Memorial to Robert F. Black

Memorial to Robert F. Black 1918-1983 CAMPBELL CRADDOCK Department o f Geology and Geophysics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706 Many attending the 1983 Annual Meeting of the Geo logical Society of America in Indianapolis learned to their sorrow that a good friend and respected colleague. Robert F. Black, had passed away during the previous week. Bob was on a sabbatical leave during the fall semester, and he and his wife, Nelda, had been travel ing. His unexpected death occurred in Parkersburg. West Virginia, on October 25, 1983. A memorial service was held on November 19 at the Storrs Congregational Church in Connecticut; the Robert F. Black Fund has been established at the University of Connecticut Foundation. He is survived by his wife. Nelda; sons. John and Dean; two granddaughters; five sisters; and a brother. Bob Black was born February 1, 1918. in Dayton, Ohio. When he was two years old the family moved to Norwalk, Ohio, where his father opened an optometry practice. With his brother and friends Bob enjoyed the outdoors; the Huron River was the focus of their activities in all the seasons. An avid reader with a retentive mind. Bob had time in high school for athletics, playing in a dance band, and a term as class president. In the summers he worked on highway construction in Ohio (for thirty-five cents per hour) and as a redcap at West Yellowstone, where he climbed all the accessible mountains. He entered college intending to become a civil engineer, but he soon declared geology as his major. He received his B.A. from the College of Wooster in 1940. his M.A. from Syracuse University in 1942. and his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in 1953. He spent the 1942-43 academic year at the California Institute of Technology. Bob regarded himself as a glacial and Quaternary geologist and geomorphologist, and he considered the polar and alpine regions as his natural habitat for research. He held assistantships at Wooster. Syracuse, and Caltech, and in the year 1941-42 he was a geologist for the New' York State College of Forestry. He was a field assistant for the U.S. Geological Survey in Nevada in 1943, and a geologist for the USGS in Alaska beginning in 1943. In the year 1945-46 he was geologist-in-charge at the USGS office in Fairbanks. Alaska. In 1946 he moved to the USGS office in Washington. D.C.. serving for three years as chief, Alaska Terrain and Permafrost Section, and then for four years as a research geologist. From 1953 to 1956 he was a foreign exchange scientist in Mexico, attached to the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City. He joined the faculty of the University of Wisconsin-Madison as an associate professor in 1956 and was promoted to professor in 1959; he taught courses in glacial geology, geomorphology, engineering geology, general geology, and field geology. He accepted a position as professor at the University of Connecticut in 1970 and remained there until his death. He taught six summers at the Juneau Icefield Institute in Alaska between 1966 and 1978. 2 THE GEOLOGICA! SOCIETY OF AMERICA Bob was a charter member and Fellow of the Arctic Institute of North America and a Fellow of the Geological Society of America and the American Geographical Society. He was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Geophysical Union, the American Society of Photogrammetry. the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers, the American Institute of Professional Geologists, the American Polar Society, the Association of Engineering Geologists, the Geological Society of Washington, the International Glaciological Society, and the Society of Economic Geologists. He served at various times as a consultant to the National Science Foundation, the National Research Council, the Department of Defense, and the Atomic Energy Commission. He was an architect of the Ice Age National Scientific Reserve in Wisconsin, and its establishment was a source of great satisfaction for him. An important factor in Bob’s research career was his early work in Alaska on permafrost and periglacial features, fields in which he achieved an international repu tation. After the establishment of the U.S. Antarctic Research Program, he developed a project to study ice-wedge and sand-wedge polygons, and he made numerous trips to Antarctica between 1959 and 1982 to record their growth rates. While in Wisconsin he investigated the glacial deposits of the region with characteristic vigor, and he developed the unconventional hypothesis that the so-called driftless area of southwestern Wisconsin had been glaciated during Pleistocene time. Bob worked more than 20 years, often in collaboration with archeologists, on the geology and prehistory of the Aleutian-Kodiak Island region; he made a major contribution by developing a system for dating archeo logical sites from volcanic ash layers. Bob was concerned about the possible effects of a slow, long-term warming trend in world climate, and in 1978 he organized an A A AS symposium on that subject. In recognition of his achievements. Bob Black earned listing in Who's Who in the World. Who's Who in America, Dictionary of International Biography, and other volumes. From 1960 to 1972 he served as U.S. representative on the Commission on Periglacial Geomorphology of the International Geographical Union. He was an associate editor of the Geological Society of America Bulletin between 1965 and 1969, and chairman of the GSA Geomorphology Group in 1966. Syracuse University presented him the Alexander Winchell Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1978. Black Glacier in Ant arctica was named in his honor by the United States government. While working at the U.S. Geological Survey, Bob met Hernelda R. Lone, another USGS employee, and they were married on February 12, 1944. Nelda, as she is known to all, and Bob were well suited to each other, and they enjoyed a close and happy marriage. They liked to travel together to professional meetings whenever possible. Many col leagues, students, and visitors enjoyed the warm hospitality of their home. Bob Black was a unique character with many fine qualities. He was totally dedicated to his work and drove himself very hard. He was independent and self-reliant, quite capable of working alone even in remote areas. In an interview, he once described himself as a loner, but his colleagues and students found him both friendly and supportive. Bob believed in physical fitness, to be maintained by regular exercise and proper nutrition. He was a well-known bicyclist in both Madison and Storrs, commuting many miles each day in his coat and tie. He liked climbing mountains, including Popocatepetl in Mexico, and he usually was among the first in a group to reach the top of the hill. He once escaped from a sow grizzly in the Alaska Range by furiously pumping his railroad handcar. He seemed immune to cold—once swam in the water off Kodiak Island and preferred to MEMORIAL TO ROBERT F BLACK 3 sleep without pajamas in Antarctica. He disliked attending meetings where smoking was permitted. He was a licensed pilot, an enthusiastic hunter, and a skillful photographer. Bob will be remembered as a talented geologist and a warm human being. He had a good eye for the subtle feature in the field, and he organized and led many field trips. He taught and inspired a great number of students; to some he seemed an almost mystical, larger-than-life figure. He had only kind words to say about others, and he enjoyed helping new faculty colleagues to get started in their work. An active researcher, prolific publisher, and independent thinker, his unorthodox views were at times a provocative stimulant to his fellow Quaternary geologists. He was full of ideas and always looking ahead enthusiastically to the next project. He maintained contact with many foreign geologists, and he was an effective ambassador for United States science in his inter national activities. For many of us the future annual meetings of the GSA will lack a pleasant ingredient of those past. We will miss Bob, his friendly greeting, his hearty laugh, and the lively twinkle in his eye. The published works of Robert F. Black total more than 180; they are cited in the following Bibliography. BIBLIOGRAPHY OF R. F. BLACK 1943 Geology of the Huntington Forest: New York State College of Forestry and Roosevelt Wildlife Commission, New York, 220 p. 1944 (with R. E. Van Alstine) Mineral deposits at Orange Hill, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report. 1945 (with H. R. Gault) Trace elements investigations in Sweepstakes Creek area, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Trace Elements Report 21 (classified). 1946 Permafrost investigations at Point Spencer, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Permafrost Program Progress Report 2, 20 p. (classified). ------ (with R. E. Van Alstine)Copper deposits of the Kotsina-Kuskulana district, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 947G, p. 121-141. 1948 Terrain and permafrost, Umiat Area, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Permafrost Program Progress Report 5, 23 p. (classified). ------ Review of: ‘Permafrost or permanently frozen ground and related engineering problems,’by Siemon W. Muller: Geography Review, v. 38, no. 4, p. 686-687. ------ Discussion of: ‘The study of permanently frozen ground and intensive frost-action.’ by Kirk Bryan: Military Engineering, v. 40, no. 273, p. 306. 1949 (and W. L. Barksdale) Oriented lakes of northern Alaska: Journal of Geology, v. 57. no. 2, p. 105-118. 1950 Perm afrost, in Applied sedimentation, P. D. Trask, ed.: John Wiley & Sons, Chap. 14, p. 247-275. 1951 Permafrost.

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