St. Lawrence Geology Alumni

ROBERT O. BLOOMER I believe that many of you have already heard the news that Dr. Bloomer passed away on February 21, 2004.  As the senior member of the department, I may be the only one of us who actually met Bob in a business context in as much as Bob interviewed me for my position!  He was decidedly professional; even when dressed in khaki field attire he preserved the seriousness of purpose and obvious care for his department and his discipline that many of you came to understand from him.  He was a great teacher and a devoted Laurentian, taking pride in the college and in the Geology he studied.  We are glad that Doc enjoyed a long retirement when he could be visited by many of you for the recounting of the days in Hepburn Hall and lots of field places.  We are particularly aware of the sadness that comes to family when loved ones die and our deepest sympathy is certainly outgoing to the generations of Bob and Vera’s children and grandchildren for whom the loss of this patriarch is greatly felt.  The Rock Doc has gone and he will be missed. JME

 The St. Lawrence University Trustees voted to award an honorary doctoral degree to Geology alumnus Mark Klett ’74!!  The news release quoted below is from the St. Lawrence Public Relations office and more information can be found posted on our Geology alumni web site.  We are extremely proud of this achievement for many reasons.  In particular St. Lawrence can be a place where art and science come together and Geology is a particularly good vehicle for that as many of our alumni are aware.  CONGRATULATIONS MARK!  Those alumns in the area on May 16th are invited to drop in and cheer when he is hooded.

 “….Klett's St. Lawrence degree is in geology, and he earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in photography from SUNY Buffalo. Klett is the chief photographer of the Rephotographic Survey Project, a comparative photographic survey of the American West following the 1870s work of William Henry Jackson and Timothy O'Sullivan. A Regents Professor of Art at Arizona State University at Tempe, Klett has exhibited work at the Museum of Modern Art, the Light Gallery, and the International Center for Photography in New York City; the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, Texas; the George Eastman House in Rochester; and the Corcoran Gallery of Art and the National Museum of American Art in Washington, DC.  His photographs have also appeared in national magazines and in a series of books he has authored.”

 In a January letter to alumni who had been involved in independent study in the department, especially with Dr. Street, the department asked alumni to consider a gift specifically to the Jim Street Fund Endowment.  The request was part of an effort to double the value of that endowment.  The reason – we have more students who want to do more research and present or attend more meetings at greater distances than in the past.  Including two December gifts to the Fund, your response has been very gratifying and your gifts will begin to make a difference immediately as we plan next year’s work.  As the inset figure illustrates, 15 donors have generously responded with a wide range of gifts that cumulate to $5,125 at this writing.  Several of these gifts were made by people that we haven’t heard from in a long time.  That is truly an impressive response.
 What I would like to point out to all of our alumni is that there are more than 300 of you out there and more than two thirds of you learned something of significance to you from Jim Street.  If each of you were to make a modest gift to the Street Fund, I believe we could achieve the goal!  If you are considering such support, please don’t forget that you must specify the “James S. Street Fund.”  Thank you for your confidence.

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NEWS FROM MARK

 I can’t recall what I wrote about last year in the June ’03 Newsletter, but I’ll start in mid-June and go from there!  That was when Lance was still home helping me replace a wall in the garage after he had completed another Dean’s List year at Macalester.  He really began to enjoy his Geology minor enough to decide to turn it into a second major this year!  He liked Mineralogy in particular.  He even spent the month of January on a field trip in Crete examining structural relations with a side trip to Santorini to check out the caldera.  Now he is into a research project with u-stage working on deformation of calcite twins in the Alps while he finishes his degree.  Graduation is May 15th.  For those of you who have read that Mark Klett is being awarded his honorary doctoral degree on the 16th, you realize that I must be in St. Paul for Lance and get the red-eye to Canton for SLU graduation on the 16th!!  These are interesting times.  Anyway Lance is going to take a year and then probably explore a graduate degree in Geology or geophysics or some mix.  He returned to MSP in June only to find that his job had evaporated so he found employment at the Mall.
 I spent June teaching the Freshwater Mussel course.  This year we explored the Indian and upper Oswegatchie drainages.  Andrew Fetterman returned to work with us for which we are grateful as he is a good SCUBA diver.  That got us into some of the larger waters of the main stem rivers.  He found a single specimen of a clam that we have been looking for for a couple years now so the season was a great success.  Chris Stevens assisted informally with the course also when he could.  In the fall semester he began to enter and analyze the data using GIS.  With his help that is making good progress.
 Then Mother and I busted out of Canton and spent six weeks at camp in Vermont.  Fishing was great, and it was good to get away.  Makes retirement look like it will be quite bearable when it comes along!!  Golf, too, was better.  I even beat my brother for the first time!
 Fall brought the Paleo trip to Cinci with a good-sized class of hard-working students.  They were fun to be with.  Dave Waugh came down from Kent State. We did the Skyline Chili in Oxford, Ohio, this time after visiting Heuston Woods where Dave is working on Waynesville Bryozoa.  The trip highlight was ribbon cutting at the Trammel Fossil Park in Sharonville.  This is the site most of you know as A640!  The class was invited to participate and JME got to share in the ribbon cutting!  D. Waugh took photos as his thesis specimens had come from the site.  He was also kind enough to host us for a visit to the Geology Dept. at Kent State on our trip home

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 GSA was in Seattle where I was involved in two posters:  Waugh, D.A., R. Crawford, and J.M. Erickson. 2003.  Whole-colony bryozoan growth morphology: an underutilized tool in understanding type-Cincinnatian paleoecology.  Carpenter, S.J., J.M. Erickson, J.W. Hoganson, and G. Ludvigson. 2003.  Alpine glaciation in the Laramide Mountains during the Late Cretaceous and Early Paleocene.  We had a great meeting and a terrific St. Lawrence alumni group get together.  I got to see people like Tom Shaver whom I hadn’t seen for 25 years!  Dave Griffing, Andy Fountain, John Rayburn, Barb and Dave Tewksbury, Heather Cunningham, Ken Johnson and wife Elena Perez, Ron Metzger, Don Rodbell, Steve Metzger, Gordon Baird, Tim Grover, and Abi Howe to name a few of the attendees.  I will tell you that this is a very interesting group of people doing a very wide range of things and doing them well!  I was impressed.  Steve Robinson and John Bursnall were there as well.  For a meeting that I had not intended to go to this turned out to be a good one because so many of you were there!
 Other accomplishments included publication of my paper with Booth Platt on fossil mites at the Hiscock Site, and the paper with Tim Bouchard in which we named a trace fossil Sanctum laurentiensis in honor of St. Lawrence!  That was in the September issue of Journal of Paleontology.  Think about the challenges of getting that name to come out right starting with first discovering a trace fossil boring that had not yet been described from the Cincinnatian!  I also completed a manuscript with John Hoganson in ND and we are currently preparing another for a GSA Special paper.  Likewise, I completed final editing on the Glovers Pond mite paper that Andrew Solod and I gave in Mexico in 2002.  Dan Peppe and I are working on a Fox Hills leaf paper as well, but Dan is on his way to Argentina to present some of our work at the International Paleobotany Conference next week first!  Things have been very exciting recently as you can tell.
 Two other departmental activities have garnered some of my efforts.  The need to expand the Jim Street Fund as discussed elsewhere above is, I feel, an important effort.  Many of the activities that I discuss in these newsletters involve student participation in my research or that of other faculty.  This happens because of the Street Fund and other gifts from alumni and friends.  Our Geology program is truly unique among St. Lawrence programs because of the kind of research our students do.  It takes them to places like Alaska and North Dakota as well as more local sites but all are beyond the scope of most St. Lawrence Funds in terms of both costs and logistics.  Unfettered research funds are the single most important encouragement for that work and we are very grateful for your support of same.
 A second item that will grow on my horizon is the next SLUGAC that we have scheduled for late April of 2005.  I have already had many indications that you are interested in that meeting, and I will want to hear from all those who wish to attend or to participate just as soon as you wish to commit.  We expect a very dynamic group and some great fun at the same time!!  Please see the alumni web page and FILL OUT THE FORM IN THIS LETTER if you plan to be with us.  Mark it on your calendar so that time is BLOCKED out!!
 That’s about all I have time to tell you now.  The new UC is a great building as is the new Wachtmeister Field Station.  Come and see them.  Come to Homecoming this year for a special geological presentation as well!  Watch the news for that.
Later,
Mark Erickson

Greetings from Canton!
 The past year has been very eventful.  In addition to regular course offerings, I decided to do something different this year.  In conjunction with Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, the Geology Department ran a 2 week field trip to south central Alaska.  Eleven St. Lawrence and 11 Queen's students plus instructors (myself and Bryan Russell '03 from SLU and Dr. Scott Lamoureaux and PhD student Jackie Cockburn from Queen's) completed a 400 mile circle of the Chugach Mountains, including 100 miles across Prince William Sound by ferry.
 We had field stops and conducted research projects looking at contemporary and past glaciations, fluvial geomorphology, proglacial lakes, dendrochronology, coastal dynamics, peatlands, pipeline engineering, and abandoned mine sites.

 The SLU Geology Alumni Conference is a student-oriented event designed and originated by alumni to inform Geology students about all aspects of the profession.  Alumni present talks about their projects, lead discussions, reminisce a bit, and generally allow networking between alumni, students, and faculty and among alumni.

 Alumni use the occasion to inform themselves about department and university programs, goals and needs, and to network with their peers.  The Geology Alumni Council, comprised of those alumni attending SLUGAC, meets to discuss their insights about the profession and their new insights about St. Lawrence.

 Some activities would include:

• R. O. Bloomer Alumni Banquet  (4/22/05)
• Talks for and with Geology students – “What I do and how I do it”
• R. O. & Vera Bloomer Lecture (4/22/05)
• Seminar (4/23/05) – Preparing for work: What are the skills to die for?
• 2nd W. T. Elberty Memorial Auction (4/22/05
• Possible Reception with President and Mrs. Sullivan
• Awarding of W.T. Elberty Medal (4/22/05)
• Examination of Dolan Outdoor Lab (4/23-24/05)
• Tour of new campus buildings including Brewer Bookstore, Student Union, and Newell Field House (4/23-24/05
• Tour of Wachtmeister Field Station funded by parents of geology major Erik. (4/23-24/05)

Dear All:
 This year has just whistled by!  Deadlines are deadlines though and Mark has me in his sights - so here goes!
 I’m really pleased to say that the department continues to remain healthy with twenty-five registered majors.  From my interview with them as they sign up it is clear that just about all are hankering to start an independent research project.  Your recent response to Mark’s request to help us support this interest through an increase in the Street Fund endowment was nothing short of spectacular! Thank you so much.  We have now recovered an expectation in our majors that they will at some stage in their undergraduate career be involved in independent research.  This is a very healthy sign indeed and we are very gratified to see our efforts rewarded in this way.
We remain a field-oriented program and have no intent of changing this.  The introduction of a major emphasis in field investigation to The Dynamic Earth that we introduced a few years ago is clearly ‘a keeper’ and our extended upper level field-trip courses are a continued attraction:  last summer Steve Robinson organized a very successful trip to Alaska in combination with a group from Queen’s University and we are hoping to make the Peruvian Andes our next stop – utilizing Don Rodbell’s (‘83) and Cathy Shrady’s expertise.  Don is visiting us later this semester and we hope to iron out details then.
The Dolan outdoor (outcrop) lab is moving along and we will have six installations (and hopefully more) in place by next fall.  The crystalline ‘basement‘ is now complete and we have at least two sources for the overlying sedimentary sequence.  Some of us would like to get hold of an ophiolite complex – but that might be asking too much!  Maybe not?
The new science facilities planning process continues and this has occupied quite a bit of my time over the past few months.  One of our outcrop installations has been incorporated into the landscaping plans.  However, there is likely to be a delayed start of six months or so but it is clear that we will eventually be in new (refurbished) surroundings in Bewkes.  It’ll be interesting to see if we make it before I retire – it’ll be close!
All best wishes,  John

 We must have some idea of initial interest in order to advance SLUGAC planning.  This is particularly important to get support from SLU and for scheduling meeting and dining spaces and the President’s time.  Indicate interest by RETURNING THIS FORM.  Hard copy is most desirable but response by calling or emailing Mark Erickson at 315-229-5198 or meri@stlawu.edu is also possible.  You may also email Sarah McElfresh mcelfres@telerama.com because she is manager of the department’s alumni page website.  We will try to post a running list of those who have expressed interest so get your friends together and let us hear from you.
 We can already tell you that interest is high this time and it will be a great conference if the number of responses Mark has already had is any measure.

 Please sign up ASAP and reserve late April 2005 NOW on your busy schedules.

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If you so desire, you may help us by making ADVANCED PAYMENT OF REGISTRATION WHICH INCLUDES CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS BOOKLET, LUNCH ON FRIDAY,  ADMISSION TO RECEPTION, COST OF R. O. BLOOMER BANQUET, AND ADMISSION TO THE R. O. AND VERA BLOOMER LECTURE AND THE W. T. ELBERTY GEOLOGY AUCTION:

FOR THE ATTENDEES LISTED ABOVE, I ENCLOSE MY CHECK FOR $65.00/PERSON made to the SLU GEOLOGY ALUMNI CONFERENCE TOTAL: $__________
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WE ARE ALWAYS EAGER TO HEAR FROM ALUMNI.  PLEASE FILL OUT THE FORM BELOW AND RETURN IT TO US.  WE’LL SEND YOUR NEWS TO OTHER ALUMNI VIA THE NEXT NEWSLETTER.   (Remember — we are starting an E-Mail address list of geology alums.  Please include your E-Mail address or send it to Mark at  MERI@STLAWU.EDU.)
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