Отправлено: 21.05.18 07:47. Заголовок: Farewell to Daniel F. Merriam (1927–2017)

Math Geosci (2017) 49:1077–1079
DOI 10.1007/s11004-017-9708-8
Farewell to Daniel F. Merriam (1927–2017)
Michael E. Hohn1
© International Association for Mathematical Geosciences 2017
B Michael E. Hohn
mehohn@frontier.com
1 72 West Park Avenue, Morgantown, WV 26501, USA
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Daniel F. Merriam, a founding member of the International Association for Mathematical
Geosciences, died on April 26, 2017 at the age of 90 years.

Dan earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Kansas in 1949. He
worked for Union Oil Company of California and then joined the Kansas Geological
Survey as a geologist in 1953, eventually becoming Head of Basic Geology in 1958
and Chief of Geologic Research in 1963. Meanwhile, he received a master’s in 1953
and doctorate in 1961 from the University of Kansas and MSc and DSc degrees in
geology from Leicester University, England.
In 1971 he joined the faculty at Syracuse University as Jessie Page Heroy Professor
of Geology, where he was the chair of the Department of Geology from 1971 to 1980.
He was appointed Endowment Association Distinguished Professor of the Natural
Sciences atWichita State University in 1981, where he once again served as department
chair. He returned to the Kansas Geological Survey in 1991 and retired in 1997.
A turning point in his career has been attributed to the time that he spent with John
Harbaugh as a visiting research scientist at Stanford University. During this time, he
realized the potential of computers for modeling and statistical analysis in geologic
research. He thereafter brought his ideas back to the Kansas Survey, won the support of
his administration, and found ways to connect quantitatively oriented geologists with
each other and with computers. With an inspired vision, he tracked down available
computer facilities, brought in new machines, initiated publications dedicated to computer
programs, and promoted symposia to bring scientists and computer programmers
together.
No doubt the careers of many quantitatively inclined geologists in the 1970s were
enabled by the Computer Contribution Series, a product of the new Geologic Research
Section at the Kansas Geological Survey that was established by Dan in the 1960s.
Published from 1966 to 1970, a time when the literature was sparse, they served
as introductions to new methods and included computer code, albeit sometimes in
languages long forgotten by many of us today. Subjects covered included trend surface,
discriminant functions, simulation of sediment deposition, Markov chains, cluster
analysis, principal components analysis, and other multivariate statistical methods,
multiple regression, sampling, and tests for normal distribution.
Dan contributed to the International Association for Mathematical Geosciences
(IAMG) in many ways, as a founding member, officer, editor, and promoter. Dan
served as IAMG Secretary General from 1972 to 1976, President from 1976 to 1980,
and Past President from 1980–1986.
He was founding editor of the journal that became Mathematical Geosciences,
which will celebrate its 50th volume next year. When it was first published in 1969, the
IAMG was only months old, and the words “mathematics” and “geology” did not seem
to belong in the same sentence. Computers were also programmed with paper tape and
punch cards, filled rooms that had to be climate controlled, and were often located in
the basements of administration buildings or athletic facilities. He led the journal from
1968 to 1976, and again from 1994 to 1997. Dan was also founding editor ofComputers
& Geosciences, serving as editor or co-editor from 1975 to 1995. He later edited
Natural Resources Research from 1999 to 2007. In other words, Dan filled the role of
editor-in-chief almost consistently for the first 40 years of our association’s existence.
Over a period of several decades, it was rare to find Dan at a professional meeting when
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he was not trolling for papers or buttonholing potential authors for an IAMG journal
or for the Computer Applications in the Earth Sciences or the Computer Methods in
the Geosciences book series that he edited. He was always welcoming to newcomers,
pulling them into association activities, events, and positions of responsibility. For his
contributions to science, service to our profession, and support of the association, Dan
was awarded the Krumbein Medal in 1981.
Dan promoted this new field of mathematical geology through both the written and
spoken word, including the mentioned symposia on computer applications that he led
at the Kansas Geological Survey. After moving to Syracuse, he instituted a series of
informal conferences he called “Geochautauquas,” named after popular educational
and entertainment gatherings that started in New York State in the nineteenth century.
Generally lasting a couple of days, the only program was a list of authors and titles
of talks without a set schedule or duration. Dan continued the Geochautauquas after
he returned to Kansas. They were, in effect, the annual meetings of our Association
until the Silver Anniversary of the IAMG in 1993. For several years, Dan preserved
the Geochautauqua tradition in the form of sessions that he organized at the IAMG
annual meetings.
We remember Dan as an effective exponent of mathematical methods and computer
applications in the geosciences who also maintained a deep interest in field
geology throughout his life. Of the over 300 papers that he authored or coauthored,
many were on such diverse subjects as heat-flow in the earth; structural geology; history
of geology; stratigraphic analysis; paleontology, and geologic mapping, including
quantitative methods applied to maps. He had an active geologic life outside our mathematical
geosciences community, and he received many awards, including Honorary
Membership in the Society for Sedimentary Geology (SEPM) in 1996. He also served
on committees for the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, the Geological
Society of America, the National Academy of Sciences, and UNESCO. Characteristic
of Dan was to mix autobiography and the early history of publications in computer
applications in the geosciences in his “Reminiscences of the editor of the Kansas
Geological Survey Computer Contributions, 1966–1970 and a byte” (Computers and
Geosciences 25 (1999) 321–334).
We remember Dan for his boots and the western cut of his suits, his smile, his
enjoyment of people and geology, and fearlessness in travel. He was a mentor to many
in the geoscience community, generous in his advice and support.
Dan is survived by his wife of 51 years, Annie, his children John, Anita, James,
and Judith, a brother, and five sisters. He was preceded in death by his parents and a
son, Daniel F. Merriam II.

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