larly Quaternary geologists. The Department of Geology consisted of such legendary luminaries as T. C. Chamberlin, Stuart Weller, W. IE Emmons, W. W. Atwood, Albert Johannsen, A. C. Trowbridge, and W. C. Alden. Moreover, the Department of Geo­ graphy had R. D. Salisbury as Professor of Geographic Geology. The late Ralph W. Chaney was a classmate of Paul’s. Subsequently R. F. Flint, whose mother was a Pro­ fessor in the same department as Paul’s father, was a student when Paul was on the staff after World War I. Perhaps influenced by the outbreak of World War I, l’aul wrote in 1914:

X2 PAUL MacCLINTOCK 83

Make steel! Make steel! Heavy black steel, Long white steel, Straight swift steel, Keen bright steel, Loud clanging steel— From the heart of the earth, Through the roar of the hearth. Fire, speed, might!

Stately she walks through the din of the blast-house, Silently she stands mid the whirr of the mill, Urge of our progress, Drive of ambition, Heart of attainment. Speed and perfection. She stands at their elbows, “My country is calling Crying for wheels, Crying for keels, Make faster make rougher Make stronger make tougher Swing out the girder and roll out the rail All else must flux, to slag and to dross.” Fill up the cup with the white-hot mead. Drink deep the wine of our nations’s need. Make steel! Make steel! When the time came Paul responded in the way he knew best and became a lieuten­ ant in the map-making division of the U. S. Army Engineers, while his father was ap­ pointed chaplain at the American Expeditionary University at Beaune, France. After the war, Paul returned to the University of Chicago where he took his Ph.D. in 1920, his dissertation subject being the Pleistocene history of the lower Wisconsin Valley. He became an instructor at Chicago, and in 1925 married Elizabeth Copeland of Winnetka, Illinois. He was appointed Assistant Professor in 1926, and Associate Pro­ fessor only one year later. During this period he was also a member of the Illinois Geo­ logical Survey, a position he held from 1921 to 1928. In 1927 he and R. T. Chamberlin revised Chamberlin and Salisbury’s College Geology, Part I, Processes. 84 THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA

Paul MacClintock’s reputation spread, and in 1928 he accepted Princeton’s call to become the first incumbent of the Knox Taylor Professorship of Geography in the De­ partment of Geology. The Geological Society of America elected him a Fellow in 1932. After devoting almost 30 years to Princeton, Paul became Professor Emeritus in 1959. However, retirement was in name only. He was a member of the Vermont Geological Survey from 1960 to 1965, and he continued active field research, even after a stroke, until his final illness. Paul and Elizabeth MacClintock had two children: a son, Copeland, presently a paleontologist at Yale’s Peabody Museum, and a daughter, Lucia (Mrs. Robert Barbour of Winchester, Virginia). His wife, Elizabeth, died in 1965, and in 1967 Paul married the former Nellie Offutt of Princeton, New Jersey, who survives him. A man is judged both by his professional attainments and often even more critically by his life and spirit. Paul MacClintock was great on all counts. Professionally, Paul contributed significantly to the development of Quaternary geology in the United States. He wrote some 20 major papers, was co-editor with R. T. Chamberlin of two famous textbooks of geology, and co-author with D. P. Stewart of two volumes dealing with the Pleistocene geology of Vermont and the St. Lawrence Lowland. His total bibliography contains over 60 titles, yet he was a painstaking worker. He also had a great scientific impact through his stimulating expositions and questions in the field as, for instance, on numerous reunions of the Friends of the Pleistocene in which he participated over many years. I shall always remember his awe and that of his field companions when he showed us delicate, ever-so-fragile shells perfectly preserved in coarse open-work gravels of the Champlain Sea—an occurrence none of us would have credited without seeing. He rarely lost a chance to test various methods of evalu­ ating the age of glacial drift, whether by till-fabric analysis or by determining the depth of leaching or the percentage of rotten stones. I am told he used to give a nongeologist neighbor of his at Princeton collections of stones to hammer and break so as to have an unbiased check on the proportion of rotten to fresh types. His association with students brought out in full force his spirit and warmth as a man. The Memorial Resolution that was passed at the Princeton Faculty Meeting in 1970 stressed that “Students were perhaps his favorite people. They found him easily accessible, always sympathetic, and sincerely understanding.” And “He tried always to create an ambience in which the student might see beyond his immediate and parochial concerns and perceive and evaluate his thoughts and actions in a more general context.” Some of Paul MacClintock’s poems reflect a puckish trait: Of all the fish that swim the sea, Or animals on the land, The grasshopper is the funniest bug, For me to understand. He leaps and “yumps” into the air Without a single fear, PAUL MacCLINTOCK 85

And ninety-nine out of a hundred times, He lands right on his ear.

Oh! hopper of tremendous hops, I envy you your stride. But you would scarcely last a day Without a fool-proof hide. Other poems reflect his friendliness, gentleness, and warmth toward both people and nature. He was happy with this duality around which he built and lived his life, and as a result his spirit could sing: My hope it is the morning sun Rising with every hour Dispelling the mist and drying the tears Like dew on morning flower. It rises o’er the mountain Or from the deep blue sea Bringing happiness to all the earth As hope brings joy to me. But his active mind took him to the unknown along a road that led: East and West through many towns in many lands. But it always led on beyond, On to some place I did not know. My mind today Swings along familiar roads To the borderland of thought. But the roads lead on, Beyond, forever! Until the time comes for Paul’s friends also to make the final journey beyond the borderland of thought, the roads that they explore will be the easier because he helped to lead the way, both as a geologist and a man. BIBLIOGRAPHY OF PAUL MacCLINTOCK 1920 The Pleistocene history of the lower Wisconsin Valley (Ph.D. thesis]: Chicago, Univ. Chicago, 115 p. 1922 The Pleistocene history of the lower Wisconsin River: Jour. Geology, v. 30, p. 673-689. 1924 The breaking of waves in shallow water: Jour. Geology, v. 32, p. 407-409. 86 THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA

1926 Pre-Illinoian till in southern Illinois: Jour. Geology, v. 34, p. 175-180. Reprinted as Illinois Geol. Survey Rept. Inv., no. 11, p. 10-15, 1926. 1927 (with R. T. Chamberlin) Chamberlin and Salisbury’s College text-book of geology; pt. 1, geologic processes and their results (rewritten and revised): New York, Henry Holt and Co., p. 1-377. 1928 (Review) The great soil groups of the world and their development, by K. D. Glinka: Jour. Geology, v. 36, p. 376-380. 1929 Physiographic divisions of the area covered by the Ulinoian drift-sheet in southern Illinois: Illinois Geol. Survey Rept. Inv., no. 19, p. 6-25. ------Rccent discoveries of pre-Illinoian drift in southern Illinois: Illinois Geol. Survey Rept. Inv., no. 19, p. 26-57. ------(with M. M. Leighton) Modern and interglacial weathered zones; their structure, conditions of development, and usefulness in correlation and in interpreting interglacial history [abs. | : Geol. Soe. America Bull., v. 40, p. 124-125. Pan-Am. Geologist, v. 51, p. 151, 1929. 1930 (with M. M. Leighton) Weathered zones of the drift-sheets of Illinois: Jour. Geology, v. 38, p. 28-53. Reprinted as Illinois Geol. Survey Rept. Inv., no. 20, 1930. ------(with M. M. Leighton and H. R. Wanless) Further work on the profiles of weathering of the glacial drift sheets of Illinois and their application to the study of the underclays of coal [abs.]: Geol. Soc. America Bull., v. 41, p. 84-85. Pan-Am. Geologist, v. 53, p. 129, 1930. ------Our inheritance from the ice age: Jour. Western Soc. Engineers, v. 35, p. 439-447. Reprinted in The Mineral wealth of Illinois: Illinois Geol. Survey, p. 31-39, 1932. ------(with R. T. Chamberlin) Chamberlin and Salisbury’s College text-book of geology; pt. 2, his­ torical geology (rewritten and revised): New York, Henry Holt and Co., p. 381-878. 1932 Fragmented glacial clay of Robin Hood’s Bay: Naturalist [London], no. 902, p. 75-77. 1933 (with R.T. Chamberlin) Chamberlin and Salisbury’s College text-book of geology; pt. 1, geo­ logic processes and their results (2nd edition, rewritten and revised): New York, Henry Holt and Co., 445 p. ------Correlation of the pre-Illinoian drifts of Illinois: Jour. Geology, v. 41, p. 710-722. Abstract, Geol. Soc. America Bull., v. 44, p. 214, 1933. 1934 (Review) The eskers and terraces in the basin of the River Susaa and their evidences of the process of ice waning, by S. A. Andersen: Jour. Geology, v. 42, p. 551-552. 1935 (and H. G. Richards) Correlation of marine and glacial Pleistocene deposits of the M iddle A t- lantic seaboard [abs. with discussion]: Geol. Soc. America Proc. 1934, p. 93-94. ------(Review) The changing world of the ice age, by R. A. Daly: Jour. Geology, v. 43, p. 555-556. ------Investigation of the geology of the Yuma-I'olsom sites in western Nebraska [abs.]: Carnegie Inst. Washington Year Book, no. 34, p. 318-319. 1936 Interglacial soils and the drift sheets of eastern England: Internat. Geol. Congr. XVI, Wash­ ington, 1933, Rept., v. 2, p. 1041-1053. ------(and H. G. Richards) Correlation of late Pleistocene marine and glacial deposits of New Jersey and New York: Geol. Soc. America Bull., v. 47, p. 289-338. ------(with H. H. Hess) Submerged valleys on continental slopes, and changes of sea level: Science, v. 83, p. 332-334. ------(and K. H. Barbour, C. B. Schultz, and A. L. Lugn) A Pleistocene lake in the White River Valley: Am. Naturalist, v. 70, p. 346-360. ------(and E. H. Barbour, C. B. Schultz, and A. L. Lugn) Possibilities of dating new fossil mammal- artifact localities [abs.]: Geol. Soc. America Proc. 1935, p. 396-397. ------Investigations on the varve sediments in western Nebraska and South Dakota [abs. | : Carnegie Inst. Washington Year Book, no. 35, p. 325-326. 1937 (and H. G. Richards) reply to comment by M. L. Fuller on Correlation of late Pleistocene marine and glacial deposits of New Jersey and New York: Geol. Soc. America Bull., v. 47, p. 1993-1994. PAUL MacCLINTOCK 87

------Pleistocene glacial stratigraphy of North America in MacCurdy, G. G., ed., Early man: Phila­ delphia, J. B. Lippincott Co., p. 115-124. Abstract, Pan-Am. Geologist, v. 67, p. 320, 1937. 1938 (with Kirk Bryan) What is implied by “disturbance” at the site of Minnesota Man: Jour. Geology, v. 46, p. 279-292. ------Dendritic floor of New Jersey coastal swamp [abs.]: Geol. Soc. America Proc. 1937, p. 98. 1939 America thirty thousand years ago: Frontiers, v. 3, p. 119-122. 1940 Weathering of the Jerseyan till: Geol. Soc. America Bull., v. 51, p. 103-115. Abstract, Geol. Soc. America Bull., v. 49, p. 1892, 1938. New York Acad. Sci. Trans, ser. 2, v. 2, p. 67-68, 1940. ------(with W. H. Twenhofel) Surface of Newfoundland: Geol. Soc. America Bull., v. 51, p. 1665- 1727. Abstract, Geol. Soc. America Bull., v. 50, p. 1940, 1939. ------(and W. H. Twenhofel) Wisconsin glaciation of Newfoundland: Geol. Soc. America Bull., v. 51, p. 1729-1756. Abstract, Geol. Soc. America Bull., v. 50, p. 1919-1920, 1939. 1941 (Review) Some principles of accelerated stream and valley sedimentation, by S. C. Happ, Gordon Rittenhouse, and G. C. Dobson: Jour. Geomorph., v. 4, p. 150-151. ------(Review) Geochronologia Suecia principles, by Gerard DeGeer: Jour. Geology, v. 49, p. 557-560. ------Glacial map of North America; 5, Northeastern United States [abs.]: Geol. Soc. America Bull., v. 52, p. 1921-1922. ------Correlation of glacial and marine features of the Atlantic Coast [abs.]: Geol. Soc. America Bull., v. 52, p. 2029. 1942 (Review) The Pleistocene gravels of Iowa, by G. F. Kay and P.T. Miller: Jour. Geology, v. 50, p. 668-669. 1943 (Review) Climatic accidents in landscape-making, by C. A. Cotton: Jour. Geology, v. 51, p. 556. ------Marine topography of the Cape May Formation: Jour. Geology, v. 51, p. 458-472. Abstract, Geol. Soc. America Bull., v. 51, p. 2002, 1940. 1944 (and E. T. Apfel) Correlation of the drifts of the Salamanca re-entrant, New York: Geol. Soc. America Bull., v. 55, p. 1143-1164. ------(Review) Research on early man in Burma, by Hellmut de Terra and H. L. Movius: Geogr. Review, v. 34, p. 342-343. 1945 (with R. F. Flint, Chairman, and others) Glacial map of North America (revised, 1949): Geol. Soc. America. 1949 (and L. C. Peltier) Wisconsin glacial stadia in New Jersey [abs.]: Geol. Soc. America Bull., v. 60, p. 1971. 1953 (with J. C. F. Tedrow) Loess in New Jersey soil materials: Soil Sci., v. 75, p. 19-29. ------Crescentic crack, crescentic gouge, friction crack, and glacier movement: Jour. Geology, v. 61, p. 186. 1954 (and J. C. Maxwell: Review) Physical geology, by L. D. Leet and Sheldon Judson: Am. Jour. Sci., v. 252, p. 571-572. ------Leaching of Wisconsin glacial gravels in eastern North America: Geol. Soc. America Bull., v. 65, p. 369-383. Abstract, Geol. Soc. America Bull., v. 63, p. 1277, 1952. ------Pleistocene geology of the St. Lawrence Lowland: New York State Sci. Serv. Rept. Inv., no. 10, 20 p. 1955 (Review) Principles of geomorphology, by W. D. Thornbury: Jour. Geology, v. 63, p. 393-394. 1958 Glacial geology of the St. Lawrence seaway and power projects: New York State Mus. and Sci. Serv., 26 p. 1959 (and H. B. Willman) Geology of Buda quadrangle, Illinois: Illinois State Geol. Survey Circu­ lar, no. 275, 29 p. ------A till-fabric rack: Jour. Geology, v. 67, p. 709-710. 88 THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA

1960 (and Jaan Terasmae) Glacial history of Covey Hill: Jour. Geology, v. 68, p. 232-241. 1962 (with M. M. Leighton) The weathered mantle of glacial tills beneath original surfaces in north-central United States: Jour. Geology, v. 70, p. 267-293. ------(Review) The Finger Lakes region: its origin and nature, by O. D. von Engeln: Am. Jour. Sci., v. 260, p. 476-477. 1964 (and Aleksis Dreimanis) Reorientation of till fabric by overriding glacier in the St. Lawrence Valley: Am. Jour. Sci., v. 262, p. 133-142. ------(with D. P. Stewart) The Wisconsin stratigraphy of northern Vermont: Am. Jour. Sci., v. 262, p. 1089-1097. 1965 (and D. P. Stewart) Pleistocene geology of the St. Lawrence lowland: New York State Mus. and Sci. Serv. Bull., no. 394,152 p. 1969 (with D. P. Stewart) The ablation till of northeastern Vermont: Geol. Soc. America, Abs. with Programs for 1969, pt. 6, (North-Central Sec.), p. 45. ------(with D. P. Stewart) The surficial geology and Pleistocene history of Vermont: Vermont Geol. Survey Bull., no. 31, 251 p. 1970 (with D. P. Stewart) Surficial geologic map of Vermont, ed., C. G. Doll: Vermont Geol. Survey.