Memorial to Kirtley Fletcher Mather1888-1978

SHERMAN A. WENGERD 1040 Stanford Drive, N .E ., Albuquerque, New M exico 87106

Kirtley Fletcher Mather, Professor of Geology Emeritus, Harvard University, died in his ninetieth year, on May 7, 1978, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He was born on February 13, 1888. He was active in the last weeks of his long and productive life. Memo­rial rites were held in the First Congregational Church in Albuquerque on May 10, and his cremated remains were interred at Maple Grove Cemetery in Granville, Ohio, on June 4. Memorial services were held at Harvard Memorial Church in Cambridge, Massachu­setts, on October 6, 1978.

Mather was best known as a general geologist and educator whose contributions to scientific knowledge involved paleontology, petroleum geology, glacial geology, geomorphology, and structural geology and

stemmed mainly from his field studies rather than from the laboratory.Mather was a descendant of Richard Mather, a clergyman who had emigrated in

1636 from Toxteth, England, to the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He was educated in the Chicago public schools and graduated from South Chicago High School in 1904. He received the degree of B.Sc. from Denison University in 1909 and his Ph.D. degree from the University of Chicago in 1915, where he had studied under Thomas C. Chamberlin, Rollin D. Salisbury, Wallace W. Atwood, and Albert Johannsen and had completed his doctoral dissertation under Stuart Weller.

From 1910 to 1916, Mather was associated with Wallace W. Atwood in the U.S. Geological Survey study of the geomorphology and glacial geology of the San Juan Mountains region o f Colorado and New Mexico. The results o f this work were published in the landmark U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 166 (1932). During the First World War, the U.S. Geological Survey transferred Mather to field studies, and he spend the summers o f 1917 and 1918 mapping potential petroliferous geologic structures in Allen County, Kentucky, and Osage County, Oklahoma.

Mather published a memorial to K. C. Heald (American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin, v. 56, p. 2298-2300, 1972), in which he gave a brief resume of his first formative years as a petroleum geologist:

After field work in Wyoming and southern Oklahoma, and two field seasons near Pawhuska, Oklahoma, in the Osage Indian Reservation, the year 1917 brought a truly major assignment to Heald. The United States was about to enter the First World War and the Navy was fearful that the supply of fuel oil might be inadequate to power its ships for more than two or three years of all-out warfare. It was decided therefore to accelerate the Survey’s efforts attendant on the finding of oil and to concentrate them in the Osage. Heald was placed in charge o f the entire operation, and more than a score of geologists, many of whom went on to notable achievement in petroleum geology in later years, were mobilized for the task force. As Max Ball

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p u t it (The Orange Disc, v. 10, no. 2, p. 16 -18 , M arch-A pril 1952) “ The result was one o f the o u tstand ing geologic jobs o f h is to ry .”

I was fo rtu n a te enough to be included in th e Osage team , a lthough at th a t tim e 1 m ight have been called a geom orphologist, o r a glacialist or stratig rapher, or possibly a p a leon to log ist, b u t certainly not a petro leum geologist. T hus it was th a t I first m et K enneth Heald in Paw huska early in th e sum m er o f 1917. Like o thers on the team , I learned m uch from him abo u t the m apping o f stru c tu ra l geology from surface o u t­crops, the iden tifica tion and corre la tion o f sed im entary stra ta , the techniques o f using p lane tab le and telescopic alidade, th e d rafting o f stru c tu re con tou rs, and the logistics o f getting a round in a tin lizzie o r on fo o t in a sparsely se ttled region devoid o f highw ays and w ith few byw ays. It sounds to d ay like very old-fashioned geology, b u t it w orked ; a t least 40 oil pools have been discovered on th e structu res m apped by H eald’s team . More im portan tly from m y personal view point, I soon began to adm ire K enneth Heald n o t only fo r his scientific acum en , b u t also fo r his sterling qualities as a hum an b e in g -h is kindliness and consideration o f o thers, his irrepressible hum or, his drive to get a jo b well done, his fram ew ork o f values, his in tegrity , and his unself­ishness. Ever since those tw o field seasons w ith him in th e Osage, 1 have counted him as the closest and m ost valued friend I have ever had in th e geologic profession.

During a part o f those field seasons in the Osage o f Oklahoma, the K. C. Heald survey parties lived in a tarpaper shack in Sand Springs, “ filled with the hungriest bedbugs in the whole United States,” as Mather told me.

Late in 1918 he was commissioned as a captain in the Engineer Officers’ Reserve Corps o f the United States Army, but the end o f World War I on November 11, 1918, precluded Mather from active duty on General Pershing’s staff.

In the fall o f 1919 Mather went to South America in the employ of Richmond Levering and Company to make an exploratory study o f petroleum resources in the eastern foothills o f the Bolivian Andes. Mather said the turning point of his carreer as a geologist came when, as a $3,600-a-year professor at Denison in the early 1920s, he convinced the oil exploration company to pay him $10,000 a year to explore for oil in Bolivia. As Mather recorded in his memorial to Heald:

Early in th e fall o f 1919, “ K. C .” to o k a leave o f absence from th e Survey to exam ine certain Bolivian concessions acquired b y R ichm ond Levering and C om pany in the eastern footh ills o f th e Andes and to appraise fo r th a t ex p lo ra tion firm th e petro leum po ten tia l o f eastern Bolivia. 1 secured similar leave from m y teaching position in D enison U niversity and tagged along w ith him as his associate. We crossed th e Eastern A ndes from C ochabam ba to Santa Cruz w ith a pack train o f m ules in D ecem ber 1919, studying th e geology en ro u te as carefully as we cou ld . T hat reconnaissance provided th e da ta fo r H eald’s first p resen ta tion b efo re th e G eological Society o f A m erica, tw o years later. It included field w ork a round oil seepages in th e vicinity o f Santa C ruz, w here we separa ted early in January 1920, K enneth to go n o rth to th e A m azon and I to go south along th e A ndean fro n t to E m barcación , A rgentina.

In a letter o f sympathy to me dated May 30, 1978, Mather’s long-time friend Wallace Pratt wrote:

I th in k m y first con tac t w ith K irtley M ather was in the early 30s w hen an alert en trep reneur, R ichm ond-Levering, b rough t to Jersey S tandard Oil an oil and gas co n ­cession covering th e R epublic o f Bolivia. E ither they b rought Dr. M ather w ith them or Jersey S tandard em ployed him (they had no geological d epartm en t a t th a t tim e) to m ake a professional repo rt on the concession for them . In any case it was his

MEMORIAL TO K IR T LEY F L E TC H ER M A THER 3

favorable repo rt th a t sold th e concession to Jersey . H e m apped an an ticline alm ost as steep-sided as a M innesota barn . Je rsey’s first well tes ted 1500 bpd . Eventually Bolivia ex p ropria ted o u r Bolivian p ro p erty b u t th a t was n o t M ather’s fau lt. I th in k few geologists have been as w id e ly -a n d a ffe c tio n a te ly -e s te e m e d as K irtley M ather.All o f us share yo u r loss.

During Mather’s seven years in Albuquerque, we had occasion to visit Wallace Pratt in Tucson, and their reminiscences of early days in petroleum exploration were truly humorous and historical treats.

It was a report on this South American work on the geology o f the Front Ranges o f the Andes in Bolivia, given in 1921 before the Geological Society of America (during which he announced the discovery of Carboniferous tillites) that led to his appointment at Harvard. This pioneer work continued through 1920, and Mather’s interpretation of the geologic structure and history of the pre-Cordillera has been generally verified by the many geologists who were subsequently involved in the development o f the oil fields o f eastern Bolivia. After returning to the western United States for field studies in the San Juan area in 1922, he introduced to geomorphologists a technique used by petro­leum geologists, o f depicting with contour lines a restored surface—the deformed San Juan peneplain.

Mather spend the summer of 1923 in Alaska, serving as geologist on a U.S. Geo­logical Survey party that surveyed a part o f the Alaska Peninsula for petroleum possi­bilities between Kamishak Bay and the Valley o f Ten Thousand Smokes. He named one o f the biggest of the previously unmapped peaks Mount Denison in honor o f his alma mater. During the field season of 1924 Mather again became involved with the Survey, in a study of petroleum possibilities o f northeastern Colorado. His field season in 1925 was devoted to work on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, for the Gulf Oil Corporation. In 1926 and 1927 he was in California as government geologist in connection with liti­gation involving the Navy Fuel Oil Reserve in the Elk Hills.

As an educator, Mather taught geology at the University o f Arkansas from 1911 to 1914; at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, from 1915 to 1918; and at Denison University in Granville, Ohio, from 1918 to 1924. From 1925 to 1954 he was a member o f the Harvard University faculty, retiring from active teaching with the title Professor o f Geology Emeritus. During the spring semester o f 1956 he served as Visiting Professor o f Geology at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. From 1971 to the time o f his death, Mather was Visiting Professor (part-time) at the University o f New Mexico.

Mather was a prolific writer who published, solely or jointly, more than 260 articles, biographies, memorials, editorials, chapters in books, U.S. Geological Survey bulletins and professional papers, newspaper articles, laboratory manuals, interviews, abstracts, and notes. The wide scope of his subject matter included geology, philosophy, science and religion, evolution, travel, education, and democracy. His scientific book reviews for the Scientific Book Club (1930-1946) total about 550; reviews for “ The Scientist’s Bookshelf” in American Science (1942-1954) total 480; reviews for The Key Reporter o f Phi Beta Kappa (1954-1972) total about 360. This prodigious total o f almost 1,200 reviews, done with consummate skill and understanding, involved an astounding range of scientific fields.

His published books include Old M other Earth (1928), Science in Search o f God (1928), Sons o f the Earth (1930), A dult Education, a Dynamic fo r Democracy (with Dorothy Hewitt; 1937), A Source Book in Geology to 1900 (with Shirley L. Mason; 1939), Enough and to Spare (1944), Crusade fo r L ife (1949), The World in Which We Live (1961), The Earth beneath Us (1964; also published in a British edition, and in

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French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Dutch between 1964 and 1966), Source Book in Geology (1900-1950) (1967); The Earth beneath Us (1976, revised edition).

Several score of geologists who are eminent in academic life, in government bureaus, on the staffs o f petroleum or mining corporations, or in maintaining their own offices as consulting geologists, owe at least a part of their success to their education and training under Mather; many of them had been associated with him as teaching assistants during their years in graduate school at Harvard University. Mather success­fully carried forward into the mid-twentieth-century specialization of science something o f the nineteenth-century “ naturalists.”

He was a pioneer in the educational use of radio for the general public and of audio-visual aids in the classroom. His radio talks in Boston, entitled “ Science by the Fireside,” led to publication in 1928 of the book Old M other Earth. For several years, in the late twenties and early thirties, he was a consultant to Pathe Films, Incorporated, supervising the production of motion picutres on geology and geography that were widely used in secondary schools and colleges throughout the country. He produced what was probably the first audio-movie specifically designed for educational purposes, a film that included animated diagrams to assist in describing and explaining earthquakes.

Fully conscious o f the social and civic responsibilities o f scientists and deeply aware of the impact o f scientific knowledge and religion upon everyman’s “ philosophy of life,” Mather contributed an essay, “Parables from Paleontology,” to The Atlantic M onthly in 1918. In July 1925 he went to Dayton, Tennessee, as an expert witness on the relation between geology, evolution, and religion, on behalf o f the defense o f John Scopes, the teacher charged with violating that state’s anti-evolution law. This involve­ment led indirectly to his authorship of Science in Search o f God, the book-of-the- month selection of the Religious Book Club at the time o f its publication in 1928. He lectured frequently and served as a member of numerous national seminars on some phase or other o f the tension between science and religion, and in 1961 contributed a chapter, “ Creation and Evolution,” to the book, Science Ponders Religion, edited by Harlow Shapley.

He was also active in the YMCA, serving as president of the Massachusetts-Rhode Island States Committee in 1942, president of the United States National Council, 1947-1948, member o f the World Council, 1955-1961, and its Representative at the United Nations, 1957-1960. An eloquent and ardent defender of civil liberties, Mather was an early and outspoken opponent of McCarthyism in all its forms.

Mather was a member of both Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma XI. In Phi Beta Kappa, he was a senator from 1952 to 1964 and a Visiting Scholar in 1960-1961 and 1965- 1966. He delivered the annual Sigma XI lecture at the 1939 meeting o f the American Association for the Advancement of Science and was editor o f “ The Scientist’s Book S h elf’ in the American Scientist from 1942 to 1954.

A lecturer of wide popularity, Mather long advocated the interdependence of nations, particularly with respect to scientific endeavors and utilization o f natural resources. In September 1947 he predicted the energy crisis that is with us today, when he told the British Association for the Advancement o f Science that “ complete exhaus­tion of the world’s petroleum reserves is alarmingly imminent from a geological point of view.” Within ten to twenty years, he warned, the “United States will be a ‘have- not’ nation, as far as petroleum is concerned, while Russia, Kuwait, the Arab States, and the East Indies will be the ‘haves.’ ” He was a Danforth Visiting Lecturer under the auspices of the Earth Science Series o f textbooks in geology and geography (published

M EMORIAL TO KIRT LEY FLE T C H ER MATHER 5

by Appleton-Century-Crofts since 1932) and was consulting editor for the 19th edition of Webster’s International Dictionary, published by C. G. Merriam and Company, as well as for the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology, published in 1960.

Mather was president o f the Ohio Academy o f Science in 1923-1924, of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1951, and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences from 1957-1961. He received honorary degrees from Denison University (Sc.D., 1929), Colby College (Sc.D., 1936), Union College (Litt.D., 1942), Bates College (L.H.D., 1943), Beloit College (LL.D., 1949), and Curry College (D.Sc.Oratory, 1966). Among his other honors were the Distinguished Service Medal of the University of Chicago (1941); the Abraham Alper Award of the Civil Liberties Union o f Massachusetts (1961); the Bradford Washburn Medal, bestowed by the Boston Museum of Science (1964); the Cullum Medal of the American Geographical Society (1965); and the Publication Award of the Geographical Society as well as the Thomas Alva Edison Foundation Award, both conferred for his book The Earth beneath Us, published in 1964.

Mather was a member or fellow of many learned, scientific, and professional societies, including the American Association o f Petroleum Geologists, the Geological Society of America, the Association of Professional Earth Scientists, the Albuquerque Geological Society, the American Geographical Society, the Royal Geographic Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. A few o f his other active affiliations included the Baptist Church of Newton Centre, Massachusetts, the Masonic Order (32nd degree), the Twentieth- Century Club (president, 1930-1935), the Harvard Travelers Club, Harvard Moun­taineering, the Boston Authors Club, the Century Club of New York, the Twenty-One Club o f the University o f New Mexico, and the Harvard-Yale-Princeton Club of New Mexico.

Mather’s last public lecture (November 3, 1976) was given before a large, enthusiastic audience o f professors, students, and townspeople in Keller Hall in the Fine Arts complex on the campus of the University of New Mexico. It was entitled “The Scopes Trial and Its Aftermath.” From 1972 to 1978 he lectured before the Albu­querque Geological Society, the Twenty-One Club of the university, the Old Guard group of the Congregational Church o f Albuquerque, as well as Sigma Gamma Epsilon and the Geography and Anthropology Clubs of the University o f New Mexico.

His prowess as a knowledgeable lecturer and concerned person was perhaps best stated in a personal letter written to Mather on January 10, 1973, by one o f his stu­dents, Robert Nichols, Professor Emeritus o f Geology, Tufts University. “A flood o f memories (of you) come to mind: 1. your great skill with words; 2. the thunderous applause which followed your lectures in geology . . .; 3. the year when your U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 166 was published (San Juan Region); 4. the beautiful blackboard diagrams you made while lecturing; 5. your devotion to Denison (University); 6. your activity in many community enterprises; 7. the outlines of your lectures which you put on the board preceding the lectures; 8. etc., etc. . . . ”

His last geologic work resulted in a summary for Frank Hibben o f the University o f New Mexico on an archeology site entitled “ Notes on the Geology o f the Comanche Spring Archeological Site, Valencia County, New Mexico, October, 1973.” Between 1968 and 1974 Mather completed a book entitled The Permissive Universe, as yet un­published, and he privately printed for his widely scattered family a rollicking auto­biography of the years 1888 to 1926 entitled “ Geologist-at-Large.”

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Mather married Marie Porter of Weston, Michigan, on June 12, 1912. She was graduated from Denison University in 1910. She preceded him in death on September 17, 1971, in Albuquerque. In 1972, he became a resident of New Mexico, and on May 31, 1977, in a joyful ceremony at Harvard Memorial Church, he married Muriel Speare Williams of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Mather is survived by Muriel Mather, three daughters (Mrs. Sherman A. Wengerd o f Albuquerque, New Mexico; Mrs. LeRoy G. Seils o f Granville, Ohio; and Mrs. Dean Seibel o f Stockton, New Jersey), ten grand­children, six great-grandchildren, three sisters and a brother in Florida, and numerous nieces, nephews, grandnieces, and grandnephews.

We shall all miss this great, good man who believed in the dignity and privacy of the individual, who fought against any group tyranny over the mind o f man, and whose gentle humor and sharp wit entertained us immensely.

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF K. F. MATHER

1912 (with Atwood, W. W.) The evidence of three distinct glacial epochs in thePleistocene history o f the San Juan Mountains, Colorado: Journal o f Geology, v. 20, p. 385-409.

1915 The fauna of the Morrow Group of Arkansas and Oklahoma: Denison Uni­versity, Scientific Laboratories, Bulletin, v. 18, p. 59-284.

1916 (with Atwood, W. W.) Geographic history of the San Juan Mountains since the close of the Mesozoic era: National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings, v. 2, p. 177-181.

1917 Pottsville formations and faunas of Arkansas and Oklahoma: American Journal of Science, v. 43, p. 133-139.

------- The Champlain Sea in the Lake Ontario basin: Journal of Geology, v. 25,p. 542-554.

1918 Superficial dip of marine limestone strata: A factor in petroleum geology: Economic Geology, v. 13, p. 198-206.

------- (with Lloyd, E. R.) Structure and oil and gas resources of the Osage Reservation,Oklahoma, T. 20 N ., R. 11 E.: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 686-J, p. 119-127.

1919 (with Shaw, E. W.) The oil fields of Allen County, Kentucky: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 688, 126 p.

------- (with Heald, K. C.) Structure and oil and gas resources of the Osage Reservation,Oklahoma, T. 24 and 25 N., R. 8 E.: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 686-M, p. 149-170.

------- (with Heald, K. C.) Structure and oil and gas resources of the Osage Reservation,Oklahoma, T. 26 N., R. 8 E.: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 686-R, p. 223-236.

1920 Oil and gas resources of the northeastern part o f Sumner County, Tennessee: Tennessee Geological Survey Bulletin 24, 39 p.

1922 (with Heald, K. C.) A reconnaissance of the eastern Andes between Cochabamba and Santa Cruz, Bolivia: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 33, p. 553-570.

------- The Front Ranges of the Andes between Santa Cruz, Bolivia, and Embarcación,Argentina: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 33, p. 703-764.

1924 Geologic factors in organic evolution: Ohio Journal of Science, v. 24, p. 117-145.

MEMORIAL TO KIRTLE Y FL E T C H E R M A THER 7

1925 Mineral resources o f the Kamishak Bay region, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 773, p. 159-181.

1928 (and Gilluly, James, and Lusk, R. G.) Geology and oil and gas prospects o f northeastern Colorado: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 796-B, p. 65-124.

1929 (and Trask, P. D.) Preliminary report on geology and oil exploration on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia: Nova Scotia Department o f Mines, Report on the Mines, 1928, p. 263-301.

1932 (with Atwood, W. W.) Physiography and quaternary geology o f the San Juan Mountains, Colorado: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 166, 176 p.

1934 (and Roy, C. J.) Laboratory manual o f physical and historical geology:D. Appleton-Century Co.

1938 (and Washburn, Bradford) The telescopic alidade and plane table as used in topographic and geologic surveys: Denison University Bulletin, v. 38, p. 1-60.

1939 Earth structure and earth origin: Science, v. 89, January 24, p. 65-70.1942 (and Goldthwaite, R. P ., and Thiesmeyer, L. R.) Pleistocene geology of western

Cape Cod, Massachusetts: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 53, p. 1127-1174.

1950 (and Roy, C. J., and Thiesmeyer, L. R.) A laboratory manual for geology: I, Physical Geology: Appleton-Century-Crofts.

1947 Petroleum: Today and tomorrow: Science, v. 106, December 19, p. 603-609.1952 (and Roy, C. J.) A laboratory manual for Geology: II, Historical geology:

Appleton-Century-Crofts.1951 (and Meyerhoff, H. A.) Mineral resources and international understanding:

Scientific Monthly, v. 72, May, p. 295-299.1957 Geomorphology o f the San Juan Mountains, in Guidebook of southwestern

San Juan Mountains, Colorado; Eighth Field Conference: New Mexico Geo­logical Society, p. 102-108.

1965 (and Wengerd, S. A.) Pleistocene age o f the “Eocene” Ridgway till, Colorado: Geological Society o f America Bulletin, v. 76, p. 1401-1408.

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