Memorial to Byron John Chronic 1921–1996 FREDERICK N

Memorial to Byron John Chronic 1921–1996 FREDERICK N. MURRAY 3734 E. 81st Place, Tulsa, Oklahoma 74137 Byron John Chronic, a Fellow of the Geological Society of America, died July 15, 1996, at the age of 75. He was always known as John by all of his friends and professional associates. John was born June 3, 1921, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to Byron John and Pansy Lee Chronic and grew up in Tulsa during the boom-and-bust years of the oil and gas business. He attended Barnard Elementary School, Woodrow Wilson Junior High School, and Central Senior High School. John played in the band in high school and later obtained a music scholarship at the University of Tulsa. He played percussion instruments and specialized in the xylophone, an instrument he continued to play in later years as a hobby. Shortly after receiving his petroleum engineering degree in 1942 from the University of Tulsa, John enlisted in the Army Air Corps. He was commissioned as a lieutenant and received a professional certificate in meteorology from the University of Chicago as a part of his training. As a meteorologist, John flew on numerous weather observation flights over the North Atlantic and, later, the Pacific Ocean. Lieutenant Chronic was one of the weathermen who flew B-29 reconnaissance flights over Japan during the time when atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After World War II, John returned to his academic studies. He followed a mentor, Lowell Laudon, who had moved from teaching geology at the University of Tulsa to the University of Kansas. During the summer of 1946, John accompanied Laudon on a tour of the Alcan High- way, doing paleontological and stratigraphic studies that became the basis for his master’s thesis, “Paleozoic Stratigraphy along the Alaska Highway in Northeastern British Columbia, Canada.” John’s military experience plus his Alcan Highway expedition set the stage for his love of travel and exploration, which would continue throughout his life. John continued his paleontological and stratigraphic studies at Columbia University and in 1949 completed a doctoral thesis, “Upper Paleozoic of Peru—Invertebrate Paleontology (excepting Fusulin- ids and Corals).” At Columbia, John met his wife Halka, who was also completing her Ph.D. degree. John taught briefly at the University of Michigan and then went on to the University of Colorado, where he joined the faculty in 1950 as a professor of paleontology and stratigraphy. John maintained his per- manent residence in Boulder, Colorado, and taught at the university for most of the next 30 years. John was adventurous, open-minded, and tolerant in his teaching and scientific pursuits at the University of Colorado. He was well-liked by faculty members and graduate students for his sense of humor and ability to be conversant on a wide variety of subjects. There was no shortage of graduate students who would drink coffee with John Chronic at the local cafes near the university campus. John’s quick wit, perception, and understanding made him a favorite. However, John expected a lot from his students. He was an advisor to numerous graduate students and sponsored both master’s and doctoral theses. He also promoted field trips for students, as well as student excursions to professional geological meetings. Geological Society of America Memorials, v. 28, September 1997 11 12 THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA During his years at the University of Colorado, John’s life was filled with many other professional geological activities besides teaching. He was coauthor of several geological publica- tions with his wife Halka. Sabbatical leaves were usually devoted to teaching and travel outside the United States. During the 1958–1959 academic year, he was an exchange professor at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. Then, in 1965–1966, he served as visiting professor of geology at Haile Selassie I University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where he trained young Ethiopians in geology and the art of prospecting. In 1969–1970, John spent the year traveling and searching for oil in Australia, India, and the South Pacific. The academic year 1978–1979 found John as an exchange professor at the University of Puerto Rico. John’s wife and family accompanied him on these geological excursions; his daughters Emily, Felicie, Lucy, and Betsy were born in the 1950s. Both Felicie and Lucy majored in geology in college. Felicie earned a bachelor’s degree at the University of Colorado and a master’s degree at the University of British Columbia. Lucy earned a bachelor’s degree at Carleton College and a master’s degree at the University of Wyoming. Obviously, John’s enthusiasm for geology, adventure, and exploration was contagious for his family as well as his students. Early in the 1960s, a University of Colorado student from a ranch near the Colorado- Wyoming state line brought John some fossiliferous rocks of Silurian age from an unusual outlier on the eastern edge of the Front Range. Since neither Colorado nor eastern Wyoming had any known Silurian sedimentary rocks up to this time, the small outlier became a subject of con- siderable interest. Other small outliers were discovered nearby, and they were found to occur within scattered kimberlite diatremes. Various investigations of the diatremes were made over a 15-year period, including studies by Wyoming State Geological Survey workers, who had no knowledge of the diatremes until John brought them to their attention. Additional studies have revealed diamonds within the kimberlite. During his years at the University of Colorado, Professor Chronic consulted for several companies in petroleum as well as mineral exploration. Consulting jobs included work with the U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Park Service, the Pitch Mine at Sargents, Colorado, American Stratigraphic Company, Jack Grynberg and Associates, and Frobisher and Kantor Exploration Companies in Canada. In 1980, John became a University of Colorado professor emeritus. For John this did not mean retirement; it meant more time for consulting and further travel of the world. The first stop after leaving Boulder, Colorado, was oil, gas, and mineral exploration with Scarth Oil and Gas Company in Amarillo, Texas, from 1980 to 1981 and then on to Houston, Texas. During his years in Houston, John was married to Carol Williams. He was employed by and consulted for several companies and organizations while living in Houston, including Evans Exploration Company, Sastex Exploration Company, Nuclear Geophysics Inc., Tenneco, and Keplinger and Associates. He maintained a research associate relationship with the Houston Museum of Natu- ral Science. He was a docent at both the museum and the Houston Zoo. John received the Presi- dent’s Award in 1991 for his work with the Houston Geological Society, in particular the academic liaison committee. As a volunteer he taught school children about geology. Although John accepted Houston, Texas, as his new home, he continued to travel. He consulted for Sirte Oil Company in Libya, as a micropaleontologist. In 1987, he helped organize a six-week expedition into inner Mongolia in conjunction with Chinese paleontologists to collect invertebrate fossils and make stratigraphic studies for the Houston Museum of Natural History. He traveled to the Galapagos Islands, and returned to Tinian, the island from which he flew Pacific weather reconnaissance during World War II. John Chronic was a member of numerous geological and scientific organizations during 50 years of professional work and study as a geologist. These included the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, where he served as associate editor; the Rocky Mountain Association MEMORIAL TO BYRON JOHN CHRONIC 13 of Geologists as vice president; and the American Association for the Advancement of Science as a Fellow. In 1994 John returned to Tulsa, Oklahoma, and married Carol Johnson, an old friend from high school days. He and Carol traveled to Alaska, eastern Russia, and Jamaica. John also joined the Tulsa Geological Society. Then, in January 1995, he was hospitalized with an illness that could not be adequately diagnosed. It was thought to have been a viral brain infection. Dur- ing much of his remaining time, John stayed at home in Tulsa, and Carol took care of him. His daughters, grandchildren, and friends all visited him there. We’ll all miss John. He was an adventurous geologist, a teacher, and a thinker with a great deal of knowledge and a wide variety of interests. SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF B. J. CHRONIC 1953 (with Newell, N. D., and Roberts, T. G.) Upper Paleozoic of Peru: Geological Society of America Memoir 58, 276 p. 1957 Boulder measured section, in Symposium on Colorado measured sections: Denver, Col- orado, Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists, p. 15–22. 1958 (and Chronic, Halka, and Petroleum Research Corporation) Bibliography of theses written for advanced degrees in geology and related sciences at universities and colleges in the United States and Canada through 1957: Boulder, Colorado, Pruett Press. 1961 (and Ferris, C. S., Jr.) Lower Paleozoic outlier in southeastern Wyoming [abs.], in Abstracts for 1961: Geological Society of America Special Paper 68, p. 86. 1964 (and Chronic, Halka) Bibliography of theses in geology, 1958–1963: American Geologi- cal Institute. —— Geology of the southern Mosquito Range, Colorado: Mountain Geologist, v. 1, no. 3, p. 103–113. 1965 (with Murray, F. N.) Pennsylvanian conodonts and other fossils from insoluble residues of the Minturn Formation (Desmoinesian), Colorado: Journal of Paleontology, v. 39, p. 594–610. 1972 Middle Paleozoic kimberlitic diatremes in Colorado and Wyoming, in Paleozoic stratigraphic and structural evolution of Colorado: Colorado School of Mines Quarterly, v. 67, no. 4, p. 63–75. —— (and Chronic, Halka) Prairie, peak, and plateau, a guide to the geology of Colorado: Colorado State Geological Survey Bulletin 32, 126 p.

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