MEMORIALS 415 he snapped,"I'll give you five hundred dollars for Upon his return to civilian life Martin moved to it," and the sale was made. It was momentslike Los Angelesand went into the wholesalediamond this that Martin relishedand made life for him an business.However, this highly competitive business excitingadventure. was not to his liking and he returned once more to Martin becameinterested in artificial coloration of dealing in minerals. He travelled the wodd over diamondsin 1940.During that period he and Harry countless times in the ensuing years, seeking out Berman conducted experiments with the Harvard important specimens,buying or exchangingfor in- cyclotron.After the war he continuedhis experi- dividual pieces or entire collections. The best of ments at the University of California (Berkeley) these he offered to the museumshe was dedicated with JosephE. Hamilton and Thomas M. Putnam to serve.The balancehe would disposeof as quickly of the Crocker Laboratory. The results of their as possibleto other dealers,meanwhile planning his work, "Effect of heavy charged particle and fast next trip. neutron irradiation on diamonds," was published Martin also had an uncannyability to judge the in The American Mineralogistin 1952. value of gemstones,both finishedgems and rough. In early 1942 Maftin volunteeredfor service in This made it possiblefor him to find financial back- the United StatesArmy. He receivedta direct com- ers for his travels and purchases.Some of his trips mission as Cap'tain and rose to the rank of Lt. were primarily to buy gems and gem rough. But al- Colonel. He was assigrredto the Bomb Disposal ways, even on these trips, he managedto ferret out Schoolat Aberdeen,Maryland, and eventuallybe- many choicemineral specimens,and in this he found came commandingofficer of the school. Becausehe his greatestpleasure. was fluent in German he was from time to time Martin Ehrmann had a great zest for life. He detailed to the Intelligence Service for special as- loved signments.Because of his knowledgeof mineralogy, what he was doing. He had an infectiousout- going one of theseassignments was, in 1944, to go into personality, was a great raconteur, and a German-occupiedFrance and bring out severaltons gracioushost. Many of you reading this accountwill of Madagascartourmaline urgently needed for pieze remember the parties he gave at the many GSA electric plates for making pressuregauges. Shortly meetingshe attended, given not with any thought before V-E Day he was assignedto a team whose of businessgain, but becausethese were his friends mission it was to interrogateGerman scientistsand and he liked to have them aroundhim. He was in- get them into the American sector. Upon his dis- deed a remarkable man and will be sorely missed chargehe was decoratedwith the Legion of Merit. by his countlessfriends all over the world. American Mineralogist, Volume 59, pages 415417, 1974 Memorialof Harry HammondHess May 24, 1906-August 25, 1969 HerNnrcHD. HoneNo Deryrtment of GeologicalSciences, Haruqrd Unioersity, Cambridge, M assachuset ts 02 I 3 8 Harry Hammond Hess was born in New York the Space Science Board of tbe National Academy City on May 24, 1906, the son of Julian B. and of Sciences. Between these two dates Harry Hess ElizabethE. Hess,and suffereda fatal heart attack lived one of the moet diverse, interesting, and suc- on August 25, 1.969,while chairinga committeeof cessful lives in the earth sciences.After graduating 416 MEMORIALS from Yale in 7927,he spenttwo yearsas a geologist spreading,which was so strikingly confirmed by in northern Rhodesia, received his Ph.D. from Vine and Matthews'discovery of the significanceof Princeton University in 1932, taught at Rutgers magneticstriping of the oceanfloor and by Morgan's University during the year 1932-1933, spent the developmentof the geometry of plate tectonics. following year at the GeophysicalLaboratory, and During much of his most activeperiod of research joined the PrincetonGeology Department in 1934. Harry carried the burden of the chairmanshipof With the exceptionof the war years and sabbatical the GeologyDepartment at Princeton.Despite the Ieaves,he spenthis entire careerbetween 1934 and impressionthat the Department was saved from his deathat Princeton.In 1950 he succeededA. F. imminent collapseonly by the unswervingdevotion Buddingtonas chairmanof the departmentand re- of Miss M. Law, the DepartmentalSecretary, Harry linquishedthe chairmanshipto J. C. Maxwell in alwaysmade the large decisionssuperbly well, and 1966. frequentlyendeared himself by his warm understand- These are the bare bones of the man's career. ing. In my first encounterwith him I expressedmy Previousmemorials by Buddington(1970), James concern about giving a graduatecourse as an In- (1973), and Girdler (1969), and sketchesby structor at the tender age of 23. He fixed me with Donnelly (1971), McVay (1969), and Shagam a firm gaze and,replied that he would not be hiring (1973) add most of the important datum points me if he did not expect my lecturesin ten years and reflect the intenseloyalty and devotion which would be better than those during the coming fall. Harry Hess evoked in so many of his colleagues Needlessto say, I acceptedthe assignment. and students.This memorialwill not attemptanother During the following years two additions were recital of the same facts but will focus on those made to Guyot Hall, a basementextension fondly aspectsof his life which I was privilegedto share dubbedthe Hess-hold,and a new wing, largely for between1950 and 1969. geophysicsand geochemistry.The basementex- As a mineralogistHarry Hesswill be remembered tensionwas designedin part by Harry himself and best for clarifying the phase relations within the the architecturaldrawings were presentedproudly pyroxene quadrilateral.l However, his studies of at a departmentalfaculty meeting.We all admired pyroxenesand of the plagioclasefeldspars were less them and tried to make suitably profound com- directedat thesemineral groupsthemselves than at ments. Only John Maxwell succeeded,when he the information they contain regardingthe origin suddenlyexclaimed: "Hey, Harry, there isn't a john and crystallizationof basic and ultrabasic rocks. in the place." The oversightwas corrected,but is His memoir on the Stillwater Complex is one culmi- still immortalizedby the somewhatodd sanitary nation of his mineralogy,but he reachedout con- facilitiesof the basementextension. tinuously beyond the basalts,gabbros, layered in- Harry's work on behalf of the Departmentwas trusives,and serpentinitesto their place within the almostovershadowed by his activitieson University grandeurof the orogeniccycle. His experiencewith committees,as a ranking Navy officer, for the Mo- Vening Meineszmeasuring gravity at sea in 1931 hole project,and within the spaceprogram. To each followedby activeduty in the Pacificas Captainof assignmenthe brought a quiet competenceand a a troop transport and the discoveryof sea mounts superbsense of the importantissues. drew Harry Hess into oceanography,particularly His honorswere many.He was electedto the Na- the relationshipbetween oceanic trenches and ad- tional Academy of Sciencesin 1952 and later to jacent mountain ranges. After World War II he the AmericanPhilosophical Society and to the Amer- and many of his graduatestudents mapped con- ican Academy of Arts and Sciences.He was an siderableportions of the Caribbean.Initially the honorary Foreign Member of the GeologicalSociety work was frustrating.In the late fifties Harry com- of London, the GeologicalSociety of South Africa, plainedthat he felt he knew less about the geology and of the SociedadVenezolana de Geologos.In of the area then than 15 years earlier. But during 1966, he was electeda foreign memberof the Ac- this period he developedthe conceptof oceanfloor cademia Nazionale dei Lincei and awarded the Feltrinelli prize. During the sameyear, he received 1A bibliography of his publications, prepared by A. F. the PenroseMedal of The GeologicalSociety of Buddington, has been published in The Geological Society America.ln 1969, Yale Universityawarded him an of America Memorials, Volume 1, pages 18-26 (1973). honorarv Sc.D. He servedas Presidentof two sec- MEMORIALS 417 tions of the AmericanGeophysical Union: Geodesy References (1951-1953) and Tectonophysics(1956-1958); BuoorNcrou, A. F. (1970) Memorial to Harry Hammond also as President of the MineralogicalSociety of Hess,Proc. for 1969, Geol. Soc.Am. America (1955) and of The GeologicalSociety of Jenres,H. L. (1973) National Academy of Sciences. America (1963). Posthumouslyhe was awarded, Grnotrn, R. ( 1969)Nature,224,393. (1969), the DistinguishedPublic ServiceAward by DoNNrrrv, T. W. (1971) Introduction. Geol. Soc. Am. Mem. l30. the National Aeronauticsand SpaceAdministration. McVev, S. (1969) Princeton Alumni 70, Those Weekly, lo-n. of us who knew Harry Hess well will al- Sneoervr,R. (1973) Preface to Studies in Enrth and Space waysmeasure others against his memory. Sciences,Geol. Soc.Am. Mem.132. American Mineralogist, Volume 59, pages 417419, 1974 Memorialof ThomasNewkirk McVay February16, 1891-August 12, tg7l J. R. CuowoRTH,l DEAN Evrnnrrus Department of Engineering, Uniuersity ol Alabama After a long and distinguishedcareer of teaching, consulting,and researchwork in the fieldsof ceramic engineeringand related areas,Dr. ThomasN. Mc- Vay died on August 1,2,797 1, at Tuscaloosa,Ala- bama. ThomasNewkirk McVay, son of Aliquippa and Edwin Grant McVay, was born at Hawkins Station, Pennsylvania,on February