Alumni News

To contribute, please email David Waugh '03 at dwaugh@kent.edu
10/7/10 - GEORGE GARDNER    –    B.S. 1970,    M.S. 1972  
Thank you Dr. Heimlich for directing me to the KSU Geology Alumni webpage.  I enjoyed reviewing the names and bios of the KSU Geology Alumni, many of whom were my friends and fellow students.  I also thank you for prodding me to contribute last year when we talked, so this is a little late, but what’s time to a geologist?!!    
After I graduated in 1972, I joined GAI Consultants, an engineering consulting firm in Pittsburgh, PA where I worked for eleven years.  I owe getting that job to KSU alumnus, Lee Kettren (BS 1968) who also has a biography listed in this Alumni News site.   Thanks again Lee!  Most of my experience with GAI was in the areas of geotechnical engineering and hydrogeology, and I became a licensed PE while at GAI.  In 1983 geotechnical work took a downturn, and I shifted to environmental work when I joined NUS Corporation, a Halliburton company, to manage projects in an EPA Superfund contract that covered four EPA Regions in the eastern US.  Like many other geologists at that time,  I was “following the money” and the jobs into the environmental field, although I never really quit practicing as an engineering geologist.    NUS underwent several name changes under Halliburton until they sold us to Tetra Tech, Inc. in 1998.   
I relocated the family to Andover, Massachusetts through a corporate re-location in 1989.   Although I evolved from hardhat and field boots to a tie and brief case person, I occasionally donned the hardhat and steel-toed boots when an interesting geotechnical or hydrogeological project presented itself.  
I always wanted to end my career working for a non-profit or public-service organization after years of working under large, publicly-traded, for-profit companies.  Tetra Tech gave me that opportunity in 2006 when they no longer needed my services as a Senior Vice President and Acting President of the subsidiary.  After parting ways, I decided to try the public sector and lucked-out, landing a position as a Deputy Director within a Division of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection in Boston.   Today I work with our state waste site assessment and cleanup contractors.  The irony of my position is that I sit on the “other side of the table” as a regulator after 34 years as a consultant.   
Regrettably, I haven’t kept in touch with my fellow KSU geology alumni;  perhaps this posting will generate some renewed acquaintances.  However, I do keep in contact with a part of the KSU geology department every year, usually the weekend before Thanksgiving.  For the past 30 years I have co-led an engineering geology field trip in the Pittsburgh area with Dr. Abdul Shakoor.  If you recall, I started the field trip with several other GAI staff people in 1981 at your suggestion Dr. Heimlich, and I have co-conducted that trip every year but one with Abdul.   Should Abdul ask me again, we will do it again in November 2010 for the 31st year.  In a small way, it’s my thanks to the KSU Geology Department for the excellent experience I had as an undergraduate and graduate student.  My career has been a “great ride”, and it all started in the Geology Department.  Thanks again to KSU.    
By the way, I don’t think anyone ever apologized for the 1971 Graduate Student skit performed at the Annual Banquet.  I never realized apologies were owed until I saw Chris Iverson’s (nee Kotula) Banquet pictures when I worked with her as a contractor with the Michigan DNR in the 1980’s.  So for myself and on behalf of the other “Whistling Rascals”, a belated apology, and I hope any psychological damage and recurrent nightmares of the spectacle experienced by those in attendance were not long lasting.   How about it “Rascals” (Gary Manzer, Milt Cooper, George M.L. Robinson, John Carden), are you with me on this?  (George et al, no need for apologies;  the skit was clever, funny, and right on the mark!!  Dick)
I am still married to Sue (nee Edwards,  KSU B.S.’70) after 37 years and we have three children:  Shannon (32); Jon (27) and Megan (25); and one grandchild, Samantha (10 months) – shown in the photos below. 



The Gardner Clan, from left : Samantha (Granddaughter), Shannon holding Samantha, Steve (husband/dad), Jon, Nicole (Jon’s fiance), Sean (Meg’s fiance), Megan.





Sue and George Gardner
DAVE STRINGER       1937 – 2010
On July 27, 2010 Dave Stringer passed away unexpectedly at age 73, leaving behind his wife (Carol), 3 children (Renee, Christine, and David), 7 grandchildren, and a sister and 2 brothers.  He was a dedicated, strong family man who became an excellent photographer and was fastidious at documenting every family milestone and vacation via his pictures.  
Dave retired in 2000 following a career as a Chemical Engineer in the Akron-Cleveland area.  Although his professional work was lab oriented, he enjoyed the outdoors (receiving the B.S.- degree in geology in 1964!) and took many hiking trips throughout the U.S. with his brother, Bob.  
Having visited with him periodically over the years, Dave and I had planned to have lunch together in Kent on July 29, but that was postponed, when several days earlier, Renee informed me that he was under observation in the hospital.  I fully expected to re-schedule lunch for the following week.  Instead I attended his memorial service in Ashland. 
10/4/10 - MANNY AND STEPHANIE PEREZ   –   B.S. 1976 &1977,  M.S. 1979

Steph and I completed our B.S. ('77 & '76 respectively) and our M.S. in '79.  At that time we both accepted positions with Texaco in Midland, TX working E&P prospects in the Permian Basin.  By 1986,  I was with Mobil and Steph took a break from her career as we started a family.  In 1990, I transferred to Mobil Marketing and we moved to Nashua, NH.  While there, I managed environmental remediation projects in the New England/Upstate NY region.  After a couple of years, I transferred to Mobil HQ in Fairfax, VA where I worked in a technical design group supporting our environmental project managers, primarily in the U.S. and some internationally.  We've been in Fairfax ever since.

My current position (now ExxonMobil), is that of Transaction/Technical Advisor in our Environmental Services Company.  In that capacity, I am responsible for addressing environmental liability related to large property and affiliate transactions in the Caribbean, Central & South America and increasingly in Europe.

For the past seven years, Steph has been working for Observera, a small engineering firm that specializes in photogrammetry, remote sensing and change detection for DOD projects and other "secret" government stuff.  She enjoys working on a wide variety of topics including hardware/software development support, image analysis and GIS projects.  She received her GIS certificate from Penn State a few years back.  There have even been occasions where she has been able to draw upon and apply her geology background.

Steph and I have been married 31 years and, as of this year, we are officially "empty nesters".  Katherine, our oldest, graduated from Grove City College in PA and is going into her 2nd year of the graduate marriage and family counseling program at the College of William & Mary.  Sarah graduated this spring, also from W&M, as an art major/business marketing minor.  She is currently updating her portfolio, doing some commission work and hopefully soon looking for permanent employment.  Our youngest, Michael, will be a sophomore at Christopher Newport Univ. majoring in Marketing.  I don't know what we did, or didn't do, but sorry ... no geologists.

God has been gracious to us through the years and we look forward to where He takes us next.  We’ve enjoyed reading about some of our old buddies from our KSU days on the Alumni website. Great idea!  Greetings to all...
09/27/2010 – Jay Winter – B.S. (1983), M.S. 2008 (Earth Sciences) California University of Pennsylvania

After graduation, I worked for Solar Testing Laboratories in Garfield Heights, Ohio as an inspector.  I performed field and laboratory tests on soils, aggregates, asphalt, and concrete.  I moved to Virginia, following my future wife, and worked for Concrete Pipe and Products Company at their Ashland, Virginia plant.  I helped set up a quality control laboratory while sampling and testing concrete used to manufacture concrete pipe.  This work persuaded me to gain employment in a more geologically related field.  I next worked for a start-up consulting firm, Virginia Geotechnical Services, located in Richmond, Virginia.  We started with four employees and grew to about 30 people in five years.  I helped set up the construction materials testing laboratory and assisted with supervision and training of field and laboratory staff.  Virginia Geotechnical Services started an environmental section and I transitioned to preparing landfill permit applications and conducting environmental pre-acquisition site assessments.  This included supervising field work such as test borings, monitoring well installations, and conducting aquifer testing.  I sampled groundwater and surface water and developed groundwater monitoring plans for new, proposed, and existing industrial sites.  I worked on projects in Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Ohio and North Carolina.

I was recruited to work for Chambers Development Company, a landfill operating company, located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and they paid for me to move five hours closer to Cleveland, Ohio (where I continue to have many relatives).  As a Senior Staff Hydrogeologist, I evaluated potential and existing landfill sites, worked with numerous consultants, assisted engineering staff in preparing landfill permit applications, and performed environmental site assessments. 

I next worked for an environmental consulting firm, S. E. Technologies, located in Bridgeville, Pennsylvania doing geological work related to groundwater, solid waste, site characterization, remedial design, and regulatory compliance.  My main projects were concerning residual waste (coal ash) landfills for power generating facilities.

I have been working for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection since 1993 (the past seventeen years).  I am currently responsible for reviewing permit applications for bituminous underground coal mines, coal refuse disposal sites, and coal preparation plants.  I perform field stream investigations, and private and public water supply complaint investigations.  While working for the PADEP, I attended classes at California University of Pennsylvania and received my M.S. degree in Environmental Science in 2008.  My Thesis was titled: Current Performance Of A Passive Wetlands Treating Acid Mine Drainage From Underground Mine Seals At Moraine State Park, Butler County, Pennsylvania.   My father said it was the longest thesis title in the graduation ceremony program, so must have been important!  I taught a structural geology class as an Adjunct Professor at California University of Pennsylvania.  I have to give credit to all professors; it is more difficult than it appears.  Keep up the great work you do at Kent State University and around the country!

I had been trying to contact some of my classmates for several years (specifically Claudia Mazaros) and knew about the KSU Geology Department’s Alumni information section (sort of like Facebook for KSU geology majors).  Unfortunately, I did not initially scroll down far enough to see Claudia passed away in February of 2007.  She was a great friend in college and she, like myself, continued her education after leaving Kent State University.  I encourage everyone to donate to either the KSU Geology Department or KSU (or both) to assist the educational endeavors of today’s students.  Even a small amount helps.  As a parent with two young adults in college, I know the cost of education keeps increasing. 

My daughter Jill is currently a freshman at KSU and is planning on a double major in history and English.  My son Paul is in his final year of chemical engineering at Penn State University.  My wife Patty (KSU, 1983) and I have been married for close to twenty five years.  Patty is currently the Director of Development at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh and she is attending graduate school for Information Science at the University of Pittsburgh.  



Lake Arthur in Moraine State Park, Pennsylvania
09/26/2010 - Daniel F Peacock- BS Kent State University
I am currently working for Geosearch Logging Inc as a Hydrocarbon well analyst. The company founded in 1983, is owned by a former KSU graduate Joe Stuckel. I greatly enjoy my job and the daily science required of me, not to mention the extensive travel. I will be considering additional education in petroleum engineering, depending on the opportunities at hand. I hope to see some former class mates and professors in the near future. See you guys soon!!! P.S. That is Kristen Muholland a KSU geology graduate in the striped shirt, who is now working with SCA.
04/28/2010 - P.J. (Paula) Hunt - BS 1985 MS 1988 (Purdue University)

I've been with the West Virginia Geologic and Economic Survey in Morgantown, WV since the summer of 2007.  One of my current projects is bedrock mapping in the Gauley River and New River Gorge areas, and I am loving it.  Working for a state agency was a big change after almost 20 years in consulting, and it's been great.  My husband, Tim Warner, is a remote sensing professor at West Virginia University and we have been living in the Morgantown area since 1992.  We still have the house and some land along the Monongahela River, and now a rail trail runs through our property, so Tim can cycle to work without hassling with traffic.  I wish I could say the same for me, but I have a lovely office overlooking Cheat Lake, so I can't complain.  Y'all come visit!
6/2/10 - DOUG BARBER  -  B.S. 1984

After graduation, I did a short stint in the oil fields in Central West Virginia.  In 1985 I went on to work for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources in the Ground Water Division, doing mapping for ground water resources and ground water pollution potential.  I left there in 1990 and moved to SE Michigan to begin working in environmental consulting with Warzyn Engineering, Inc.  Eventually, that company was bought by Montgomery Watson (now MWH Americas, Inc.), and I worked for MWH until 2002.   Then two other Principals and I left and formed our own firm, BB&E.  We are focused primarily on environmental engineering and consulting, program and project management, remediation, and a myriad of other services (see website www.bbande.com) that we perform for the public and private sectors across the United States and its territories.

My wife, Shari, and I live in the country north of Ann Arbor and not too far from Farmington Hills, Michigan where I work.
TOM STANLEY  -  B.S. 1982 (Southern Illinois University),  1984 M.S. (KSU),  2000 Ph.D. (University of Kansas)
After graduating Kent, I landed a job with a small precious metals exploration company (gold exploration) in the Black Hills, SD, and worked there for about 3 years mostly doing mapping on their claim blocks.  The company also had prospects in Nevada, so Sharri and I lived in Beatty, NV for some time, bringing in a large mine there.  We moved to Denver for a while, but continued Au exploration in NV. I then changed companies in ’89, but I was still involved with gold exploration and also living in Nevada again, this time in Eureka.
By ’94 I had about enough moving around and living in small mining communities, and decided to go back and get my Ph.D.  A lot of thought went into that decision, but it was a good move for me.  I finally got my degree (specialized in paleontology) from the University of Kansas in 2000.  Sharri and I now live in Norman, OK where I’ve been working for the Oklahoma Geological Survey since ’98, and I am a Geologist IV and Principal Investigator of the Survey’s STATEMAP project (a cooperative venture between state surveys and the USGS).  So in a way I’ve ended up about where I started, doing a lot of geologic mapping, and having the time of my life.
Along with the Survey work I also help teach the joint Oklahoma State University/  University of Oklahoma field camp at Canon City, CO.  Field camp is a 5-week course that runs from late May to late June every year.  I’ve been doing that for about 4 years now, and every year the camp enrollment ranges from 60 to 65 students.  It’s quite a handful, but an awful lot of fun as well.  It seems the geology business is booming, given all the new students each year.  I hope it continues.

2007 in the Wichita Mountains, OK.







2/12/10 - TERRY RAU  -  B.S. 1978,  M.S. 1982

After many years of looking at really cool rocks in really neat places I'm now living in my little house in a small town in Colorado.  I'm currently working on a multiyear project, the Colorado Breeding Bird Atlas II, and spend lots of time trudging through beauteous landscapes looking for nesting birds, from riverside dippers to mountaintop rosy-finches.  In my spare time I play Beethoven piano sonatas badly, play chess more badly, and continue to pile pretty rocks over my yard which really cuts down on time spent doing yard work.

Terry on Quandary Peak in the Mosquito Range, Rocky Mountains,  south of Breckenridge, CO.
 
2/12/10 -  DAVE BENNETT - B.S. 1967,  B.A. (Finance) 1971 (Arizona State University)

I started my career in 1967 working for Anaconda Copper Mining Company in Butte, Montana, first as a Sampler underground.  Shortly after, I was transferred to an exploration unit as a Sampler and Geologic Field Assistant on the Stillwater igneous complex in MT.  There we took soil samples, staked mining claims,  and mapped the geology.   Then I transferred to the Datil Mountains in NM to stake uranium mining claims.  Following this job, I was transferred back to the Berkeley Pit in Butte as a Surveyor in Training.  When an opportunity was available for a transfer to South America, I accepted and was transferred to Potrerillos, Chile. There I worked in a copper mining, milling, smelting, and refining operation. 
 
Due to the anticipated nationalization of the copper industry in Chile, I sought employment with Phelps Dodge Corporation in the U.S. where, in 1969,  I started in Bisbee, AZ at the Campbell Shaft as a Mining Engineer.   Responsibilities with this job included the development of ore reserves, monitoring of production, and contract payment calculations.  This was done for approximately 25 mine stopes on two production levels at the Campbell Shaft.  Annually we calculated the ore removed from the reserve base, added the newly discovered reserves, and expanded or deleted reserves from the working stopes.  In addition I took part in special projects such as the development of underground exploration drilling. 

In 1973 I was employed by Magma Copper Company (a subsidiary of Newmont Mining Corporation) as a Planning Engineer.  After a brief training period that exposed me to the inner workings of block-cave mining methods, I drafted the first cost budget for development and production at the 62,500 tons/day San Manuel Mine in AZ.  As part of the budgeting process the variances from actual costs had to be analyzed and explained.  In 1974 I joined the production staff as a Foreman and later as an Inspector for the furnishing of a new supply and service shaft.  Upon completion of the shaft I became a Systems Analyst for Magma Copper and coordinated implementation of the company-wide accounts payable system with Newmont.  The next task was to computerize the inventory and purchasing department and to link it with the accounts payable system.  I was last working on the Magma Copper Company’s health insurance system when I returned to Ohio in 1978.
 
Working for R&F Coal Company in Cadiz, OH, my first task was to find the least expensive system to handle and dispose of the fine coal refuse produced by the 1000-ton/hour coal beneficiation plant.  This led to creation of an an impoundment area on the floor of a coal pit a few hundred yards from the plant. The next project involved computerization of purchasing, warehousing and accounts payable activities for the 3.5 million-tons/year R&F Coal mining operation.  In addition, a payroll coding system was designed to keep track of operating costs for the strip-mining activities.  The system tracked removal of top soil and overburden, coal mining, and reclamation activities.  Finally I took on the task of Exploration Geologist to catalog the existing properties and reserves.  In addition, I directed a drilling program to evaluate the value, quality, and reserves for newly acquired properties.
 
After leaving R&F Coal Company 1985 I started my own consulting company and in 1988 formed Radon & Geology Consulting to do radon testing and radon mitigation work.  During this time I continued to attend classes on other environmental issues.  In 1990 my focus shifted to Phase One environmental site assessments while I worked on other geological hazards as well.

I retired in 2005 and my wife, Donna (KSU 1967 B.A. in biology) retired in 2006 (from Stark State College).  She is my love and traveling companion. What a pair we make! We have been to Madagascar, the Galapagos Islands, Europe three times, Hawaii, and we cruised the Inside Passage to Alaska (and took the train to Denali National Park). These places have left me awestruck along with Salisbury Crag, Edinburgh, Siccar Point, Knockan Crag (Moine Thrust) in the U. K.  With a future trip planned to Australia and New Zealand we are still having fun! And the books  I have read are not near as numerous as the ones  I am going to read.  I would like to talk to anyone about their reading experiences and subjects.

2006 - Underground in a test adit used for the proposed Red Canyon Dam on the Colorado River.  Fortunately,  the dam will never happen!  The picture was taken while on  a Grand Canyon National Park river trip.
2/12/10 -  MIKE SCHLORHOLTZ     1952 – 2010

Mike Schlorholtz died February 6, 2010 in Houston TX.  Having completed the B.S. degree in 1974 (West Virginia University) and the M.S. degree in 1979 (KSU), he was employed as a Petroleum Geologist with Amoco Production Company in Houston.  After a long career with Amoco,  he retired several years ago having worked in the Gulf Coast region,  but also in Egypt and Azerbaijan.  Mike was an accomplished runner who competed in national and international marathons, and he enjoyed playing softball, hiking, fishing, and scuba diving.

I remember Mike as a quiet, no-nonsense, hard-working, purpose-oriented student.  He did his thesis on heat flow density in Southern Ohio, by measuring the geothermal gradient in a deep core-well in Washington County.  He helped me build the divided-bar apparatus for measuring thermal conductivity in core samples.  Mike was an all around A-student.  He took over (for five-weeks) my Introductory Hydrogeology class in the Fall of 1977,  when my return to Kent from a visit in Israel was delayed by an unexpected call to reserve service in the Israel Defense Forces... and he did an excellent job.

I remember him very fondly.                                            Yoram Eckstein
2/12/10 - DAWN (NIGHMAN) KRUGER - B.S.1992 (Physics, John Carroll University), M.S. 1994

After receiving an M.S. in Geology from Kent State University, I took a position with Alta Consulting Corp. as a Geoscientist, focusing on site assessment work and providing environmental compliance/auditing services to the industrial sector. I worked on projects throughout the US ~ Alta was a great place to “learn the ropes”…being a small firm, it provided many opportunities and I was able to immerse myself in all aspects of the business.  My career focus on site assessment and compliance continued with medium-sized consulting groups through the 1990’s, and in 2000 I joined a large company, Parsons Corporation, in Cleveland as a Senior Scientist.  Parsons is a full service EPC and consulting firm, focusing on engineering, design, construction management and environmental work for public and private sectors worldwide….there are close to 12,000 employees in Parsons, with numerous graduates from KSU’s Geology Department.  The transition from working in smaller companies to a very large one was challenging and exciting, providing many new opportunities, not the least of which was the opportunity to manage the storm water program for the runway expansion program at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport from 2000 to 2002. In addition to the runway itself, the program involved on the order of 20 different ancillary construction projects that were necessary for runway expansion.  It was a diverse and interesting project, and I worked with many other contractors as part of the program management team serving the airport.  The project involved the culverting of more than 1 mile of Abrams Creek, a massive undertaking that required placement of 4, 10-foot diameter pipes for over 1 mile!  It was good use of the CPESC (Certified Professional in Erosion and Sediment Control) that I earned in 1996.

In 2005, I transferred to the Parsons’ Chicago office as a Deputy Program Manager focusing on managing environmental projects and programs for the oil industry (BP and ExxonMobil, amongst others), with a focus on pipeline projects.  I manage a portfolio of projects across the continental U.S. for BP’s US Pipelines & Logistics business unit, and in 2008 I created (and currently lead) a Pipelines Technical Community within Parsons to network staff working on various types of pipeline projects.  I also manage environmental projects for the chemical industry (Rohm and Haas, Dow, and Morton Salt to name a few); provide support for our Federal government projects; and support our business development group.  And…I was recently promoted to a Program Manager position so the climb continues!

Over the course of my career, I have had the benefit of working on projects in more than two dozen US states, Canada and the European Union, which has challenged me to learn environmental regulations in all of those locations and varying political climates.  Chicago is a great City filled with many opportunities, and I absolutely love living and working in this part of the Midwest.  My husband Gary and I enjoy traveling for work and pleasure, and spending much time with friends and family, including our children Katherine and Steven.

Dawn and Gary at home.                                                 Steve, Kathy, Dawn, and Gary at Grand Canyon National Park.
5/13/10 - DAVE BURNS  -  B.S. 1969;  M.S. 1980

In 1975 I left Kent to join Amoco in Houston and began exploration for oil and gas in the Trenton Formation in southern Michigan. In 1979 I took a position with Total Petroleum, also in Houston, doing basically the same thing.  Later that year I was transferred to Oklahoma City to open an office and work on both Michigan and Anadarko Basin projects.  When they wanted to transfer me to Denver I said no, and landed a job locally with the GHK Company noted for deep drilling (Some of its wells were 50,000 feet deep!) exploring for methane.  However, most of these wells ended as monuments to science.  In 1982 the gas crisis basically killed most exploration companies and I was laid off.

Since I was working on the new computer mapping applications at the time, the State of Oklahoma allowed me to go to school to become a computer technician.  I did this for several years but the desire to return to geology came into play.  In 1989, when my wife took a job in Tampa as a Physical Therapist,  I found work with a consulting firm which installed monitoring and saltwater intrusion wells.  When that project finished, I was hired by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection in the groundwater section. I left there in 1995 and started working for PreciseCal Services and I’m still there.

During the last 15 years I have become very involved in Florida archaeology, and I now know and work with most of the archaeologists in Florida. I have been president of 2 organizations,  serve on 3 boards,  and publish 2 newsletters on the subject.  I enjoy this multidisciplinary field as I am able to apply my geological background in many phases of the research and excavations.  I assist in determining chert types and sources, evaluating pottery analyses, and identifying stratigraphy among other things.

My wife and I have been married for 37 years and have 3 grown children.  All are married and doing well in their chosen fields.  So far we have 2 precious grandchildren who live nearby.  Dorrine has been a PT for almost 38 years and is looking forward to retirement, the sooner the better.  As for me, I'll keep working as long as I'm able.
2/12/10 - STAN RADON  - B.A. & B.S. 1984 (Buffalo State College),   MS 1987
 
For the last 20 years I have been working in Buffalo, NY for the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (in the RCRA program). My normal activities are typical of us working in the environmental field, but a really great project was my involvement with development of the first wind farm in the U.S. in a brownfield within an urban environment (along the shore of Lake Erie on the former Bethlehem Steel property in the City of Lackawanna just outside of Buffalo).
 
I do miss all the folks at the N.J. DEP where I started my career. It was really great to have all of the Kent people working at the DEP or Golder Associates nearby. Prior to starting with the DEC, I also worked as a consultant. I also have been teaching geology and several other courses in the evenings for the last 15 years at Daemen College and the University of Buffalo. Teaching geology labs at Kent (although initially terrifying!)  made me aware that I really enjoyed teaching.
 
I live at home with my wife Kimm and daughter Madison in the Village of Hamburg, just south of Buffalo along Lake Erie. Living near Lake Erie is really great, and I can kayak among the numerous bald eagles along the beautiful shoreline.  We try to bike as much as possible, kayak and ski.  I also have been involved with a small group of guys who go to South Dakota and collect dinosaur bones from the Hell Creek Formation.  We are able to keep all of our bones and I have several T-rex teeth and many large bones from hadrosaurs.  I truly miss everyone from Kent.
 
T-rex tooth in SD

 Vertical fibula bone that took nearly 3 days to excavate!

1/29/10 - CURTIS SCOTT  –  B.S.  1970                               

Since receiving the Geology B.S. degree, Curtis has had a rewarding professional career beginning with the Bechtel Corporation,  for which he worked on the Washington D.C. subway system for 5 years.  He then transferred to their San Francisco office and, over the next 10 years,  was engaged in many diverse projects including large hydroelectric, fossil fuel, and nuclear power studies doing engineering geological work involving fault investigations, foundation and abutment evaluations, dam site landslide analysis, powerhouse studies, and long-water conveyance and penstock pipeline siting.  His work often began with initial investigations through resident Project Geologist during construction.  These projects involved a lot of travel in nearly all states within the U.S. but also in Algeria and Venezuela.

In the mid-80s he relinquished the months and years of travel and was hired by the California Regional Water Quality Control Board’s San Francisco office.  At retirement in 2009, he was Chief of the Groundwater Protection and Waste Containment Division staffed by geologists, engineers, and environmental scientists.  He was responsible for regulation and environmental cleanup of active and closing Dept. of Defense sites, large industrial sites (such as refineries and chemical plants), and the regulation and approval of containment designs for municipal solid waste facilities.  He maintains his California registration as a professional and engineering geologist.

He met his wife, Terri, in Washington D.C.  Together they raised 3 children, Patrick, Eric, and Deidra in Concord, California.  Presently Eric and Deidra are married and Eric has three children who spend a lot of time with Grandma and Grandpa.  Near future plans are to move out of the San Francisco Bay area (but remain in the “West”),  travel,  and visit the many friends developed over the last 40 years.
1/21/10 - JACK WACHTER   -   B.S. 1971,   M.S. 1974

After completing graduate school, I was hired by Dames & Moore in New Jersey where I worked logging rock cores for a proposed nuclear power plant and conducting aquifer tests on groundwater wells. Then I changed course and spent the next nine years in the coal (lignite) industry – first in North Dakota and later in Texas. After the coal industry I worked for 6 ½ years with different environmental consulting firms in Cincinnati.

For the last 16 ½  years I have been employed by the City of Cincinnati as a Senior Environmental/Safety Specialist. My work involves landfill remediation, removal of underground storage tanks, environmental investigation before the City purchases land, cleanup of contaminated City-owned property, etc. 

I’m married with a son in the Navy (Norfolk,VA) and also a special    4-legged daughter (small fox terrier). My wife Nancy is a nurse who works at Children’s Hospital here in Cincinnati. I am thinking about retiring in a year or two, God willing and the creek doesn’t rise. It seems like 1974 was a long time ago – not as long ago as the Pleistocene but still a long time ago. To keep my mind fresh and clear-headed through exercise I decided in 2005 at the age of 56 to take up karate. After four years (and a few good bruises) I finally became a black belt. I guess the old saying is true – “Age is only a state of mind.”

1/19/10 - JAY ZIMMERMAN  -  B.S. 1984

I’ve done fairly well career-wise, being in the right place at the right time. After graduation, I wasn’t able to find work in the major market that hired geologists – petroleum exploration.  My wife (Tina) and I moved to Florida in 1985 where I found a job as a Hydrogeologist in the environmental field, exploring for the “refined” type of petroleum.  Ironically, I wasn’t the first choice of the company that ultimately hired me, but after the interview I sent a letter to the CEO thanking him and his staff for their time and the interview.  I received a second call with a job offer, in part because I had the basic qualifications he was looking for, but more importantly, because he could not recall the last time anyone had thanked him for an interview (pass that along to students!).  He felt it had something to do with my character and work ethic.

In Florida I began work as a consultant, conducting hydrogeological assessments for 2 years before moving to North Carolina in 1987. Here I began work in the Groundwater Section of the NC Dept. of  Environment & Nat. Resources. In 1990 I was promoted to Regional Supervisor and currently maintain that position, although the responsibilities have grown to match the increasing environmental awareness within the community and Nation.  In the early 1990’s I passed the state geological licensing exam and I have remained licensed since then.

I am currently responsible for implementing the Aquifer Protection Section’s (former Groundwater Section) programs within a 16-county area surrounding Raleigh NC , supervising a staff of 10 Environmental Specialists, Hydrogeologists, Engineers, and Technicians.   Through permitting and inspecting,  we regulate the waste disposal activities associated with large animal farms (swine, cattle, poultry), activities associated with the land application of industrial, municipal and domestic wastewater as well as implement well construction and groundwater quality regulations.  We also have a Resource Evaluation Program that partners with the USGS, other local and State agencies, and local universities. This program involves investigation and better understanding of the dynamics associated with groundwater and surface water interactions and pollutant movement.  Our focus is currently on nutrients, arsenic and radionuclides.  I am also routinely involved in regulatory activities such as  assessment of civil penalties, settlement negotiations,  and meetings to assist the regulated community with compliance issues.
1/19/10 - JIM SCHAEFFER -  B.S. 1987
After graduation I was employed by Universal Engineering Sciences, Inc. in Florida and subsequently Handex Environmental, Inc., where I was involved with environmental projects such as soil testing for engineering properties, and Phase 1 and Phase 2 environmental reports.  This branched into retail service station, petroleum products terminal and refinery geologic and environmental investigations and soil and groundwater treatment system installation, operation, and maintenance.
Since 1994 I've been working for BP (formerly Amoco) with a variety of jobs.  I started out managing remediation projects, which kept me in touch with colleagues and Kent grads like Vince Blout and Scott Hershberger.  I even work in the same group as Kent grads Bill Barber in Cleveland and Kevin Heaton in Houston, although Kevin is now retired.  So, the Kent influence is never too far away.
I did a little Health, Safety, Security, and Environmental (HSSE) work with BP Pipelines and BP Chemicals (now INEOS), before coming back to BP's Remediation Management function.  My main area of employment now is deciding how and when to transfer environmental liability.  BP, as you can imagine, has its fair share of environmental issues.  And we are not always in the best position to manage that cleanup, especially when we no longer own the asset associated with the liability.  The job keeps me involved in the purchase and sales of properties and even includes areas like Brownfields restoration, natural resource damage claim off-set, and donations.  
So, what started out as performing non-stop field work and application of some hard-rock geology techniques, evolved over time into a profession that little resembles what I studied in school.  But that evolution was gradual, natural, and always exciting. 
I married my wife Kelly in 1991 and in 2000 we were blessed with identical triplet daughters (Allison, Meghan, and Madison).  Needless to say we are quite busy.  We currently live in Cypress, TX, just northwest of Houston.  We have moved around the north and south quite a bit over the years and hope to stay put for a while.







2009 – Yes, that’s my hair.  Never could grow a beard.
1/19/10 - AL HINKS   -   B.S.  1980,   M.S.  1995 (University of Houston)
I got into geology after taking Physical  Geology to fulfill a science requirement and found I loved it (quite a change for someone who intended to be a history teacher, but one of the best decisions I ever made).  After graduating in '80,  I spent about a year and a half mud logging in the Gulf and then in the Rockies.  That gets pretty old when you’re newly married (or want to have a life in general), so I began looking for an "office job" in earnest.   I got a lucky break in late '81 and was hired as a geologist for a small Denver geophysical company that specialized in potential field (gravity and magnetics) geophysics.  That was one of the poorest paying, but most fun jobs I ever had.  Getting paid to ride a dirt bike around the back country of Nevada, and other adventures.
In '87 I joined an oil and gas exploration company in Traverse City, MI which allowed us to move to a small town.  We also had our first child (Sydney) that year.  Oh well, they wanted me to transfer to Houston in '90, so our dream of living in a small town was over for the time being.  In '92 the exploration company closed its Houston office.  It didn't seem like much of an opportunity at the time, but the oil and gas industry was slow right then, so I finished my geology  M.S. degree which had eluded me for years.  We also had our second child (Ben) in '92.  Unemployment and a new child - no stress there!
I worked for a short time in Houston in the environmental business, but after finishing the M.S. we came back to Michigan, this time to Grand Haven, a small town on the west coast where the Grand River meets Lake Michigan.  I got a job with Westshore Consulting, a small company in Muskegon, MI which did engineering, surveying and environmental work.  I started out with Westshore mostly doing environmental work, but as time went by I ended up in oil and gas exploration.  Shortly after returning to Michigan we adopted our third child, Sean.  Michigan is a beautiful place (with the possible exception of February), and over the last 8 years or so I've had a blast mapping buried glacial scours in northern Michigan using detailed gravity data (for the gas companies).  About 7 years back I became part owner of Westshore, and hope to finish out my career here. 




The picture is from a trip to Alaska I made with my older son, Ben, in the summer of '08.
KSENIJA NAMJESNIK-DEJANOVIC    1965 - 2009

The Department of Geology is mourning the death of Dr. Ksenija Namjesnik-Dejanovic who died August 29, 2009 after a long battle with breast cancer.  She was a research specialist in water chemistry and natural organic material and served as a teacher and post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Geology over many years.  She was born March 5, 1965 in the Republic of Croatia and studied at the University of Zagreb in Croatia, receiving a B.S. with Honors in Geology in 1989 and an MS in Geochemistry in 1994.  She came to Kent State University where she studied aqueous geochemistry in the Department of Geology, receiving her Ph.D. in 1999.  She received two post-doctoral fellowships in chemistry and geology, working with Dr. Steve Cabaniss (now at the University of New Mexico) and Dr. Patricia Maurice (now at Notre Dame University).  While serving as a research scientist, she also taught LER courses and advanced and graduate courses in Hydrology and Hydrogeochemistry, receiving several teaching awards.   Ksenija was the author of numerous publications on organic substances, water quality, and soil contamination problems.  Ksenija was helpful to many of the students in Geology, Biological Sciences, and Chemistry with respect to instrumental analysis using our analytical laboratory equipment.  She was an outstanding member of the Department serving on graduate panels and Ph.D. committees for students in Geology and Biological Sciences.    
Ksenija was a joyous person who loved to share her knowledge and her enthusiasm for learning.  She also loved to cook and was an avid organic gardener, and many of us will always remember the wonderful home-baked treats she would bring in, and the many gifts of newly harvested vegetables and fresh laid eggs from her own hens.  She lived a full life surrounded by family and friends, and we will miss her every day.  She is survived by her husband Mijo, her son Ante, her parents, and many friends and family, all of whom were enriched by her love of life, her faith, and her personal strength in facing her illness.  
                                                                                            - Don Palmer-
9/4/09 - BILL BARBER   -   B.S.  1977,  M.S.  1981   

After I left Kent in 1979 I spent a few months working for the Pennsylvania Geological Survey in the Pittsburgh office.  That was followed by a couple of years with Allegheny County as a Geotechnical Engineer working on landslides, mine subsidence,  and other geologic hazards.  In 1982, I started with The Standard Oil (Ohio) which, after some mergers and such, is now part of the current BP.  I’ve been with this company for 27 plus years having spent the first 12 years at BP Research and Technical Service, sharing some of that time working near Patty Hunt.  Although there was a lot of travel and a number of projects in different areas, the most exciting projects for me were in the Arctic Research Group and Environmental Technology Group.  My Arctic experience dealt mostly with mechanical properties of sea ice (rock mechanics with the rock near its melting temperature).  I was fortunate enough to be on field projects in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska and in the high Canadian Arctic (camped out 600 miles from the North Pole on a small island between Elsmere Island and Greenland).  Attached is one of my favorite photographs taken in 1983.  I was younger, thinner and had more hair then.  In the Environmental Technology Group I spent several years working with shallow geophysics, in particular ground penetrating radar’s potential to map hydrocarbon contamination (this project got me down to Australia).  I worked on a number of technical service projects ranging from fracture mapping for a new long wall mine to soil and groundwater remediation.  For the last 15 years I’ve been a Project Manager working on all aspects of soil and groundwater remediation including technical, regulatory, community relations and, of course, legal.  My projects have ranged from smaller retail sites to larger manufacturing facilities and superfund sites.  I’ve run into a number of consultants and regulators who received their degree from the KSU Geology Department.  One of the outcomes of the BP–Amoco merger was being reunited with Kevin Heaton.

On the family side, Mary Beth and I just celebrated our 36th wedding anniversary.  Those who were around the Department during my graduate stay may recall our son, Justin, who accompanied me a few times through McGilvrey Hall. In the KSGS slideshow (1978?), he was the little kid sitting at the computer terminal in Dr. Craig’s lab.  He’s about to turn 34.  Our younger son Jarrod is closing in on 29.  Both are married and living in Kent.




2009 –  Head-on photo with beard intact.

August, 1983 – Operating the transit as part of a BP field team camped out on a small rocky island between Elsmere Island and Greenland in the Kennedy Channel.  Goal was to track ice floes broken from the arctic ice pack. As the floes moved down the Channel, teams would instrument and track them to measure the impact force as each floe hit the island, providing some large-scale measurements regarding sea-ice/island interaction.



1983 - Taking notes at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska on a BP project with the goal of conducting uniaxial compression tests on first-year sea ice.  For our use, colleagues in the United Kingdom built a portable testing lab that was transported to Prudhoe Bay.  This got me my first trip to BP’s Sunbury Research Lab, and was my first experience looking at the crystal orientation of sea ice as well as coring, testing, sampling, and packing it for shipment across the U.S.
8/20/09 - ALISTAIR MACDONALD  -  1983 B.S.  (Allegheny College), 1987 M.S.

I joined Golder Associates Inc. in 1986 after leaving Kent, and 20+ years later I’m still here.  I started my career in New Jersey, but moved to New Hampshire in 1992 to open a new office.  A number of my Kent classmates (Bob Illes, Tony Grasso and Dave Wehn) are also Golder employees (at other locations in the eastern U.S.). Over the years, much of my work has involved assessment and remediation of contaminated properties and permitting and monitoring of solid waste landfill facilities.

I currently live in New Boston, New Hampshire, near Manchester, with my wife Megan, step daughter Chelsea (finishing her sophomore year at UNH) and Adeline (finishing her second year of pre-school). 
8/20/09 - SUE RICHARDS  -  1975  B.S. in Elementary Education (University of Illinois),  1978  B.S.  (Cleveland State University),  1981  M.S.

Life takes us in directions we never expect when we are younger; mine certainly has.  After leaving Kent the second time (unfinished PhD) I worked for Parsons Corp. and then for SAS Environmental as a Hydrogeologist.  While at Parsons, I taught myself human health risk assessment and various unsaturated and saturated zone models.  This was useful in subsequent projects at both Parsons and SAS.  In April 2005, I took a job as Manager of the groundwater monitoring program at Envirosafe Services of Ohio, Inc., a TSDF, near Toledo, OH  where I continue to work today. 
 
I already had four young kids when I was working on my PhD at Kent; some of you may remember a munchkin or two attending classes because mom had no where else for them to be on some days.  Coloring books are wonderful things.  Well, those munchkins are now grown and remain a constant source of amazement to me.  Becky (26) is working on her MD/PhD at Oregon Health and Sciences University (where Lance was treated).  She married in the summer of 2007 on a mountainside in Montana on the night of the blue moon.  She is an avid runner, having completed her 4th marathon at the Marine Corps Marathon in DC in October ‘08, and a cycle cross racer.  Of course she still plays soccer, after all that's how she met her husband - in a mixed league game in DC.  Dan (24) is pursuing a law degree at Fordham in NYC, and will be finished in 2010; he is ambitious as he is tall.  Jeff (22) graduated from Purdue in Chem. Eng. in December '08,  and works in DC but will head to Seattle for grad school in Fall '09, and Andrew (22) works at Whitmer's Lighting in Akron, DJ's weekends, and owns a house in the Highland Square area.  They are all so busy it's a real treat when we can actually get together.
 
My life?  Five years after the divorce I have found my old loves and some new ones - not guys - activities.  I met many new friends bicycling both in Akron and in Toledo (yes spandex and garish jerseys), I hike every chance I get and kayak, I pray for snow deep enough for cross-country skiing, and then there are always wine tastings.  Travel? -- hiking in Utah, hiking & snowshoeing in Oregon, wildlife touring and camping in Alaska.  And of course trips to NYC and DC.  Did I mention I do go to work every day?  So now the kids are gone (actually, I'm the one that moved), it's just me and my loopy black lab.  I would love to hear from my "old" Kent friends. -- Sue Richards, Perrysburg, OH

8/20/09 - GERRY KOSCHAL  -   B.S., 1973;   M.S., 1976 (Wright State University)

Dick,  It has been over 25 years since I've last talked with you, but I try to keep up by reading the Alumni News.  After graduating from Kent in 1973 (BS) and Wright State in 1976 (MS)  I worked in mineral exploration in Colorado and New Mexico for Union Carbide and Phillips Petroleum and, after the death of the mineral industry in 1982, for the New Mexico Environmental Improvement Division.  In 1987, my wife (Julie) and I moved to Dundee, Oregon (southwest of Portland).  Since then, I have worked for several environmental engineering consulting firms.  Currently, I have a single-shingle consulting firm (Red Hills Environmental) and mostly do sub-contracting work for environmental engineering firms.
 
When we moved to Oregon we purchased a small vineyard and have grown grapes for the local wine industry.  In 2007, we opened a small winery, Crumbled Rock Winery, in Dundee, Oregon.  The name is a play on the weathered basalt which forms the vineyard soil.  The  GSA Annual Meeting is in Portland this year, and if you know anyone who is coming out and enjoys wine, have them give me a call.  The meeting is in mid-October.  The winery will be in the middle of crush, so they can see how a very small winery operates.  The winery is in the middle of Oregon Wine Country, 30 miles southwest of Portland.  The winery number is 503-537-9682.  Our web site is www.crumbledrockwines.com
 
Those nights studying by the light of the juke box in downtown Kent have appeared to have paid off.   Gerry
8/20/09 - CAROL (CVETKOVICH) SCHOLL  -  B.S. 1966;  M.S. 1970 (Miami University)

After graduate school I was hired as a Geologist with Dames & Moore in 1973 (since acquired by URS Corporation). Later, I became the Instructor of Geology, and ultimately Head of Group Programs, in the Education Department at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. I worked for the Museum until 1979 when our son was born. He is now 30 (hard to believe since I feel like I can't be more than 35). After my son started nursery school, in 1983 I rejoined URS Corporation and have been with the firm ever since. As a Principal Geologist there, my working world mostly involves managing projects of many sizes and performing a lot of outdoor housekeeping, aka contaminant studies and remediation.
7/2/09 - JULES  DuBAR  (1923 – 2009)
I was just informed that our first geology alumnus, who was among five students (all World War II veterans) to attend our first summer field camp course, passed away at age 85 on March 17, 2009 at his home in Charlottesville, VA.  Jules is survived by his wife Susan, children Nicole and Scott, and grandchildren Selena and Ariana. Upon graduating from KSU in 1949, he entered Oregon State University where he received the M.S. degree (1950), and then enrolled at the University of Kansas where he earned the Ph.D. (1957), having conducted his dissertation research there under Raymond C. Moore, renowned paleontology professor.
Jules’ career began in 1951 when he joined Southern Illinois University as Instructor and then Assistant Professor of Geology.  In 1957 he became a faculty member at the University of Houston where he launched a program of research and publication on the Cenozoic stratigraphy and paleontology of the Atlantic and Gulf coastal plains. In 1962 he was appointed Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies at Duke University and, in 1967 he joined Morehead State University as Professor and Chairman of the Department of Geosciences. In 1982 Jules was hired as Research Scientist and Technical Editor for the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas, involving himself in petroleum geology, Neogene research, and environmental work.  During his professional career, Jules published more than 40 books, monographs, bulletins, guidebooks, maps, and journal articles; was awarded 12 research grants (7 from the National Science Foundation); served as consultant on numerous projects; and was Co-Editor of Southeastern Geology.  He was elected a Fellow of the Geological Society of America, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Explorer’s Club.
Among many honors and recognitions, he received Morehead State University’s Distinguished Faculty Member award and it’s Distinguished Researcher award.  He was elected to the National Faculty Honor Roll by the U.S. Council for the Advancement and Support of Education.  Moreover, he was a semi-finalist for the Carnegie Foundation’s National Professor of the Year award.
At KSU Jules preceded me by 12 years, but I became aware of him early on as the donor of a number of samples to our petrology collection and via Glenn Frank’s stories about him. Several years ago I began swapping email messages with him after I spotted his name in Geotimes. As I flipped through the magazine one day, my attention was drawn to an advertisement for a new book with a catchy title, “Never Piss into the Wind,” an autobiography by Jules DuBar!  The book consists of 49 vignettes describing his childhood in Canton, OH, academic experience and intrigue as a University of Houston professor, and wild encounters while engaged in geological field work.  Jules was able to overcome a “rough-and-tumble” upbringing and financial issues as a child, to excel in college, and to develop a particularly strong career as a professor, researcher, administrator, and overall significant contributor to our profession.  He set a fine example as the very first geology alumnus at KSU, and it was my pleasure to have known Jules DuBar, if only briefly.        -Dick Heimlich


1948 First Kent State Geology Summer Field Camp, Mt. Desert Island, Maine.  Left to right: Prof. Carl Savage, Bob Hall, Howard Beilhart, Herb Stewart (deceased), Jules DuBar (deceased), Jim Barkes.
5/14/09 - BRIAN  YOUNG   -   1981,  B.S. (Penn State University),   1988, M.S.

After receiving my M.S. degree,  I worked as an Engineering Geologist in the Buffalo, N.Y. region for about 10 years.  I then decided that I wanted to teach, so I enrolled in a teacher certification program at SUNY-Buffalo, finishing this program in May 2001.  We moved back to the area where I was raised,  which is in Pennsylvania just south of Binghamton, NY.
 
Currently, I am employed by the Windsor Central Shool District in Windsor, NY.  I teach Regents Earth Science primarily.  I am also certified in Chemistry,  so as class loads require, I occasionally teach Regents Chemistry as well.  I also teach a science elective called Force-of-Nature which focuses on hurricanes, tornadoes, volcanoes, tsunamis, asteroid impacts, etc.  I enjoy working with students, although all teenagers have certain "characteristics"  which need to be managed.
 
It was in the Buffalo area that I met my wife, Bonnie.  Our family consists of two married sons and two grandchildren.
3/20/09 - BILL STONE   -   B.S. 1964 (Bowling Green);   M.S., 1969 (KSU);   Ph.D., 1973 (University of North Dakota)

Bill retired on January 1, 2004,  after more than 30 years of work in various aspects of hydrogeology.  This includes 2 years at the U.S. Army Atmospheric Sciences Laboratory,  White Sands Missile Range, 16 years with the New Mexico Bureau of Mines & Mineral Resources, 1.5 years with Newmont Gold Company (Nevada),  and (most recently) 6 years at Los Alamos National Laboratory.  He also taught part-time at New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology,  the University of New Mexico,  and the College of Santa Fe.  He is best known for his work on the hydrogeology of the San Juan Basin and for bringing to the U.S. (from Australia)  the chloride mass balance method of determining recharge.   In addition to numerous other publications,  he wrote a book, “Hydrogeology in Practice – A Guide to Characterizing Ground-Water Systems,”  published by Prentice Hall.

Bill recently moved to El Prado, NM (just north of Taos).  Although officially retired,  Bill continues part-time teaching (currently at the University of New Mexico – Taos),  does some consulting,  and has taken up short-story writing.  At this point he has 40 such stories in various stages of polish!  And to keep busy, he now writes a regular column called HYDROTHINK for The Professional Geologist (AIPG's bi-monthly magazine). Each gives a humorous story of a hydrologic goof-up he’s observed during his  career,  and ends with a tip on how to avoid making the same mistake. Good fun and perpetrators remain anonymous.
3/9/08 - STEVE FELDMANN  -  1980, B.S.  University of Maryland;   1989, M.S. 

Dick – Thanks for reaching out, it’s been a long time.  I apologize for not writing sooner, but I suppose my tardiness may be recognizably true to form.  I went to work for an environmental consulting firm in New Jersey after I graduated in 1989, and I must have liked it a lot because I’m still there (same state, different job).  I started at Groundwater Associates, spending most of my time in the field conducting site investigations and taking part in sampling events - generally trying to stay on the good side of the driller.  From 1993 to 2004 I worked for EA Engineering, where I mainly performed and supervised remedial investigations at military sites (mostly Navy, but USACE and Air Force, too) and private industrial sites.  Along the way I was site health and safety manager for a dioxin investigation in Newark NJ, conducted a surface geophysical survey for buried military landfills near San Antonio TX, and successfully avoided snapping turtles and alligators while wading in a rain-swollen river to collect sediment samples in Mobile, AL.  I’m currently working at GeoTrans (since 2004), where I do much the same thing, more office work than field, but they let me out to get my hands dirty often enough to stay happy.  

My wife Jen is also a transplant to New Jersey (from Walla Walla, WA originally).  She’s worked for a software firm for years and is smarter than me.  We're owned by a 150-year old house that keeps us busy!  We recently finished a major kitchen overhaul.  By major, I mean we took it down to dirt and stone foundation... it's an old house and needed more work than we realized, but it was worth it.  I keep telling myself that, over and over!  My son Jesse has been involved with music since he was a kid, first performing and then recording.  He is a sound engineer living in Philadelphia, currently doing free-lance mixing and mastering and the rare live music event.  He's good at it and happy, which is great, but I wish he would stop critiquing our stereo system.

It was really good talking to both you and Karen Smith.  I have extremely fond memories from my time at Kent, and it’s daunting to realize how long it’s been.  I’ve lost touch with many of my fellow refugees from Kent, so it’s great to read about them on the alumni web site, please keep it going.  Please say hello for me and give my best to Dr. Dahl, Dr. Palmer, and Dr. Wells.  Take care - Steve







3/9/08 - RAY YACUZZO    -    B.S.  1969

After graduation I went on to Rice University in Houston for geology/geochemistry studies until the market for geologists took one of its periodic dives.  I returned to my hometown, LeRoy, N.Y., a quiet village where everyone knows everyone else's grandmother's maiden name!  I started a construction business and later established a manufacturing business with my brother.  I was elected Mayor of Leroy, serving for five terms, and then moved on to become Democratic County Chairman for Genesee County for 11 years.  I am happy about the elections.  The businesses were sold a couple of years ago and I tried retirement.  I didn’t like it.
 
In 2007 the Governor of New York asked me if I would take a job as Special Assistant to the Commissioner of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.  This gave me the chance to reactivate my rusty geology skills.  It’s great to be back.  I am involved in a lot of water related projects.  I am a member of the Susquehanna River Basin Commission as New York's alternate delegate (the commission is comprised of members from NY, PA, MD and the US Army Corps of Engineers).  I am technical coordinator for the bi-national efforts on Lake Ontario studies and have been active in the effort to de-list the Rochester Embayment and Lower Genesee River as an EPA Area of Concern.  Also, I am the director of a group of geologists and engineers monitoring the on-going subsidence and groundwater effects of a flooded salt mine the size of Manhattan.  There might be a thesis subject here.

Kathy  (KSU ’69, who took Historical Geology from Rod Feldmann)  and I live in LeRoy.  Our son Matt  (KSU ‘98, who took introductory geology from Dick Heimlich)  works in IT sales in Rochester.
3/9/08 - JERRY GALLAGHER    -    B.S., 1971,     M.S., 1973

Following receipt of the M.S. degree,  I spent a year at the University of New Mexico and then moved to Alaska to begin work as an Exploration Geologist in 1974.  After 12 years of minerals exploration in Alaska,  the western US,  and in Africa, I went to work for the State of Alaska as Director of the Division of Mining.  In 1994, I started a lobbying business with a specialty in mining and oil and gas issues,  and shortly thereafter,  joined ARCO managing it’s government relations full-time.   ARCO was bought by BP,  spun off  to Phillips,  and then merged to become ConocoPhillips.  I continued as Manager of Government and Community Relations for ConocoPhillips in Alaska and the west coast.  My degrees from Kent have served me well and given me a really terrific career. Geologist to lobbyist - who would have imagined!!   Wife Amy and 2 kids - son Ty,  now finishing his final semester at the University of Colorado (B.S. in Business Finance),  and daughter Sarah,  who remained in Alaska and loves her job as a barista in the local coffee house.

After over 30 years of living and working in Alaska,  in 2008 I retired from ConocoPhillips,  and Amy and I have moved to our home in Evergreen, Colorado.  I still do a little bit of consulting work,  but we try to leave plenty of time to hike,  bike,  and generally enjoy ourselves after so many years of hard,  but rewarding work in the arctic.

I wanted to provide so many of my Kent State friends our new contact information and hope to hear from you.  Home address: 5105 S. LeMasters Rd., Evergreen, CO 80439
Email address:  <jerry.gallagher1@gmail.com>
1/9/09 - ROB FARLEY  -  B.S.  1985

After graduation Rob worked in outdoor education camps and summer camp for two years in OH, NY, MA and VT.  He got his start in  environmental work in New York City with asbestos consulting and then continued this line of work in Vermont.  With time he moved into environmental assessments, ground water contamination investigations, geotechnical soil analysis, and many other areas related to industrial hygiene and environmental protection.   In 1997 he joined the Water Supply Division of the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) where he worked, initially, on drinking-water source approval and management of the Well Driller Program. Currently, he conducts comprehensive sanitary surveys for public drinking-water systems to prioritize water-system improvements and to provide a basis for granting operating permits.  Rob also continues his environmental-education interest through outreach efforts of the DEC which include organizing the “Science on the Green” annual event and working with school children via the “Environmental Learning for the Future” program.

Rob and his wife, Elly, live in Hinesburg, VT with their two children, Sage and Graham.  Rob credits moving to Vermont as the best decision he has made.  Besides finding a wonderful lady and incredible children, it has allowed him to pursue his passion - running a dog-sled team of Siberian Huskies!  Check this side business of Rob’s at www.octobersiberians.com   Rob’s other passions are hiking, camping, gardening, landscaping, music and whitewater or flat-water kayaking.  Rob would be glad to hear from his former classmates to catch up on life since the KSU days.
As part of the “Science on the Green” program in 2005,  Rob is busy captivating a group of school children using a model as he discusses the concept of ground water.  Waterbury, VT
1/9/09 - CHARLIE CURTIN   -   B.S.  1978, M.B.A. 1997, University of St. Thomas (Houston, Texas)

Once I got my B.S. degree,  I took a job in Houston as a "Logging Geologist" for Exploration Logging Company. Little did I understand that my real title was "mudlogger", which according to the oil field dictionary means "work long hours for low pay while living out of a motel". Luckily I was able to use this wellsite experience to land a real job, working as a Development Geologist for the famous/infamous T. Boone Pickens at Mesa Petroleum Company. I worked mostly the offshore Gulf of Mexico for Mesa and rode the oil boom of the early '80's until the oil bust started to hit in late 1983.  After getting laid off for the first time,  I was able to catch on with Columbia Gas Development Corp. with the help of fellow alumnus and good friend, Chuck LaRocca, who worked there at the time. I had 12 fun years at Columbia, working both the offshore shelf and onshore South Louisiana making maps, generating prospects, and drilling wells.
In 1996 Columbia Gas was sold to Hunt Petroleum Corporation of Dallas, Texas, a company founded by H.L. Hunt, who at one time was the richest man in the world. The company was run by the children of H.L. Hunt and they offered me a job to stay on doing basically the same job I was doing for Columbia, working mostly the offshore shelf. I enjoyed working for Hunt and stayed there for 12 more years until this past September, 2008 when the Hunt family decided to sell the company to XTO Energy of Fort Worth, Texas. Again I was offered a position to stay on by the new owners of the company, so basically I have been in the same spot for the last 24 years,  but the company name on the door keeps changing!  If I can go through a few more of these takeovers with the associated severance packages, I'll be happy to retire.









12/9/08 - Jack Lanigan -- B.S. 1979, M.S. 1980
 
Three years ago, I promised Dr. Heimlich that I would send in some news.  Rest assured, I never forget my promises.
 
I am doing well.  For the past 12 years I have been the in-house geological and environmental consultant for BASF Corporation in Wyandotte, Michigan.  We have been wrestling with a variety of problems; most of them having their roots long before anyone suggested environmental regulations.  Before that, I had the pleasure to work with a three other environmental consulting firms, and before that I looked for oil and gas under the Gulf of Mexico for Amoco Production Company.
 
The environmental stuff can be interesting, but I sure miss a good hunk of rhyodacite.
 
Mary Sue and I (remember her? KSU Community Health Major, 1978) will celebrate 29 years of blissful marriage this December.  Our oldest son, Brian, may graduate this summer from Western Michigan University with a degree in business.  Our other son, Chris, is a chef with a local Cajun restaurant chain -- Fishbones -- and is doing well.  They may one day make enough money to actually live on their own.
 
I keep in contact with a few Kent State Geology alumni, but not enough.  There aren't as many up here in Michigan as I'd wish.  Maybe I need to go to a basketball game.


12/2/08 - Garry Maurath - 1974 B.S. (Lehigh University), 1980 M.S., 1989 Ph.D.

I grew up in Hudson and I remember my first brush with Kent was as a senior in high school cruising campus the night of May 3, 1970. We had planned on returning May 4 but when my parents found out what I was doing I was grounded for a week.  However, that fall I attended Lehigh University to pursue a degree in metallurgical engineering.  After my sophomore year I discovered geology and never looked back.
 
Upon graduation in '74 I spent three years in Germany with the US Army as a soils analysis and Top Secret control officer.  I met my future wife there, and Lesa and I were married in the Philippines just before I came to Kent in the fall of '77 to pursue my Masters. Yoram Eckstein and Pete Dahl had just arrived the year before and I believe I was only the second or third graduate student of Yoram’s. I left in Feb 80 before completing my thesis and went to work with Frank Dellechaie (who got his Masters under Bill Laughlin a few years earlier) as a prospector for geothermal energy and precious metals. John Spurney (BS '79, MS '84) had just finished his bachelors and was on my first field team. We spent 4 months exploring the Rio Grand Rift and the Basin and Range before John left to pursue his Masters and I spent the rest of the year writing my thesis and reducing all the data from the exploration program.

In 1983 Yoram talked me into returning to Kent to pursue my doctorate. The bait was a stint in the Australian outback doing geothermal research. Unfortunately the funding for the research grant fell through a couple of days before I showed up on campus, but since I had already quit my job I decided to say anyway. Since leaving Kent before completing my M.S. worked out I left Kent before completing my dissertation (which took me another 5 years) and I didn’t graduate until Dec 89, but it has been a fun ride ever since. I have had the opportunity to work on a wide variety of environmental, hydrogeology, engineering, and geology projects with partners including Los Alamos, INEL, Savannah River, Hanford, Maxey Flats, Oak Ridge, and Sandia. I have also been fortunate enough to work on projects for the governments of Germany, Malaysia, Israel, Taiwan, Viet Nam, Nicaragua, Nepal, Commonwealth of the Bahamas, and the U.S.

Before accepting a position at URS late this summer I had spent about two and a half years with Stantec Consulting working on remediation of upstream oil field facilities in Santa Barbara and Los Angeles counties for BP and ConocoPhillips.  For the next couple of years I will be working on a range of geotechnical engineering projects involving canals, tunnels, dams, pumped storage, with a few building foundation and liquefaction problems thrown in.  I have also been fortunate enough to have had the opportunity to co-teach a field survey course on Andros Island in the Bahamas for more than 13 years with Larry Wiedman (Ph.D. '90). Everywhere I go I seem to run into Kent graduates, and the reputation of the department that you and the rest of the folks have built is fantastic. I am very proud to be associated with such a fine tradition and hope to get back to campus before anyone else retires.


Lesa and Garry on a recent weekend jaunt to the Grand Canyon
11/25/08 - MIKE SROCZYNSKI   -   B.S.   1974

I started my career as a mud logger, but after 6 months or so my wife gave me a choice, I could either continue working 16 hours a day or stay married.  Chose the later and went to work for Western Geophysical.  What an eye opening experience,  as this was an entire industry that was related to geology, but never once had I heard of it in any of my geology classes.  As it turned out I kind of had a natural bent for this type of work.  Who knew?  So I parlayed my experience with a service company into working as a Geophysicist for a major oil company (Standard Oil Company of California - UNOCAL).  The price of oil dropped to 8 dollars a barrel (and you know what that means) so I "rejoined" Western Geophysical Company again.  As it turned out, they needed a geophysicist to work overseas so away I went.  Worked in Bogotá (where I wrote and had an article published in the AAPG Studies in Geology No. 42 on geophysical interpretation), Mexico, Venezuela, and then 2 years Abu Dhabi.  Funny, but being exposed to thrust faults, strike-slip faults, and wonderfully exposed outcrops in the desert helped my overall geological understanding of the deepwater events I was seeing in the Gulf of Mexico.  I worked interpreting sub-salt events, developed neural network programs to predict pore pressure, then went to work for Paradigm Geophysical Ltd.  where I helped start their reservoir characterization department.  As it turns out, I was very good at finding prospects for several oil companies.  Then it dawned on me, if I could find oil and gas for them maybe I could use the same kind of methods to find oil and gas for me. It would seem that my whole life has been a series of events preparing me for my current station in life.  So, here I am finding prospects,  then investing my own money in them.  This is so counter-intuitive to normal investment strategies which would dictate putting money into bonds for a safe retirement, but like I wrote earlier, working in the oil patch is not for the feint of heart.

Mike (July, 2007) on a field trip in Comal County, TX.  Glenrose Limestone exposed by floodwater during the flood of 2002


Mike (August, 2008) in the office.  Wall is adorned with colorful geophysical maps.
10/2/08 - NICOLE MIKLUS    B.S. 2004, M.S. 2008  (Syracuse University)

After graduating from Kent, I went to Syracuse University to study paleoclimatology for my Masters.  There I used the oxygen isotope values from fossil clams to determine paleoseasonality on Seymour Island, Antarctica during the Eocene.  In 2006, I left SU and started working as a hydrologist with the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control.  I did contaminant reviews for well permit applications and reviewed reports on proposed large wastewater treatment systems.  Ironically, I lived in Kent County, Delaware.  I finished my Masters thesis and finally graduated in June of 2008.  Deciding that I enjoy writing about science much more than actually doing science, and that I missed learning about climatology, I started working as a science writer with a contractor of NASA Goddard in Maryland.  I write brochures and other educational materials on NASA’s satellite missions.  At Kent, I studied ostracode assemblages from mastodon sites in New York for my senior honors thesis with Dr. Smith.  These results were recently published in a volume by the Paleontological Research Institution in Ithaca, New York. 
8/20/08 - AMY TURNER  -  2002   B.S.

I had a 2-year internship with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, Twinsburg office,  from March 2004 to March 2006.  Since Oct. 2006 I’ve been working with the Ohio Department of Transportation.  I started out as a Geologist 1 with the Geotechnical Engineering Department at the Central Office in Columbus.  I was classified as 100% travel which meant staying in a hotel every night of the work week.  I traveled all over Ohio and got to see alot of places that I normally wouldn’t have.  I was a Field Geologist traveling with our 2 drill crews documenting the initial description of the soil and rock samples we took.  I was fortunate enough to work on the rock cores that some current Masters students are studying with Dr. Shakoor. 

Starting in June 2008, I moved to the District 6 office of ODOT as an Environmental Specialist.  I do some field work, but mostly I review plans for environmental clearance based on Federal and State laws including NEPA regulations.  I review possible impacts on Air Quality, Wetlands, Streams/Rivers/US waterways, Wellhead Protection Areas, Threatened and Endangered Species, Historic Buildings/Areas, Farmlands, Archaeological sites, Environmental Justice Areas and 100 year Flood Zones.  I tell the engineers what permits they need and how to write up their plans properly to satisfy the environmental impacts of the project.  It’s a lot of work, but it’s fun.  I love working for ODOT.  It is such a great work environment and the people here are the best.
6/17/08 - DAVE   BENNETT  -  B.S.  1967

In 2004  I retired after 30 plus years of mining and minerals consulting work, primarily, and started traveling and reading.  I have worked for Anaconda (Butte, MT and Potrerillos, Chile, SA),  Phelps Dodge (Bisbee, AZ),  Magma Copper Newmont (San Manuel, AZ),  Shell Oil (Cadiz, OH),  and myself (by far my worst employer!).  From my first marriage there are two daughters, Lesia (soon to be a veterinarian) and Danell (mother of granddaughter Autumn and grandson Dominic).

 I am currently married to Donna, my love and traveling companion, who retired in 2006 from Stark State College.  Donna is also a 67 KSU grad with a BA in Biology.  What a pair we make! We have been to Madagascar, the Galapagos, Europe three times, Hawaii, and the Inside-passage to Alaska and Denali, AK.  These places have left me awe struck  along with Salisbury Crag, Edinburgh, Siccar Point, Knockan Crag (Moine Thrust) in the U. K. With a future trip planned to Australia and New Zealand we are still having fun! The books  I have read are not near as numerous as the ones  I am going to read.  I would like to talk to anyone about their reading experiences and subjects.
2006 photo - Underground in a test adit used for the proposed Red Canyon Dam on the Colorado River.  Fortunately, the dam will never happen.  The picture was taken while on  a Grand Canyon National Park river trip.
4/14/08 -  BARRY B. MILLER    (1928 – 2008)

When I reflect on my colleague, Barry Miller, who passed away on February 29, 2008,  a number of phrases come to mind:  “one of a kind”,  “a diamond in the rough”, and “bigger than life”.

Several colleagues who worked closely with him commented recently that Barry had a “continuous enthusiasm for knowledge that was infectious” and noted that “he was secure with himself and felt at home anywhere”, expanding that he had “seen him dressed in his field togs covered in mud and able to address people just as if he were in a tux.”  Another commented that “Barry was loads of fun,” adding that “I don’t think I have ever had so much fun doing any type of field course as I had team-teaching with him.”
 
I have known Barry since he joined the faculty in 1963 through to his retirement in 1996, and have seen him regularly since then up to our recent lunch meeting when he told me of his plan to visit New Zealand.  He made that trip with two of his sons last Fall, had a great time, and passed away due to heart failure a few months later before a planned family trip to Alaska by car.

Barry’s interest in non-marine mollusks thrived at KSU, and he became an internationally known expert in his field.  He attracted the attention of other researchers who sent him their fossils for identification and interpretation.  On a regular basis,  his expertise was sought by geologists with the U.S. Geological Survey.

Back in the 1960’s, our then small geology faculty enjoyed having daily coffee sessions with Barry during which we witnessed his brainpower and great range in temperament (from gentlemanly-demure to incisive-blustery, a contrast which could develop in seconds!!).  During discussions one could see the wheels turning in his brain as he analyzed an issue and presented his case.  At these times he would be oblivious to things around him,  as happened once,  when in the heat of debate,  he was unaware that the tip of his tie had dipped into his coffee cup (In those days, most faculty members wore ties!).  We sat there mesmerized as we watched the black coffee inching its way up his light-colored tie – providing the best visual demonstration of capillary action known to man!!  To this day I still use this example in class when discussing the phenomenon.

We miss you Barry Miller.      Dick Heimlich
4/14/08 - JOHN MRAKOVICH  -  1967  B.S.,  1969  M.S.,  1974  Ph.D.  (Michigan State University)

Upon leaving KSU with an M.S. in Geology,  I was hired by the now nonexistent Gulf Oil Company as a Production Geologist working offshore Louisiana out of New Orleans.  After about two years, I applied for and received a Fellowship from Michigan State University to work on my Ph.D., which I received in 1974.  By the way, Bob Malcuit was also there.  After that, I worked for Bechtel Corp. as an Engineering Geologist (which I am not) in Ann Arbor Michigan doing geologic site analysis for the construction of nuclear power plants.  In 1976, Bechtel transferred our whole group to Houston, Texas, where I worked doing geologic site analyses for dams and a coal-fired power plant.  After about two years with Bechtel, I got a job back in the petroleum industry (with a 25% increase in pay) and worked as a Reservoir Geologist for Natural Gas Pipeline Co. of America (they supply gas to their utility company in Chicago).  I am told that the Company is so old, that Abraham Lincoln sat on the Board of Directors).  I also taught some evening geology courses for the downtown campus of the University of Houston at this time.  After a few years with the gas company, I worked as an Exploration Geologist for several other smaller oil companies in the Houston area.  In 1987, we moved to California where I first worked for Aerojet Corporation and re-educated myself to be an Environmental Geologist, and was involved with inputting geologic data into groundwater flow models.  After Aerojet, I worked for a couple other environmental companies and in 1995 opened my own 1-man company.  I retired in 2001 and built a house in the Mother Lode Belt of the Sierra Foothills.  My wife and I did about 75% of the work and it was quite an achievement for us.  You really learn alot about each other (even after being married for about 30 years) after working so closely.   We're still married and It was a good experience, but I wont do it again.


John riding his ATV snowplow at his new home  (4100 feet altitude,  right at the snowline).  Despite appearances,  he says he is “too old to shovel 300 feet of driveway.”





3/27/08 - CLAUDIA  A.  MAZAROS   (1960 – 2007)
Claudia Mazaros passed away, due to cancer, on February 19, 2007.  She received the B.S. degree in geology from KSU (1983),  and  later a B.A. in science education (Utah State University) and an M.S. in secondary education (Weber State University).  During the final three years of her life she pursued a Ph.D  from the University of Georgia.  “Claudia loved living in Utah and had a passion for the mountains, desert, and forest,  particularly the Dixie National Forest and Escalante, Utah where she worked for many years with the U.S. Forest Service.  She taught chemistry and physics at Bear River High School (Garland, Utah) for ten years and achieved her goal to make a positive difference in the lives of many high school students.  She lived a life of adventure and managed to visit all fifty states in the U.S.  She made friends everywhere she went….”  Claudia will be missed by all of her many friends,  family members, fellow alumni,  faculty members,  and by Becky,  her loving partner for the last 17 years.
3/27/08 - DAVE MAKO  -   1978 B.S. ,  1981 M.S.   (University of Wisconsin- Madison)

Hi Dick,
 
 It was great to see you last summer when I was taking my kids on
 college tours.  KSU's Geology Dept and campus must have made a big
 impression on my son, as he has already applied and been accepted to
 the Honors College!  It remains to be seen how closely he may follow
 his dad's footsteps...
 
 Looking back, I would have to say that I don't believe I could have
 found a better undergrad geology program than what I had at KSU.  It
 provided a rock solid foundation for an exciting career in exploration.

 After graduation in 1978 I went to the University of Wisconsin-Madison
 and earned my MS degree studying mineral deposits.  I ended up with
 Getty Mining for about 5 years in Salt Lake City, exploring for
 massive sulfide deposits throughout western US and Alaska.  When
 Texaco bought Getty, I joined Barrick, a small, junior gold-mining
 company in 1986,  and now one of the world's largest gold producers. 
 Most of that time we lived in Elko, Nevada where our 3 kids were born.
 
 I "retired" early from exploration in 2000 for family reasons  and we
 moved to the coastal rainforest of Ketchikan, Alaska - a dramatic
 change from the high deserts of Nevada. We loved living on the ocean
 and the magic of Alaska, but after a short while we moved again to a
 place of even greater contrast, western Massachusetts, where we
 continue to reside.  I am currently teaching middle school math and
 science and really enjoy it.   Plus it's great that my work schedule
 matches my kids' schedules.  Still, I look forward to the day when
 they are all off to college,  with an eye toward getting back into
 exploration someday.  Hopefully, the business will still be booming
 then!
 
Hope all is well with you!
 Cheers,       Dave Mako, '78









Attached is a picture of the Mako clan from our visit back to Alaska in the summer of 2007.
3/27/08 - TOM  LORENZ   -   1985  B.S. 

Thank you KSU Geology pedagogues et al. for the inspirational Dec. 2005 newsletter!  Also, accolades to David Waugh for the on-line departmental photo album.  I particularly enjoyed the jpegs of the unwearied explorer of the Laurentian Rocks,  Dr. Heimlich.  I express my utmost gratitude to Mrs. Virginia Sand,  Professor of Geology at the Tuscarawas Campus,  for her enthusiasm and guidance.
 
What an excellent spatiotemporal journey it has been,  imbued with geologic knowledge of our planet and beyond.  Given to eclecticism,  my geological career has been heteroclitical at best.  It began with a stint as mud-logging engineer  (with a now defunct outfit)  that resulted in logging over 50 oil and gas wells in the Rose Run play in Ohio.  Joined in this endeavor with perennial “road-dog” Craig Williams (KSU-Geology ‘86),  it was one adventure after another.  Craig and I still range the field and rove the plain in an annual outing.
Beginning in Y2K,  I gained five years of practical experience in hydrology,  mining and environmental issues by permitting surface coal mining and reclamation in the Appalachian Plateau physiographic province.  During this time-frame,  I became fascinated with the Flushing escarpment drainage divide and its role in reversal of the direction of drainage flow in southeastern Ohio during the late glacial period.  Alas,  the attrition inherent in the machinations of the permit processes squelched the joy of scientific inquiry.  I did find some exquisite specimens of Lepidodendron,  Stigmaria,  and Indian artifacts. 
We recently launched Buffalo Wills, LLC.  Located at the confluence of the Buffalo Fork of Wills Creek and Buffalo Creek near Pleasant City in Guernsey County, Ohio,  we are developing a state-of-the-art aquaculture facility.  In addition,  Buffalo Wills, LLC offers hydrologic consulting services and wetland mitigation credits.  We are working with the Guernsey County CDC,  a 501 C3 non-profit corporation,  to establish and preserve aquatic and wetland habitat, riparian corridors,  and green space in the Wills Creek drainage basin.  For more information, contact Tom Lorenz at (330) 343-6786 or e-mail avf@adelphia.net









3/27/08 - MARY ANN THOMAS   -   B.S., 1978   M.S., 1981 (Univ. of South Carolina),      Ph.D., 1993
                    
In the early-mid 1980's,  after earning my M.S. degree,  I worked as a Geologist for Amoco in New Orleans (1981-84) and then as a Hydrologist with the North Carolina Dept. of Natural Resources (1985).  Since receiving the Ph.D,  I've been working as a Hydrologist for the U.S. Geological Survey, Water Resources Division.  I started at the USGS office in Charleston, WV, and then transferred to the Columbus, OH office in 1995. I work on ground-water quality studies,  and for the past few years I've been focusing on arsenic and redox conditions in the glacial aquifer.

3/27/08 - PATTY HUNT  -  B.A. 1973  (Case Western Reserve University),   M.S., 1980

    It was great to hear from Dick Heimlich that so many grads have posted updates on the Kent Geology Dept website. Thanks for encouraging this, Dick! I loved my days in the department from 1978-80, and would love to hear what my friends from that era are up to.
Most grads of  the department back in 1980 were getting jobs in Houston, but I landed in a newly formed geology research group at Sohio Research Labs in Warrensville Hts., Ohio. There, I spent over 12 years working on petroleum production problems at the Alaskan Prudhoe Bay oilfields. While my research at Kent with Pete Dahl was oxygen isotope geochemistry work on metamorphic iron formations, I became a combination soft rock geologist/reservoir engineer at Sohio, working on both production problems and enhanced oil recovery research.  My field work took me to Alaska many times, and there was a lot of great travel all over the US and Canada plus the UK.  I was lucky to get on some great projects with much potential for novel work, so over time I accumulated three patents and several publications. As all of us who were in geology jobs in the early 80’s know, it was a great time to be a geologist in industry! 
During my time there, the name changed to the Standard Oil Company, and eventually, to British Petroleum, when BP took over Standard Oil.  By the late 1980’s, things had taken a turn and BP was offering buy-outs to downsize. I passed on the first few buy-outs, but in late 1992, they offered what we all called the “golden egg” buy-out….too good to pass up. They hoped for about 800 people to take it and ended up with about 1600 people instead. It was the offer that prompted people to go into their next careers. At that time, I briefly ran my own consulting company on science education in K-12, and then landed at Hathaway Brown School in Shaker Heights.  That is where I am now.
At Hathaway Brown, I started an elective Science Research Program. In it, students attend a research seminar with me and we identify their area of passion in science or engineering. Then, I make a careful match with a professional at Case, Cleveland Clinic, NASA Glenn, Cleveland Museum of Natural History, and others. Unfortunately, not at Kent as that is too far away from Hathaway Brown. Typically, the students go to their placement throughout high school. They become a real asset to the lab, and eventually are able to do well in big competitions. We have had 88 finalists or semifinalists in Siemens Westinghouse or Intel events since 1999, and over 120 technical publications, as well as 3 US patents. I’ve been lucky to receive some teaching awards for this program, and in 2004 was named to the USA Today All-USA Top 20 Teacher Team. It is great fun for me to coach these enthusiastic students as they do their research, plus I get to know a lot of local researchers, which is really great.
On the family side, my husband Ed and I, who got married right before my senior year at Case, where I got my B.A. in geology, have two children, Brian (25) and Kelly (22). We live in Solon, and love to travel. That’s about it – 27 years in a nutshell!












3/27/08 - Kristen LaMoreaux '02
I'm currently a graduate student studying volcanology, my primary focus is volcano-ice interaction and more specifically trachyte-ice interaction at Mount Edziza in northwestern British Columbia... after achieving my undergraduate degree in geology, I worked for several years in the geological engineering and environmental industries until I decided I wanted to further my career... and went back to school. I hope to get back into business/industry when I've completed my research, most likely working within the mining or oil/gas industries.

I look forward to catching up with anyone from the good ‘ole days!  LaMoreaux_K@yahoo.com
1/20/2008  -  TERRY COOKRO  -  B.S.  1973,     M.S.  1978  (New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology)

I am currently working part-time on an availability basis for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as an Environmental/historic preservation Specialist and a Floodplain Manager.   My work is based on the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Stafford Act which encourages lawful clean up and mitigation after a disaster such as a hurricane, tornado, or flood, in order to obtain federal reimbursements.  I work with town leaders,  private not-for-profit companies (PNP),  and the FEMA project leaders in order to get federal reimbursements to the local governments and PNP’s as quickly as possible.   Last year (2007) I worked in the New England States (ME, CT, NH, and VT) and Indiana;  the eastern Spring was really beautiful.
The work is enjoyable and it includes coordinating with state emergency managers,  environmental leaders,  and other federal officials such as those in the Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.  I really get to see a lot of our country and to meet the many people who, through their dedication to public service,  make our country work.  So many of the small town mayors and other leaders make me feel honored to have the opportunity to be a part of their community service,  and I enjoy working with the many national and international volunteer organizations that stand ready to send people out to help communities deal with disasters.
I can never give enough thanks to those professors I had at Kent for their dedication to the young students, and their ability to get us out in the world with an excellent  education base.
Please email me at inforocks@gmail.com.  I would love to hear from my friends and colleagues.
10/20/07 - MIMI FREEMAN     1934 – 2007

Mimi Freeman died of cancer on September 13, 2007.  She was a truly remarkable person who accomplished a great deal in her 73 years, not the least of which was the nurturing of nine children and 26 grandchildren.

Among her many interests, Mimi was particularly drawn to travel and outdoor activity where her focus was on running, hiking, and climbing.  Her family and she vacationed throughout the U.S. and abroad to include Australia, Africa, South America, New Zealand, and Ireland.  As well, they hiked through Grand Canyon National Park and they climbed Mt. Whitney in Sequoia National Park and Longs Peak in Rocky Mountain National Park.  At age 68, no less, she climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa.

Her college education included receipt of the B.S. degree at DePauw University (1980) followed by award of the M.S. degree (1983) in our program.  After completing graduate study, she pursued environmental work, spending almost two decades as Project Geologist with URS Corporation in Cleveland.  Her work over the years on a variety of environmental problems was highly respected.

As my graduate student, Mimi impressed me with her enthusiasm, intelligence, writing ability, and dedication to timely completion of the field work, lab studies, and thesis writing.  She was an ideal student and a wonderful person who was always positive, energetic, and cheery – attributes endearing her to fellow students and faculty alike.                                  

Dick Heimlich













Mike Bush ('01) and Natalie,  Oregon Coast, 2007
7/5/07 – JOHN  PLEVNIAK –  1977 B.S. (Physics, Youngstown State University),  1980 M.S.

After completing my masters in August 1980, I stayed on another couple of years taking classes in the new doctoral program in applied geology while teaching part-time at Youngstown State University.  In early 1983 I took a position as Laboratory Manager for the Department of Geology at the University of Delaware while continuing to work toward fulfilling requirements for my doctorate from Kent State. At Delaware I managed the department’s research facilities, occasionally taught courses in geology and geophysics, and found the time to complete both the written and oral exams for the doctorate.  However, with the birth of twins and a move to the private sector,  my dissertation was never completed. 

I started as a Staff Geologist with Dames & Moore in Wilmington, Delaware in 1989.  Transfers took me to Chicago in 1990 and finally to Kansas City in 1994.  While with Dames & Moore I investigated hazardous waste sites throughout the Midwest and used geophysics to investigate unexploded ordnance and chemical weapons disposal sites at former military installations.  Dames & Moore became part of URS Corporation in 1999, and I stayed with the firm until 2003.  While with URS in Kansas City I worked primarily as a Project Manager and Program Manager on environmental restoration contracts with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Air Force Center for Environmental Excellence. 

In 2003 I began working for the Louis Berger Group and immediately got involved writing proposals to provide program management support for the reconstruction of Iraq. I became  Financial Manager for the awarded contracts and spent nine months working in Washington, D.C.  I finally returned to environmental work in 2006 when I became Program Manager with CDM Federal Programs Corporation in Kansas City.  I am currently managing environmental restoration and civil works projects under contracts with the Corps of Engineers.

My wife Cheryl and I have been married 24 years.  Our twins, John and Kimberly, are 17 and will be seniors in high school in the fall.  Kimberly is an artist but has recently shown an interest in wildlife biology.  My son is interested in aviation and is taking flight training over the summer at Kansas State University.
JIM BARKES  -  B.S.  1951

Among the earliest group of students to receive the B.S. degree in geology from KSU,  Jim has had a highly successful career in the petroleum industry.  After graduation,  at a time when few firms were adding to their geological staff,  he worked for Goodyear in R & D for a few years and then spent a year in graduate school at Ohio State.  At the end of his first year at OSU,  Continental Oil interviewed there and hired Jim,  During his 24 years with Conoco (1954-1978),  as District Geologist and then Supervising Geologist,  he  worked in Casper WY, Bakersfield CA, Ventura CA,  Carlsbad NM,  Lake Charles LA,  Midland TX,  and Colombia, South America.  During this period he was involved with all facets of the industry including  reservoir evaluation,  seismic  exploration,  field mapping, offshore and onshore well supervision,  prospect  evaluation,  and wildcat-well supervision.   Jim oversaw 130 wells during this period.

During 1978-79,  he served as Division Manager and Chief Geologist in the Midland TX office for NFC Petroleum Corp. until a well blowout  (which burned for a month!)  put the firm out of business.  He then became Operations Geologist for Moran Exploration (1979-81) and was responsible for geologic recommendations,  planning,  and supervision of all the company’s exploratory and development wells in TX, NM, AR, OK, LA, and ND.   Wellsite work with both firms involved another 37 wells.

During 1981-89,  Jim was a Consulting Geologist providing geologic well supervision in all areas of the Permian Basin.  In this period,  he participated in the drilling and completion of 145 wells in West Texas and SE New Mexico.  When the petroleum industry went into recession in 1987-88,  while still working as a Petroleum Geologist he attended evening classes in the Midland College Nursing School and became an EMT (1987),  a Paramedic (1988),  and an ER Nurse (2000)  -  oldest to graduate from Midland’s Nursing School!  After working in the medical field for the last 18 years,  he retired earlier this year at age 80.   Jim says:  “This is the first time I’ve been unemployed in 67 years” !!

Jim and Eunice (married 50 years ago) live in Midland TX  where Eunice, an anthopologist/archaeologist,  works part-time at the Museum of the Southwest.   They have two children,  a married daughter who lives in Twentynine Palms CA,  and a married son living in Greenwood TX.   Between the two,  Jim and Eunice have three grandchildren.
JOHN SNYDER  -  B.S. 1992,  M.S. 2003

Having worked at SAS Environmental for 3 years,  I recently joined Flynn Environmental in Canton as an Environmental Geologist.  At Flynn my workday consists of conducting site investigations for leaking underground storage tanks,  groundwater monitoring,  soil analysis,  well installation,  and other types of environmental  studies and procedures.  I spend about 40 % of the time in the field and the rest writing up reports. 

My wife, Tara,  and I live in Rittman, OH with our son, Ian, who will be 3 years old in a few months.  We are expecting a new addition to our family this October.  As a labor and delivery nurse (KSU graduate) at Akron City Hospital, Tara is an expert in this area!!
BILL SMITH  -  B.S. 1987,  M.S.  1991  (Purdue University)

After receiving the B.S. degree at KSU, I attended Purdue where I obtained an M.S. in hydrogeology.  I went to work in consulting, which involved a lot of environmental and geotechnical engineering work (and some water-supply projects).  In 1998 I obtained an Ohio P.E. license.   In 2005 I joined the geotechnical engineering department at American Electric Power Corp. in Columbus where I work as a Geotechnical Engineer. Most of my work with AEP currently involves earth-dam and tunnel safety inspection and analysis.  I also do a lot of design work using geosynthetic reinforcement and lining. 
MARY McKENZIE  -  B.S.  2001,   M.S.  2004

During my seven years at KSU,  I developed great friendships,  learned a great deal,  and had wonderful experiences in the Geology Department.  I was privileged to work with Dr. Daniel Holm conducting geochronological and thermochronological research surrounding the Penokean orogenic belt.  I often look at the numerous photo albums and fondly reminisce about all the great times we had.  After graduation in 2004,  I started working for YRC Wordwide to bring in some money.  After a year I accepted a position with ARCADIS U.S., Inc. (here's a shameless  plug < www.arcadis-us.com>).  Arcadis is an internationally recognized  environmental and engineering consulting firm,  with offices all  over the U.S.  I work out of the Cleveland, OH office and travel to  many others.  My primary responsibilities are those of a Staff  Scientist,  and I work on a variety of projects from BUSTR and VAP to  train derailments (see photos).  I'm responsible for data  management and analysis as well as GIS support for two large  clients.  I also conduct field activities such as drilling and  various monitoring events ranging from Phase I, II, and III.  Just  recently,  there was a large-scale train derailment in Brooks, KY; and over 350 ARCADIS employees were dispatched from more than 20  offices to investigate and remediate the environmental impacts.  I  wear many hats at my job and I LOVE it!   Work is never boring.  I  never thought I'd say that I love my job,  but I do.  I currently  reside just south of Cleveland, OH.  I have a golden retriever  named Abby and a cat named Callie.  I spend a lot of time in  Columbus with my significant other,  and enjoy traveling all over.   Feel free to email me at <mamckenz@kent.edu> anytime to catch up.

6/7/07 TEX GILMORE  (B.A. 1976)  RECEIVES  TWO NATIONAL AWARDS

Our hearty congratulations to Tex Gilmore who received (March 14, 2007) an award from the American Institute of Professional Geologists,  as follows:  “Each year AIPG recognizes certain individuals who have an exemplary record of distinguished service to the profession and to the Institute.  I am pleased to have the opportunity to inform you that you have been selected as recipient of the John T. Galey, Sr., Memorial Service Award.”   Signed K.J. Buchanan, AIPG President.  Tex will receive the award at the Awards Ceremony (this October 9 at 6 PM)  in conjunction with the AIPG Annual Meeting in Traverse City, MI.

Earlier (May 22, 2006), Tex received the U.S. Congressional  Certificate of Achievement  “in recognition of your outstanding leadership of the 2006 Science Olympiad Team.”   For the last few years,  Tex has been Earth Science Olympiad Coach at Washington High School (in NC where he lives).  Recently his team qualified for an unprecedented third straight trip to the National Science Olympiad competition in KS.  It’s nice to see this much energy and devotion given to service at both local and national levels.  Tex has accomplished all of this while keeping plenty busy as Chief Geologist and Superintendent of Mine Planning for the PCS Phosphate Company in Aurora, NC.
6/7/07 LARRY  D.  PORTER  -  B.S. 1972

After graduation I took a job with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service in Columbus, OH.  I worked there for over three decades and became an Informatiion Technology Specialist.  Recently  I switched jobs,  but I am now back (as a Geologist) with the USDA where I plan to stay for a few years until I retire.  I am very happy about returning.  Dick, I am doing mainly what you so appropriately referred to many years ago in song  (“The Septic Tank Game”).  I remember that song just like I remember many things you taught me.  But most of our septic tanks are large pits that hold waste products from several hundred animals.  We just cannot have those things leak,  so we need to perform a geologic evaluation of each potential site to make sure we have proper low-permeability material there (clay-rich till, for example) before we develop a pit. The idea is to put the structure in correctly because you sure do not want to return to repair one!   I knew that working in the field can be hard work at times,  but I do not remember it hurting quite so badly 25 years ago!!
5/14/07 VIRGINIA SAND  -  B.S. 1950  Northwestern University,  M.A. 1969  KSU

We were recently notified that Virginia Sand,  former professor in the KSU Tuscarawus Regional Campus,  passed away on  February 13, 2007.  Born on 11/23/28 in Evanston, IL, Ginny received the B.S. degree in 1950 at Northwestern University,  and was the first woman to receive a degree in geology from that university.  In 1969, she completed the Master of Arts in Teaching Earth Science at KSU and joined  the Tuscarawas Campus faculty as Part-Time Temporary Instructor.  She was hired as full-time Assistant Professor  shortly   thereafter,  and  promoted to Associate Professor in 1982.  Ginny retired in 1993, but continued part-time teaching until 1997.  

Throughout her teaching career she was loved by her students. She  received  the Distinguished Teaching Award in 1975,  Most  Popular Professor Award in 1977,  and she continued to be the top nominee for both awards for many years thereafter.  Ginny was a long-time member of the Association of Women Geoscientists,  and she served as Editor of the Association’s Newsletter for a number of years.  In addition to extensive volunteer work in support of local outdoor causes and education,  she traveled extensively  (to Japan, China, Turkey, Germany, France, Galapagos Islands, Iceland, and Antarctica).   In the U.S. she loved the southwest,  particularly Grand Canyon NP within which she took part in 9  whitewater rapids excursions along the Colorado River.  In fact she was planning a return trip there with her family this summer.
2/28/07 - LARRY WICKSTROM NAMED OHIO’S NEW STATE GEOLOGIST

On February 21, 2007  Sean Logan, Director of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources,  appointed our alumnus, Larry Wickstrom,  as Ohio’s new State Geologist and Chief of the Geological Survey Division.  Logan commented that “The challenge facing the Department is to find the ideal balance between conservation and wise use of our natural resources. Larry Wickstrom’s knowledge and experience will help give us the foresight to plan for the most progress for the most people for the longest time possible.”  We are especially proud of Larry’s success, and we heartily congratulate him!
     Larry received the B.S. degree at KSU in 1980, and then the M.S. here in 1982. In 1983 he was hired as a Geologist with the Subsurface Geology Group of the Ohio Geological Survey.  During the period 1996-2006, he was Supervisor of the Energy Resources Group.  In 2006 he became Assistant Chief of the Geological Survey Division.  Early on he became a strong impetus for use of computer technology within the Survey,  and he became a recognized authority on the State’s energy inventory.  He led efforts to research Ohio’s carbon dioxide sequestration capability in geological materials.  He serves on Ohio’s FutureGen Task Force, is the Ohio Department of Natural Resources energy coordinator,  and he is liaison with the Governor’s Energy Advisor. Larry has over 100 publications as well.
1/6/07 - KATHY WEST   -   B.S. 1988  (Geoscience,  Penn State University),  M.S. 1993

After the M.S. degree at KSU,  I spent 8.5 years as Project Geologist with Roy F. Weston, Inc. (West Chester, PA)  working on a variety of environmental projects including the first Air Force Base closure (Pease AFB in Portsmouth NH).  The glacial geology there was similar to that in Ohio (lots of till, sands and gravels, boulders and buried valleys).  Best part of the job was completing some bedrock wells, including one which cut the only felsic dike noted at the site. Among many other jobs was a chromate stabilization project (Copley OH) which kept me at the site for 16 straight weeks!  It was a great job for a geochemist,  and made for very easy access to  KSU friends. While at Weston I traveled a great deal. I could count the days at home on my fingers during some of those 8 years.  In that period I worked mostly east of the Mississippi River, but as far north as ME/NH and as far south as FL.

When I tired of the constant travel and lengthy commute to the Weston downtown Philadelphia office (where I was on loan),  I found a local job with a small engineering/environmental boutique firm,  Advanced GeoServices Corp. (Chadds Ford, PA),  and spent 4 years as Senior Project Geologist handling many projects in OH, PA, N J and NC. My work here included former battery breaking plants and former/current electronic manufacturing companies.

In 2003, I hired on with URS Corp. as Senior Geologist working under its Master Services Agreement Contract with DuPont.  I am currently assigned to the DuPont Chambers Works Complex which includes two sites,  one (started in 1892) where  explosives were manufactured, and the other (started in 1917) where dyes and chemicals were produced.  Over the last year I  helped develop a comprehensive site conceptual model including design of a GIS tool as well as 3-dimensional solid and groundwater models.  Much of the work that I do now is related to reporting and management tasks,  however I do get out in the field every now and again.

I still live in Christiana, DE just a few miles away from where I grew up,  and nearby to various family members as well as only 14 miles away from work.
1/5/07 - RICK L. REEVE  -  B.S. 1980,  M.S. 1983

   After completing the Masters degree,  I couldn't find employment in the geology field for 9 months as this was the very tail end of the prior petroleum boom.  I had hoped to hook up with a major oil company,  which was the reason I went for the MS degree in the first place.  Of course by that time (1984),   major hiring had been seriously curtailed and no offers were being  made.  I must say at this point in my career I'm glad it worked out that way,  since I have managed to stay continuously employed here in Ohio ever since.  I obtained my first job with David Shafer Oil Producers in Wooster,  and worked there as the company Geologist for 10 years.  In 1994 the owner retired and sold the company's wells.  At that time I began working with a group of four producing companies,  none with a real exploration geologist.  We formed a new exploration company,  Four Knox Exploration,  to search for Rose Run-Beekmantown remnants.  I was a Consulting Geologist with a monthly retainer  (allowing me to keep my head above water),  and  I provided consulting services for a number of Ohio companies in addition to generating drilling prospects for Four Knox Exploration.  This arrangement went on until 2003 when the next low cycle hit the oil industry.  At that point I began working with Gatherco, Inc.  Gatherco had bought all of Columbia Gas Transmission's gathering pipelines throughout Ohio.  The position with Gatherco involved  conversion of all of the old paper CGT pipeline maps to a digital format.  By this time I had become very proficient with computers and mapping programs,  so it was a good stopgap position.  The conversion project was supposed to be a very short project,  but I ended up there for 2 years doing more and more for them,  and I was beginning to manage their land department by that time in addition to all my other duties. I was ready to get back to looking for oil and gas,  and I hooked up with fellow Kent alum, Doug Gonzalez.  Doug started GonzOil, Inc. in 1988 and by 2005 was ready for some help and hired me as his "Geology Manager".  I continue to work with Doug and hope to make this my last employment stop before retiring.  On the personal side, I have been married to my wife Patty since 1980  (we married right after I received my BS at Kent),  and she carried me for the three years it took to obtain the MS from Kent in 1983  (and she continues to carry me to this day!). We have two sons, Brian and Dan (21 and 17).  I have found being a petroleum geologist a fascinating career choice and wouldn't hesitate to recommend the field to anyone. Just be prepared for hard work and some ups and downs in your career.  At this point there is a real need for new blood in the field and hiring is up significantly.
1/3/07 - DAN KATTALIA  -  B.S. 1978

Dick,   Like others,  my career has taken many turns, all for the better. For the last 10 years  I have been a Project Manager for the Midwest Division of Sevenson Environmental Services,  located in Merrillville,  Indiana.  Sevenson is a full-service environmental remediation construction firm specializing in containment,  ground water treatment,  dredging, soil solidification/stabilization,  bio-remediation,  and hazardous waste removal.  Our clients include USEPA, COE, DOD, DOE, and major industrial firms.
 
I met  my  wife Carol  in Phoenix,  Arizona when I was working there for a highway contractor.  Married now for 20 years,
we have three daughters:  Kathryn  is a freshmen at Valparaiso University,  Samantha is a high school
junior, and Jennifer is in sixth grade. Raising three daughters can be as stressful as taking one of your Petrology
finals,  but I wouldn't have it any other way.  I am very fortunate.
 
Congratulations on your 45 th year at KSU,  and to all the smiling faces you have taught.  Again thank you for your email. I am looking forward to viewing the "Alumni News".
1/3/07 - STEPHEN N. DECATUR  -  1971  B.S. (Westminster College),  1979   M.S.

After graduation from Kent in 1979, I left for Houston, Texas to work as a Geologist for Amoco Production Company.  At one point we had 16 Kent State geologists in our Houston office.  There are still some Kent State geology grads working with BP including Kevin Heaton, Gary Barker, Dan Biros, and Mark Dice  (a fifth Kent Stater, Mike Schlorhotlz, just retired from BP).  I did enjoy returning to Kent as a recruiter during the 1980s and present a little grant money to the Geology Dept, and also to see familiar faces and have contact with the students.  However, job transfers along with the drop in oil prices in 1986 finished the recruiting trips to Kent.  After Houston  ( where I worked on exploration in the Permian Basin, East Texas Basin, and mid-continent U.S).,  I moved to Amoco’s corporate headquarters in Chicago.  Here I worked on a variety of projects including  the Corporate Five Year Plan for the Exploration and Production Sector, analysis and documentation of Amoco’s worldwide exploration results, and monitoring Amoco’s exploration activity in Europe, the Far East, and South America.  After Chicago I transferred to London to manage exploration activities for Amoco in the North Sea, and later managed production in the Central North Sea.  Other areas of interest included  managing exploration and production in Egypt and parts of the Middle East as well as production and operations in the western Gulf of Mexico.  I retired in 2003 after nearly 25 years with Amoco/BP.  This past year I've done a little consulting for Anadarko, BHP, BP, and Devon Energy.  While at Devon Energy I ran into one Kent Stater, Jim Sigmund.  Currently I'm back with BP for a while to lead their geoscience recruiting effort.  I am enjoying this part-time work and seeing lots of old friends.  This may be a good excuse to get back to Kent to see how the Department is doing.
Geology has not just provided a career, but it has been a life-long hobby through mineral collecting.  Unfortunately the number of boxes containing my collection is now overwhelming our storage capacity.  Geology is also a part of the family, as my son Mark, is a hydrologist for an environmental firm in Fort Worth.  He is also attending grad school in environmental management through TCU’s Geology Department.



1/3/07 - KARA E. FARRIS  -  B.S.  2006

Drs. Moore,  Dahl,  Heimlich,  Holm,  Hacker,  and  Ortiz:   I just wanted to take a moment to wish you happy holidays and to thank all of you for the knowledge you have graced me with during my time at Kent.  I am doing very well at Groundwater & Environmental Services, Inc. as a Junior Geologist.  I have been here for a little over 7 months and love every day of it!   I do a little of everything,  from asssisting with BUSTR corrective action reports,  Phase I and Phase II reports,  groundwater and soil sampling events,  and soil boring and well installations.  A few weeks ago I traveled to Indianapolis to assist the Indy office with a huge BP terminal sampling event.  It was good experience to see how other states conduct corrective action tasks.  I  have been very busy and have enjoyed all of it,  even in the rain and snow!   I hope all of you are in good health and everything is going well.  I miss you very much.  Here is a picture of me at my desk, decorated for the holiday season.
1/3/07 - BETH ULLOM

  Well, all, it’s true that I am moving from Canton to Dayton within the next few weeks.   At the ripe age of 52, I started life on my own but with kids close by.  I’m still with Bowser Morner in Dayton, managing the environmental division in the engineering department.  I’ve found a house, now all I have to do is sell the house in Canton.
 
  My oldest son Bill some of you may remember.  He is married with two beautiful daughters and lives in Springfield with his family.  He does some wetland consulting for me, but mostly is involved in IT at Rittall in Urbana.  Loves it.  I spend as much time with the kids as I can.
 
  Youngest son Andrew, who was a baby in tow when I was in grad school,  is in Columbus, assistant manager of Guitar Center.  He and his significant other, Nicole, are erstwhile students and work part time.  Andrew has done a little time in the recording studio lately and I think he is pretty good, but then, I’m the mother…..
 
  Drop me a line and say hello!  I’d love to hear from any of you who were in grad school when I was.  Here’s a pic too…..shorter hair and more wrinkles, but I suppose that means I am more wise….
 
Regards to all,
 
Beth
  
12/15/06- With sadness we note the passing of Bill Laughlin, our first geochemistry professor.  Bill joined the faculty in 1970,  and rapidly established a reputation for excellence in research and teaching.   Soon he received an outstanding offer of appointment at one of the country’s top laboratories located in a part of the U.S. he loved,  and  in 1974 he joined a large group of scientists at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.  After retirement,  he  settled in Santa Fe where he died on September 1, 2006.


9/12/06 - LEE  KETTREN   -   B.S. 1968,  M.S. 1970  (Virginia Polytechnic Institute),  M.S. 1991 (administration, Central Michigan    Univ.),  Ph.D. 2006  (water resources development,  Michigan State Univ.)

After receiving B.S. and  M.S. degrees in geology,  I worked two years as Staff Geologist with GAI Consultants, Inc. involved in site evaluation for a proposed reservoir in WVA and mine subsidence potential at numerous sites in western PA.  This was followed by eight years with Dames & Moore in engineering geology associated mostly with IL coal mines,  and then  three years as Senior Engineering Geologist with Commonwealth Associates. 

In 1985 my interests shifted more toward hydrogeological/environmental work when I began three years as Senior Geologist with International Technology Corp. followed by several years as Project Manager for Warzyn Engineering, Inc., both involving contaminated land-sites and rivers.  This work continued until 1996 with employment as Project Manager for three more firms dealing with environmental impact studies,  soil/groundwater contamination,  and remediation work.  During the late 1980’s and in the1990’s this work overlapped my developing interest in getting more education and, ultimately, moving into college teaching.

During 1985-’88 I taught at Central Michigan University,  in 1991 I received an M.S. in Administration degree from CMU,  and in 1999 I taught there again.  Since 1999 I have been Adjunct Instructor at Jackson Community College (Adrian, MI)  while  completing requirements for the Ph.D. in Water Resource Development at Michigan State (degree was awarded in 2006). I  am now busy reformatting my introductory geology course into a hybrid online presentation,  working part-time with the MSU Institute of Water Research  (administering three courses in watershed management and soil erosion/sedimentation control),  and editing  a six-course virtual watershed series.

To keep busy,  my wife Leslie and I have incorporated as Kettren & Associates  (offering community planning and environmental consulting services),   I am looking for a full-time university teaching position in applied geology,  and I am heavily involved in online distance learning.

1/14/06

Dick, I got my copy of the alumni newsletter yesterday and thought it was time to write to you.  You may not remember me since I got my B.S. in geology at KSU in 1968 and there have been several glacial advances since then.  I was active in KSGS, was an original member of Sigma Gamma Epsilon, participated in the first Summer Field Camp (of the current era) with John Anderson, and was Gordon Nelson's field assistant in the Bighorn Mtns in 1968.  

It looks like the Deptment has really matured since I was there.  Even then we knew we had a good dept.  This opinion has been reinforced by my subsequent experiences at other universities.  My KSU experience was probably my best.  The faculty was highly student-oriented and sincerely interested in our education and professional development.  As students, we were involved in research and given every encouragement. 

Since leaving Kent, I got an MS in geology at VPI where I worked on a series of igneous intrusions and kimberlite bodies in northern VA.  I then went into engineering geology and did EIS and permitting studies for nuclear power plants and other facilities.  I spent about 4 years working on applied rock mechanics research related to longwall coal mines in southern Illinois.  I've been in Michigan for about 25 years and have been involved in environmental assessments, hydrologic investigations, and remediation projects.  About 5 years ago I gave that up and returned to school  at Michigan State for a Ph.D. in groundwater policy. I'm working on a management system using negotiations to resolve well-interference conflicts in the Great Lakes Basin.  I'm writing my dissertation now and expect to graduate in May.  I plan to start a new phase of my career in education and research.  I've had a varied career, so I guess it is true when we said that a good hardrock geologist can do about anything.   Best Regards to you and everyone at Kent. Lee Kettren (B.S. 1968) Lkettren@aol.com
11/12/06 - ZACK  HAMILTON  -  B.S. 2000

After graduation I was hired as an Assistant Geologist with SECOR International in Uniontown, Ohio where I was involved primarily with field work on many environmental projects such as remediation of numerous retail underground storage tanks (UST) and bulk-terminal above-ground storage tanks (AST) at petroleum storage facilities in several states. I am now certified in Ohio for building inspection and sampling of asbestos.  I have also performed many Environmental Site Assessments (ESAs) for commercial, industrial, and banking corporations across the country.  After getting my feet wet and gaining valuable background experience,  I became Project Manager for a group of retail petroleum service stations in northeast Ohio,  responsible for the day-to-day remediation activities to attain environmental closure with the State of Ohio, scheduling of subcontractors, interaction with  State regulators pertaining to the actions taken,  budget creation and adherence,  and report generation. 

In April, 2006 I was hired by ATC Associates in Brecksville, Ohio as a Project Geologist working primarily on petroleum-related sites.  Recently,  I transferred to ATC’s Gahana (Columbus, Ohio) office and I look forward to involvement with diverse projects in the central and southeastern Ohio region. 

I have gotten the chance to travel extensively through work over the few years that I have been out of school.  I have traveled to half of the states in the country, mostly western states,  including Alaska.
11/12/06 - BRENDA ABKE  -  B.S. 1990

Since graduating in winter 1990,  I worked for a local environmental/geotechnical consulting firm (R&R International, Inc.) which offered me a full-time job after being an intern (thanks to Kent's great program) for about a year.   In the Akron R&R office I was a Geologist and a Project Manager on environmental projects until about 1993 when I relocated to Columbus to set up and manage a new environmental department at the R&R Columbus office.   In 1994,  while still with R&R,  I began work with the Department of Energy's office at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon,  Ohio.  I moved to Chillicothe and,  less than a year later,  was recruited by Martin Marietta.  I  then transitioned to Lockheed Martin when Lockheed merged with Martin Marietta,  and began work as a Program/Project Manager working on groundwater and remediation projects.  I continued in this function with the Bechtel-Jacobs company when they assumed the Lockheed Martin contract.

I left the DOE site in southern Ohio in 2000 when I accepted a position with The Scotts Company in Marysville Ohio as a Senior Program Manager in the corporate environmental management department.  This brought me back to the Columbus area,   first having an office in downtown Columbus but eventually the present one in Marysville.  I have had several different responsibilities while at Scotts,  but I’m currently managing all company environmental investigation/remediation projects,  the environmental portions of all due diligence activities (acquisitions and divestitures),  and the development of corporate environmental programs.
8/9/06 - KEN  HAHN  -  B.S. 1974,   M.S. 1976

I began work at Exxon’s research branch  (Exxon Production and Research Company)  in Houston as a part-time Lithographer describing well cuttings and cores.  I  became interested in the chemical analyses they were doing in the lab and gradually moved over to working with different analytical instruments.  We were at the cutting edge of technology as far as source-rock evaluation went.  I helped bring online the first Rock Eval pyrolysis unit,  which could quickly (30 minutes or so) evaluate a rock sample as to its source potential and maturity level (producing oil now, could produce oil in the future, or cooked too much).  We later added an elemental analyzer (C,O,H, and N) and a gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer to help refine our evaluations.  While helping to bring the equipment online I also got involved in writing the reports (describing the source-rock potential of an area)  that we sent back to the other Exxon affiliates.  As part of our job, we schooled other employees to show them how we arrived at our conclusions. 

That started the teaching itch for me,  and I soon  landed a part-time teaching job at the University of  Houston-Downtown,  where I taught a Petroleum Geology class to students who were interested in a Petroleum Land Management degree.  I taught that class for two years and  then UH phased out the degree program.   I decided I liked teaching and wanted to teach high school science.  So I left Exxon and went back to college for two years to get certified as a teacher. 

I got my certification and lucked into a job at a small (500 students then)  high school east of Houston.  One of my responsibilities was to coach the academic science team.  The students would travel to different meets on a Saturday (usually lasting all day; I was always amazed they would be willing to do that) and take different tests.  Those who tried science took a multiple choice test on biology,  chemistry,  and physics  (involving all college freshman-level questions)  armed with only a pencil and calculator.  A periodic table was furnished,  but they had to know all the formulas they would use.  The tests were graded,  the students  were ranked, and  those in the top ten received an award.  The competitions ultimately led to the State Meet,  and I was lucky enough to have several students make it to the state level over the years. 

Now I am entering my 18th year as a teacher and still love it.  This upcoming school year I will be teaching chemistry,  general science,  and geology (!!!).  I have taught AP Chemistry and AP Biology,  and had several students pass the AP exam and earn college credits.  Another teacher has taken over the AP classes as I am now involved with the lower level students more.  I am trying to help them pass the state mandated science test.
8/7/06 - NAZILA (EMADIAN) HUMMER  -  B.S. 1977,   M.S. 1981

In the summer of 1979,  after completing my thesis data analysis,  I left Kent and moved to Los Angeles to join the rest of my family and to start a new life in California.  I got a part-time job and went  to work on completing the writing of my thesis.  After swapping drafts with Pete Dahl,  I finished it by the summer of 1981 and officially graduated at the end of that summer,  but was unable to land a job in geology right away because of the downturn in the oil industry.  I married Bob Hummer in 1985,  we lived in Santa Monica for two years,  and then bought a six-acre lot in the Tehachapi Mountains where we built our first house.

At this time,  I started taking some geology courses at California State University,  Bakersfield and,  through some connections at the University,  landed my first geology job as a Petroleum Geologist with Occidental Petroleum (Oxy) International Exploration in Bakersfield.  This was a dream job for me,  and I totally enjoyed working at Oxy!  As a geologist in the New Ventures Department,  I got a chance to work with a group of extremely talented petroleum geologists and to work on the geology of very interesting petroleum basins including the Gabon and Congo petroleum provinces and the Shuaiba play of the Persian Gulf region.  I also got to travel to some exotic locations in Russia and Oman to do wellsite geology,  which I enjoyed a lot.  However,  as anything good must end,  through massive attrition many of us lost our positions at Oxy in 1998 as the company relocated its International Operations from Bakersfield  to Houston, Texas.

After Oxy,  I went back to school,  got my teaching credentials,  and I have been teaching earth science to high school students for the last several years.  I am also an Adjunct Faculty member at CSU Bakersfield and Fullerton College in southern California, teaching geology and oceanography for the summer and astronomy this fall. 

Bob and I have now been married for 21 years and he is my best friend.  We still enjoy going camping even in our old age!  There is nothing better than getting out of our tent,  walking into the fresh mountain air,  and cooking a bacon and eggs breakfast for Bobby.  He really digs geology as well,  and I think he must have been a geologist in his other life!  Last December we went to Death Valley,  we fell in love with the place,  and have decided to explore every canyon and to hike Telescope Peak.  How bad can life be when I know I’ll be exploring Death Valley for a couple of weeks this December?
8/5/06 - WARD HERST - B.S. 1983

I graduated in 1983 with a BS in Geology from KSU.  I see a few familiar names on the KSU alumni page from that time period (1979 – 1983).  I was a particularly quiet person back then, and combined with working as a bus driver for the Campus Bus Service on an almost full-time basis as I was paying my own way through school, I don’t expect that too many folks would have a clear recollection of me.  I was married in August of 1982 to a KSU business student.  Upon graduation in June of 1983, she went to Minneapolis to begin her career and I went to New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology for graduate school (Hydrology, with an emphasis on Math and Engineering).  We were apart for two years other than the occasional weekend/holiday together, then met up in Denver after I completed my Master’s degree.  We’re still together, and getting dangerously close to 25 years of marriage.
I’ve had a wonderful career so far, principally in environmental science.  My wife and I started our own environmental consulting firm in 1998, based in St. Louis.  There’s a picture of us at www.herstassociates.com.  I have had the pleasure of meeting and working with KSU geology graduates across the country.  The KSU degree and its reputation certainly opened academic and professional doors for me.
On the personal side, I have a daughter who is 17 years old, and twin sons who are 13.  My daughter is active in marching band (trombone of all things!), swimming, and fencing.  My sons are active in wrestling, football, swimming, and trumpet/saxophone.   To test my patience, one son is a Browns fan while the other is a Steelers fan.  It makes for interesting times in the house.  In 2003 I began my mid-life crisis phase as a racecar driver.  I race in Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) and a couple of other racing organizations.  I have a Mazda RX-7 that is my 160 mph racecar, and a Mazda Miata that is my 130 mph racecar (they race in different classes).  Last year I qualified for SCCA’s National Championship race in the Miata, and hope to qualify both cars in their respective classes this fall.
Both my parents and my wife’s parents still live in NE Ohio, so I take the children on a driving tour of the KSU campus about once a year when we’re in town to visit.  Let’s my wife and I reminisce about the Fletcher and Manchester dorms, the Rat, Rays and Mothers (we tone that part down for the sake of the kids), etc. 
7/29/06 - SEAN K. RAGAIN  -  B.S. 1988

Sean has been with GeoEngineers, Inc. in Portland, Oregon since 1999. GeoEngineers (www.GeoEngineers.com) is a growing northwest regional multidisciplinary geoscience and engineering firm with a staff of 300 distributed among 14 offices in eight  western states.  Most recently Sean has served as the Managing Principal of their Portland, OR and Pacific regional operations,  but he is in the process of moving his family to Anchorage, AK where he will help lead a new subsidiary, Geo LLC, a  recently-formed company with the goal of managing the firm’s off-shore and international projects. With the energy market booming once again,  Geo is busy performing marine geophysical studies, geotechnical investigations, and HDD design projects in  Alaska’s Beaufort Sea, Russia,  the Republic of Georgia,  and Trinidad  among other locations. 

GeoEngineers and its subsidiaries employ more than 175 earth scientists and engineers  and is always looking for well-trained and enthusiastic staff to join the team.  Sean encourages Kent State students,  new graduates,  and alumni to contact him for employment opportunities,  internships and,  of course,  general information on Alaska and the Pacific Northwest.  His email address is  <sragain@geoengineers.com>
7/29/06 - JASON S. RAMPE  -  B.S. 2000,  M.S. 2003 (UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO)

After my graduation from KSU,  I worked for the USGS  (through the NAGT program) in Menlo Park, CA.  As a member of the Seismic Hazards Team,  I installed and upgraded seismic equipment throughout central and northern California.  In the fall of 2000 I  enrolled at the University of New Mexico to pursue a masters degree in geology. My thesis work involved the paleomagnetism, geochronology, and structure of the Cripple Creek diatreme complex in the Front Range of Colorado.  The Cripple Creek complex is also host to significant Au-Te deposits and is currently mined by open pit. During my summers as a graduate student,  I interned with Anglogold Corp. at Cripple Creek conducting ore control and pit mapping of the district.  Following my M.S. graduation from the University of New Mexico in December, 2002  I began employment with Newmont Mining Corp. in the Surface Mine Geology Group on the Carlin Trend.  I worked with this group for two years conducting ore control,  pit and field mapping,  and near-mine exploration.  Starting February 2005,  I became a member of Newmont’s Global Exploration Team conducting grass-roots exploration in central and northern Mexico.  I will be working in multiple field areas with little to no established geologic backgrounds for the next year.
7/29/06 - BOB DAWSON  -  B.S. 1976

    I  have been  working for Wagner & Brown Ltd. as an Exploration Geologist for the last 22 years,  concentrating primarily on the S. Texas Wilcox trend and most of the East Texas basin.  Since graduating from Kent,  I initially worked for Core Laboratories in Tyler,  Texas for about 1 year,  and then I went with Exxon in 1977.  At Exxon I worked in Alaska,  South Texas,  and East Texas as a Production Geologist.  After 3 years I left Exxon and joined Superior Oil as a Geologist working the same trends until Mobil bought Superior in 1984.  That’s when I was hired by Wagner & Brown.
    My wife Brenda and I have been married 28 years and have 2 boys,  Ryan (22) and Matt (21).  Ryan is a junior at Baylor University in Waco TX.,  majoring in Pre-Law.  Matt is a sophomore at Montgomery College (University of Houston)  working on a degree in hotel management.  We live in The Woodlands, TX.
7/29/06 - TIM ALLEN  -  B.S. 1970,  M.S. 1981

Dick,  I'm still  Project Hydrogeologist here at Raytheon in Tucson.  Since 1988  I've been directing environmental remediation of the plant site which experienced extensive contamination of soil and groundwater by chlorinated solvents and chromium.  The plant site is part of the Tucson Airport Area Superfund Site.   I'm planning on retiring from Raytheon in November.  All of the interesting remediation work here is now done,  and it's time to find something else to do.  I'll probably go to work for a local hydrogeology consulting firm part time, and try to revive my severely atrophied geology skills. Much of my present job involves things like engineering, practicing environmental law without a license, project  management, keeping track of budgets, writing funding proposals; everything but geology.

I've been doing a lot of volunteer field work on weekends for a local environmental group called Sky Island Alliance.  They are dedicated to preserving habitat and wildlife corridors for the large carnivores in southern Arizona, like black bear, mountain lion, jaguar and Mexican gray wolf.  I also get out hiking, backpacking, kayaking and looking at the rocks whenever I can.    My 22 year old daughter just completed a degree in computer graphics and animation at Pima College.   She's now out on her own and working.   

I checked out the KSU Geology web site.  I'm glad to still see a lot of the familiar names on the faculty.  You're looking good in your picture on the web site.    From what I saw, the Kent geology program is still first class.  You all have done a great job keeping up the department standards.  Say hello to everyone there for me.
7/29/06 - MARK KROENKE  -  B.S. 1991 (New Mexico State),   M.S. 1996

Hi Dick,  Nice chatting with you the other day.  I've worked as a geologist for Ohio EPA in the Ground Water group since 1995.  In 1996 I finally graduated from Kent with my M.S in Geology (for some strange reason, employment actually motivated me to finish my thesis and graduate after a few years of spinning wheels in Kent).  In early 2001 I was promoted to Lead Geologist in the Ground Water group,   with primary job duties including the review of all ground water data or hydrogeologic investigations related to solid-waste landfills and enforcement of our rules.  I also assist the other geologists in my group, when requested,  and participate in statewide rule-making efforts coordinated by the Central Office in Columbus.  My professional highlight so far was being the lead geologist for Ohio EPA in an enforcement case against a closed landfill in Cuyahoga County.  We ended up in court and I testified for the State of Ohio regarding all the failures of the owner/operator to properly monitor the landfill and address the ground water contamination migrating from the landfill.  The judge decided in our favor on all counts and,  just this past month,  we learned that the Court of Appeals upheld the judge’s original decision!

As some of you know, I was dating a fellow KSU graduate student,  Kim Darrah,  back in the 1990s.  We married in August,  1999 and have resided happily in the Portage Lakes area south of Akron since 2001.  We own and operate a very small Appaloosa horse farm where we currently have five horses and five cats (I know, I know, this qualifies us as the crazy cat people on our block!!)   In our defense, they are all fixed and only one gets outside to decimate the small rodent population around our house.  When I can fit it in, I golf as much as I can afford to (Let's face it, golf has gotten pretty expensive over the last 5-10 years!).   My golfing goal for the last two seasons has been to break 80.  I'm close,  but my short game is holding me back :-).  Last Fall, I made my rock-star singing debut as Kroenke Lee Roth!  Complete with outrageous hair and outfit,  I took the stage to front my friend's band,  and belted out some Van Halen,  ZZ Top,  George Thorogood,  and Joe Walsh.  It was a blast,  and I look forward to doing it again this September,  with a little more VH and AC/DC thrown in for good measure! :-).  Take care, Mark

Mark and Kim (Darrah) Kroenke.
7/29/06 - AL STANDEN  -  B.S.  1976,   M.S. 1986 (University of Texas)

After completing the B.S. degree in 1976,  I worked for the next  three years in uranium exploration (out of Grants, NM and  then Corpus Christi, TX) and socialized with Mike and Toni Padrutt and Toby Kirk.  In 1979 I  became an Assistant Research Scientist with the Texas Bureau of Economic Geology (BEG) in Austin,  researching uranium deposits.  I have lived in Austin ever since. 

In 1981 I went part-time with the BEG  and enrolled in the graduate program at the University of Texas (thesis topic was an epithermal gold deposit in Silverton, CO).  I   received the M.S. degree in 1986,  having worked summers  (1980-1986) in gold  exploration for Chevron Minerals and Bear Creek Mining in CO, UT, NV, and AZ.

Depressed gold prices in 1986 caused me to take a Research Scientist position with the BEG where I worked on strategic metal studies,  mineral deposits in West Texas, evaluation of two low-level nuclear waste sites,  the super-collider site,  geographic information systems (GIS),  and curating of a large core facility.  While at the BEG, one of my associates was Jules DuBar,  KSU’s  first  recipient of a degree in geology  (B.S.  1949) – small world!

A major career shift took place when I left the BEG in 1994 and took a position with International Technologies, Inc. (IT),  a firm specializing in drilling and evaluating nuclear blast sites (in NV and MS)  and contamination on military bases throughout the western United States.  In 1998 I entered the water resource business when I was hired by LBG-Guyton Associates.  There I began evaluating regional and municipal water availability/quality problems using GIS,  and I fell in love with the complexities and politics of water.

Daniel B. Stephens and Associates hired me away from LBG-Guyton in 2002 and offered me a position as the Texas Water Resources Director based in Austin, TX.  I have been working with water supply and quality issues for San Antonio, San Angelo, Midland  and Lubbock.  My special interests include recharge estimates, pharmaceuticals in water supplies, rainwater collection systems, GIS analysis  and calculation of volumetrics for groundwater resources.
7/29/06 - GARY MANZER - KSU BS '69, MS '72, Rice PhD '78)

     I've had a very interesting geological career following the "Geologic Time Scale" from ancient to recent. 
     Academia in the late 60's to mid 70's (Kent and Rice) was spent in the Precambrian (Archean to Keweenawan) of Wyoming, Minnesota and other areas of North America investigating the chemical evolution of basaltic magmas through time.  A great time mixed with field work and lab.
     Post graduation began a new phase and progression upward on the "Time Scale", oil and gas exploration in the Paleozoics (Ordovician through Permian, skipped Cambrian) of the Mid-Continent (Oklahoma).  Exploration discoveries in the 80's accounted for 35 to 40 BCF of gas and 40 K bbls. of oil, most of which are still producing today.  Hooray for increased density drilling!  Also conducted limited Mesozoic (Jurassic) exploration in north Texas and southern Arkansas.
      The late 80's brought about another geological phase and advancement to the Cenozoic (Tertiary, Quaternary and Recent).  With the mid 80's oil bust (and 3 companies that sequentially went out of business) a number of us out-of-work oilies were fortunate to participate in a government sponsored hydrogeological retraining program (who ever said a hard-rocker doesn't like to play in water?).  Onward and upward on the "Time Scale".  Environmental investigations through the 90's to the present (mostly Quaternary and Recent) have spanned nearly every state west of the Mississippi and disciplines from water resources, waste disposal to toxic waste (Yuk!, but someone has to do it).  Best part is my boss can't fire me unless he goes bankrupt (i.e. GM Environmental Consulting, 9 years and counting).
     Not to digress, but sometime during the chemical evolution of Precambrian basaltic magmas, my first daughter was born (now 31).  During the drilling of Morrowan sandstones and Hunton limestone my second daughter was born (now 27 with her first daughter).  Working my way upward stratigraphically, my son was born during the drilling of Cherokee sandstones (now 25).  Wow, how time flies!
     That brings us to the very Recent (today), having the time of my life enjoying family, friends and work.
     My best to all KSU professors (past and present), students and alums.  A special thanks to Dick, Glenn and Bill.  Experience tells me that the geological foundations acquired at KSU are priceless!!!
----------------------------
     Oh, and the Cruiser is my latest hobby, which has won several trophies at car shows.  Currently working on my wifes '05 convertible.
7/29/06 - MIKE  PADRUTT  -  B.S. 1977

Dick,  Toni  (formerly Frisone)  and I married shortly after we both graduated in 1977 and moved to Corpus Christi, TX where I worked (along with Al Standen, Tobi Kirk, and John Dribus) in Mobil's uranium exploration business until Jane Fonda and 3-Mile Island temporarily sunk the US nuclear industry.  Toni worked for a few years as a Site Investigations Geologist responsible for training newly-hired engineers in basic geology and rock-testing procedures.  It was Toni's desire to leave industry after we had children to be a full-time mom (which she and our kids at times only mildly regret).  She developed a high school-level science curriculum for a local community college that served their local home school community while we lived in Dallas,  and taught 7-9th grade science at a private school here inHouston for a year until some health issues prevented her from continuing.
     After my brief but enjoyable stay in the minerals industry,  I moved into Mobil's oil and gas division,  and worked primarily South American foreland basins for several years.  In  1990 we were transferred to Stavanger Norway,  and there I was involved with various exploration and development projects in the North Sea.  We stayed in Norway for nearly 6 years and remember it fondly as one of the highlights of my career.  After moving back to Texas I became Lead Geologist on a team evaluating several exploration and development projects in China  (a great place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there!).  After China and a few years doing special projects offshore,  Brazil Mobil merged with Exxon and I joined the ExxonMobil Development Company in Houston.  For the past several years I have worked exclusively on development of new oil and gas fields in Trinidad, Canada, Nigeria, and now Alaska.  My current position is Geoscience Coordinator for development of the Point Thomson Gas Field on the North Slope,  AK.
     Toni and I have 3 children:  Andy (25) graduated from the University of Texas with a political science degree and will graduate shortly from the Irving, TX Police Academy. Law enforcement has always been an interest,  and a stint in the police force is part of  Andy’s long-term plan to enter federal law enforcement.  Katie (21) has her foot in the door of  the banking business.  She attends a local community college working on a business degree while employed full-time as a personal banker for Wells Fargo.  Ian (16) is quite the athlete, plays on 2 soccer teams, and thinks he wants to be an architect.  Alas, no scientists !   Unfortunately, Toni has undergone some rough health issues over the last several years,  having contracted a fairly rare disease (typically fatal if left undiagnosed). A very concerned doctor identified the disease and,  after scheduled surgery and drug treatment,  the prognosis is good and she is looking forward to getting back to at least shades of her former self and caring for and training her dogs (she is passionate about "her" 2 golden retrievers !).

We received the Alumni Newsletter and really enjoyed it.   Hopefully we can visit on our next trip back to Ohio.  Best regards,  Mike.
7/22/06 - ED D’AMATO – B.S. 1991,  M.S. 1994
     I've worked at the Ohio EPA since 1994.  My career began in Ohio EPA's Northwest District Office (Bowling Green) in the Office of Special Investigations (OSI) where I was responsible for investigating environmental crimes in the district's 23 counties.  My job duties were similar to that of a police officer, except I didn't carry a gun.  I interviewed suspects and witnesses, participated in stakeouts, executed search warrants, testified in court, and coordinated sampling activites (including occasional covert sampling in the dead of night).  After 3 1/2 years in the flatlands of NW Ohio, I developed “topography deprivation syndrome” and transferred to Ohio EPA's Central Office in Columbus where I continued my OSI career for another 2 1/2 years.  
     In 2000, I decided it was time for some more change and transferred to the Division of Hazardous Waste Management in Ohio EPA's Northeast District Office where I have been ever since.  My responsibilities include conducting compliance inspections, oversight of facilities with hazardous waste permits, investigating complaints, and oversight of some RCRA remediation actitivies. 
     On the personal side, I met my wife Laura (an elementary school librarian) in 1999.  I proposed in Rome, Italy in 2001, we married in 2002, and we had our first child (Jonathan) in 2005.  For the past few years I've been trying to learn to golf, but with only limited success so far.  I finally broke 100 last year (see what I mean?).   For several years I was involved in a group now called All Aboard Ohio, an advocacy group for expanding passenger rail and alternative transportation in Ohio.  I was even president for two years.   I've taken an interest in the sustainable development movement in northeast Ohio and published an article in the Summer 2006 issue of Yes! magazine about the "Greening of Cleveland"
Family matters take precedence, so the majority of my energy is devoted to being a dad.  When I can find the time, I play  guitar (sort of), study Italian, and try to re-learn the piano (I should never have quit when I was 10!), among other things. 

7/22/06 - CARLOS LOPEZ  -  B.S.  1969  (University of Puebla),  M.S.  1982 
 After receiving my M.S. degree,  I started working for S.A.I. Engineers in Santa Clara, California.  I worked as a Geologist at the Geysers Geothermal field  (in Santa Rosa, Northern California),  one of the largest geothermal fields in the world.  In 1984 I accepted the position of Geothermal Geologist with the California Energy Commission,  and I managed one of the largest geothermal projects in California funded by the Commission (The San Bernardino District Heating System).  It was an incredible and rewarding experience.  I also worked on exploration assessment of low-temperature geothermal fields, for domestic use,  across the State. 
     In 1986 I changed the focus of my work when I became an Engineering Geologist with the California Department of Transportation.  Since then I have dealt with environmental issues related to soil and groundwater contamination.  My work consists of environmental reviews,  regulatory compliance (for soil and groundwater contamination),  technical consultation for our districts,  and coordination /management of the underground storage-tank program.  I am a licensed Professional Geologist and Engineering Geologist for the State of California.  But more important,  I am very pleased and proud of the education I received from Kent State University.  In particular I am very grateful to Dr. Yoram Eckstein for his teaching and guidance. 
    Family wise,  I am married (wife Marcella) and have 2 daughters. My wife teaches at Elk Grove High School..  My oldest daughter is finishing her Ph.D. program (University of California Santa Barbara/San Diego State -a combined school program) in geography.  My youngest daughter will be a senior this fall at Saint Marys College in Moraga, CA.. No grandchildren yet :-)
7/22/06 - MIKE HIRT  -  B.S. 1987,  M.S. 1991
    "I currently reside in the Chicago area with my wife, Diane, and two four-year old children Jennifer and Li Wen.  No they're not twins.  Jennifer is a domestic adoption and Li Wen a Chinese adoption.  Needless to say we keep very busy.
    Professionally speaking, I worked for 10 years with two large engineering/environmental consulting firms, Golder Associates, Inc. and Montgomery Watson.  Finally got smart in 2000 and joined a few colleagues at a start-up company - Environmental Information Logistics, LLC (EIL).  We serve the solid waste industry throughout the U.S., focusing primarily on groundwater and landfill gas compliance issues at both active and closed landfills.  The best part is that I work full-time from home.  No more long commutes except for the stairs to the basement.
    I would enjoy hearing from former classmates or professors.  Please feel free to contact me."
5/20/06 - RICHARD L. STOLLAR - M.S 1976
     We were saddened by the recent (April 22, 2006) passing of Dick Stollar who received the B.S. degree at Mount Union College in 1974 and the M.S. degree at KSU in 1976.  Dick began his 30-year career in oil and gas exploration  with Columbia Gas Transmission in Charleston, WV and then  moved to Columbia Natural Resources there when the company formed in 1988.  Afterward,  as founding partner and Chief Geologist for Triana Energy , he helped manage the firm through a period of tremendous growth.  He was responsible for many important oil and gas discoveries in the Appalachian Basin and,  over the years,  he was a mentor for many of  the  geologists working in hydrocarbon exploration in the region.  He shared his career experiences through regular involvement  with primary and secondary school students.  Survivors include his wife and two daughters,  parents,  sister,  and a niece and nephew. 
5/20/06 - MATHEW S. WICKS   -   B.S.  2000
     After graduation I became a Stereo Compiler with Kucera International and worked there for 3 years collecting data for large-scale mapping projects.  I then moved to Aerocon Photogrammetric Services where I was hired to work on detailed maps for engineers and developers. I just moved to Virginia  to begin work as a Geoscientist 2  with Integrated Defense Systems (The Boeing Company).  My primary role there is to serve as part of a geospatial production team which supports the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA).  I live in Woodbridge, VA. 
 5/6/06 - DALE VEVERKA - B.S. 1974
     Immediately after graduation I was offered three teaching positions (times have changed). Accepted the job at Jamison Jr. High in Cleveland because it was exclusively 7th grade earth science and it paid the best (spent 2 years here). In the summer of '75  I began work on my Masters of Education at KSU. Working with Dr. Gordon Vars opened doors for me at Harmon Middle School in Aurora. For almost 20 years I taught 9 week mini courses in Landforms, Rocks and minerals, Paleontology, Oceanography and assorted space sciences to 7th and 8th graders. Thanks Drs. Anderson, Carlson, Heimlich, Laughlin, and Feldmann - your efforts were much appreciated. When the state introduced 6th grade science proficiency testing Aurora switched me to 6th grade and a comprehensive science emphasis. We scored as high as 11th in the state but earth science was only a minor portion of my curriculum. I am still teaching in Aurora, this is year 30 at Harmon with only 3 years until retirement. Enjoyed seeing Dr. Heimlich at McGilvrey as well as at a number of Portage County science fairs.
   Met my wife, Beverly at KSU in 1975 and we married in 1977. She enjoyed her intro Geology class with Dr. Heimlich while we were dating. Oldest daughter, Amy Parker (22) is married with a geology degree. Son, Neal (20) is a criminal justice major at Mt. Union in Alliance OH. Youngest daughter Amber (17) attends the Career Center in Brecksville taking auto service technology (go figure) My hobbies include restoring muscle cars and church work.
    I really appreciate the efforts involved in setting up this site. Neat to read about Manley-Booth, Davis, Kammerer, Scotte and all. Would love hearing from others from the old days (Koshal, Pettit, Christ, Nalle, Fagley). Any leads on these folks would be helpful.
5/6/06 - JOE STRUCKEL  -  B.S. 1969

     After graduation I spent  four years with the military (ROTC obligation) in the Army Corps of Engineers, including one year in Korea and several working on a geology-related project conducted for the Army by the Lawrence–Livermore Laboratory in California.  Not able to find a job in geology immediately after the Army duty,  I worked at a machine shop in Meadville, PA for two years until I answered a newspaper ad for mudloggers (about which I knew nothing, but saw that a B.S.degree in geology was required!!).  For the next three years I was a Mudlogger working out of Denver, CO at drill sites all over the Rocky Mountain area.  In 1978 I was hired as Midcontinent Manager for Continental Laboratories in Houston.  In 1983, when Continental Labs downsized and looked to sell off some of its equipment,  I asked if the firm would lease it to me.  The company agreed and, with eight of the newly-unemployed men,  I formed my own firm, Geosearch Logging, Inc., in Edmond, OK.  Today  I have 85 employees, business is booming, we are actively recruiting  (just made a presentation in the Department of Geology at KSU),  and,  at age 59,  I have no plans to retire for decades!  Along the way,  in 1989 I started Geosearch Environmental, Inc.,  although the main activity today is with Geosearch Logging.  My wife Karen and I live in Edmond, OK.  Karen is also a Kent State graduate and serves as Corporate Secretary and Treasurer of Geosearch Logging Inc.
5/6/06 - BRUCE THOMPSON  -  B.S. 1960,   M.S. 1963 (Miami University)

After completing the M.S. degree,  I went to work for Texaco in Casper, WY and then became its Assistant District Geologist in the Billings, MT office.  Later  (1968-’79)  I joined Inexco Oil as Area Geologist,  working out of Casper WY/Denver CO/Houston TX.  During 1979-’82,  I was Exploration Manager (Denver) for United Natural Resources,  and then became a Consulting Geologist (1982-‘90)  throughout the Rocky Mountain region.  During  1990-’93  I was employed by Viersen & Cochran as Rocky Mountain Geological Manager (Denver office) and then (1993-’95) served as Consulting Geologist for Cenex in the Green River and Wind River basins.  During  1995-’98  I  was Williston Basin Geologist for Basin Exploration and Rocky Mountain District Geologist for Hugoton Energy. 

A major highlight of my career came in 1994 when the Rocky  Mountain Association of Geologists selected me to receive its Outstanding Explorer Award.  Comments in the Association’s letter to me include the following: “He has as many as 18 oil and gas discoveries attributed to his individual and  team leadership efforts over the past 30 years.  Bruce has earned RMAG’s Outstanding Explorer Award for his skill and tenacity in using geology in a manner that lead to many important discoveries throughout the Rocky Mountain region” and “Bruce is a wonderful example of an explorer and oil finder with tremendous  success to prove his talent.  It is humbling to total the oil and gas reserves attributed in some manner to his exploration efforts but clearly they represent many million barrels of oil and billions of cubic feet of gas.”

In 1998 we moved back to Ohio where I  am  a Consulting Geologist  actively working the Clinton Sandstone.   I have been an active “ham” radio operator since 1954, and have operated all over the western states as well as Canada and the Cayman Islands.  Gerry and I live in Ellsworth, OH.
4/8/06 - RENEE  (SUDDUTH)  BANCROFT - B.S. 1985

I  have been working as a Hydrogeologist with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection since 1986,  specifically in the Site Remediation group helping to clean up the groundwater at industrial sites in the state.  The most interesting part of the job has been learning about the new technologies to remediate sites, including  in-situ chemical and biological injections, electrical resistance heating, molasses injection,  and air sparging/soil vapor extraction. I have worked on 100's of sites all over the state such as  Lockheed Martin,  RCA,  Curtiss Wright Flight Systems, Air Products,  Diamond Shamrock Chemicals,  and Bristol Myers.  Many of the tools/instruments and technologies in the environmental field have their origin in the petroleum industry.  During my time at Kent I thought I would end up in that industry, even working in the summer with the oil companies.  But in the end I joined the "cleaner side" of things in state government and have found it to be very rewarding. (It also comes with a nice pension plan.  Believe it or not I am currently planning my retirement in 10 years with 30 years of service!)  Many KSU geology alumni have worked/work here. Ted Ronning, Stan Radon, Dan Fisher, Marc Okin and Joe Krulik have sinced moved on from the NJDEP, but Wayne Bevan, Gary Czock, Fred Wise and I have remained.  I've also worked with Allistair MacDonald on the outside (Golder and Associates).  My family and I live in New Egypt, the geographic center of NJ, 45 minutes southeast of Trenton where the NJDEP is located (Also 45 minutes from the Jersey shore, Atlantic City, New York,  and my favorite Philadelphia!)  Anyone interested in doing geological work in state government as a public employee should definitely let me know.  At the moment there is a hiring freeze due to the recent election of a new Governor, but we all hope that ends soon.  It was a good choice for me, and I was only able to accomplish this goal with my roots from KSU.
4/8/06 - BOB ONDERKO – B.S. 1980 (Bowling Green),   M.S. 1991

I have currently relocated  from Virginia to the San Antonio, TX area where I am still employed with Earth Tech, Inc. as a Geologist and Field Manager. I serve as an environmental consultant working primarily on U. S. Air Force sites across the country.
We have two adult children,  a teenager,  and one grandson.  My wife,  Joan,  and I also run a small corporation that buys distressed properties,  rehabilitates them,  and sells the property (for a modest profit).  We live in Lavernia, TX.
4/8/06 - ERWIN RUNGE -  B.S. 1957,   M.S. 1959 (Miami University),   Ph.D. 1965 (Oregon  State University)

     I entered KSU in 1953 intending to major in biology,  but two years later I met my future wife and decided to switch my major to geology.  Glenn Frank mapped out a program whereby I could complete all required coursework in geology and graduate in 1957.  After graduation I entered Miami University in Oxford, Ohio where I received an M.S. degree in 1959.
     In August, 1959  Barbara and I were married and I began work with Western Geophysical a week later.  Constant moving on the job got to be too much,  and we re-located back to Akron with a plan to obtain a teaching degree in Science Education.  In 1961,  I  was hired as a Part-time Instructor to teach freshman geology labs and a lecture section of  historical geology at  KSU,  and it was then that I met Dick Heimlich and Gene Szmuc.  I received my Science Education degree in 1962,  and the wonderful geology teaching experience at Kent built a strong desire to return to graduate school.
     I started the Ph.D. program at Oregon State University in the Department of Oceanography in 1962 and graduated in 1965 with a Ph.D. in Oceanography specializing in Geological Oceanography  (my dissertation was a study of the continental shelf sediments from the Columbia River to Cape Blanco, Oregon).  Shortly thereafter I accepted a position with the federal government in the Washington, D.C. area.  I retired from government service in 1987,  and for about the next 10 years worked as an independent consultant to both the federal government and industry.  I finally retired for good in 1997.
     Barbara and I are currently snowbirds,  living in the Pacific Northwest in the summer and in the southwest (Tucson, AZ) in the winter. We have three children and four grandchildren. 
     The web site the Department is building is great,  as it gives graduates the opportunity to learn about old friends.  My thanks to all the people who are working so hard to put the web site and the newsletters together.


Erwin and Barb Runge
4/8/06 - PATRICK W. DUNCAN  -  B.S. 1992,   M.S  1997 (Case Western Reserve University)

After completing the M.S. degree at Case Western Reserve in Cleveland,  where I  concentrated on stable isotope geochemistry,  I  began working for RP Consultants, Inc.,  an environmental consulting company that performs environmental site assessments of properties,  wetlands delineations/permitting, and geological consulting for the sand and gravel industry.  I became Vice-President and Co-Owner of the firm and, recently,  its President and Owner.   I employ several geologists including Chris Mazzei, a KSU grad (B.S.  2005).  I also own a title company and a property management company.  I have been married to my wife Sherri since 1993, and have three children ages 7, 6, and 2.  We live in Mentor, Ohio.
3/18/06 - JIM HANLON  -  B.S.  1981

After graduation 25 years ago, I began my career with Energy Unlimited, Inc. in Marietta, Ohio.  In 1983, I joined Enterprise Energy Corporation in Cambridge, and in 1986, transferred to Belden & Blake Corporation in North Canton.  In 2002, I founded Hanlon Exploration, Ltd.,  a company that provides geological consulting services to the oil and gas industry.  Just recently I was hired by North Coast Energy, Inc. (Austintown, Ohio) where I am Geology Supervisor for the Northern Appalachian Basin Unit.  I’m an active member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Society of Professional Well Log Analysts,  Ohio Oil and Gas Association,  Ohio Oil & Gas Energy Education Program, and the Ohio Geological Society. My family and I reside in North Canton, Ohio.
3/18/06 - MARC OKIN – B.S. 1984 (Bowling Green),  M.S. 1989

I was first employed in 1989 with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.  This was followed by a position as Hydrogeologist for several years with Sun Oil Co., and then I went into environmental consulting.  In 1996 I moved to West Virginia and began working for Columbia Gas Transmission in their Environmental Remediation Department. It was here in God’s Country (WV), where I met my wife Mary, and we had our little girl, Olivia, who is now 4 years old.  We moved to Columbus, OH  in 2003 for me to start working for Columbia's parent company, NiSource, in their corporate Environmental Health & Safety Department.  Much of my work centers on characterizing and remediating coal tars associated with Manufactured Gas Plants (MGPs) that operated in the late 1800's. 

I left KSU in 1987 before completing my M.S. thesis, but my goal was to finish the writing in spite of a serious medical problem at the time.  Two years later (after completing the first draft, six revisions, and a bone marrow transplant for cancer),
I received the M.S. degree.  Please say hello to Dr. Palmer and Dr. Dahl.
3/18/06 - DREW LONERGAN – B.S. 1986 (Eastern Illinois),  M.S. 1991

     After leaving Kent in 1990, I went to work in Washington DC with Ebasco Environmental where I  worked on environmental remediation projects as a Geologist/Hydrogeologist, and married Deborah Jennings. I received the MS in 1991 (I think because Dr. Dahl was tired of me!).
     In 1992 I joined ABB Environmental and transferred to their Tallahassee, FL office to work on  remediation projects under contract with the US Navy. In 1996 I transferred to ABB’s Brighton, MI office, and have been working in the Detroit Metro area since then, migrating into project management while keeping my hand on the technical side of things too.  In 1999, I started with Earth Tech where  I was a Program Director and helped start a new office (an interesting challenge for those of you who haven’t tried it). We did great and got the office up to about 35 people, with stable contracts and revenue flow.  I left Earth Tech in 2005 after six years.   
     I'm now at CTI and Associates in Brighton, MI, which focuses mainly on geotechnical studies and landfill design.  My plan is to build a thriving environmental remediation practice at CTI.  CTI is minority-owned, and we're planning to use this to assist in marketing environmental services to the Fed Gov and large companies with diversity targets.  
    Deb is working 3.5 days a week as a speech pathologist for the local school system and loves her job.  Her schedule tracks with the kids' schedules and she gets summers off.  She doesn't want to move from Brighton, but says that I'm free to leave whenever I want.  This might cause her intense happiness, so I have stayed!  August, 2006 will be our 16th anniversary if you can believe that.
    Deb and I have two children. Emily, born in 1992,  will be going to high school in the fall (Yikes!).  She's big-time into figure skating, cheerleading, and social studies - and wants to be President of the US!  Charlie, born in 1995,  will enter middle school in the fall.  He’s big on hockey, plays almost year round, is only casually interested in school - and does not want to be President of the US!
2/11/06 -  JENNIFER FORSYTHE -  B.A. (Chemistry) 1993, M.S. (Geology) 1998

After graduating with my MS-geology in 1998 I spent 4.5 years at Los Alamos National Laboratory.  I then decided it was time to move back to the midwest where I took a job as a Research Technician in the Environmental Molecular Science Institute at the University of Notre Dame in 2003..  I work a lot with the grad students in the Civil Engineering and Geological Sciences Department.  I also work with some undergrads and even a high school REU student from time to time.  I've always loved working with students, so this is a great place for me.
     Recently I took on another position, mostly part-time,  as an airshow wingwalker.  That's right, I stand up on top of planes while they're flying through the air...  I absolutely love it!  I first became involved with it through my biological dad (who I just met at the end of my grad school days),  but now work with a couple different teams.  I'm dad's official wingwalker (www.bobessellairshows.com),  as well as the current official wingwalker for American Barnstormer, Walt Pierce (www.americanbarnstormer.com).  I also do some marketing work for a jet truck guy, Paul Stender (www.speedforhire.com).  I  truly love the airshow business, it's really brought me out of that shy shell I used to be stuck in.  My current airshow schedule is still in the works for the 2006 season,  but so far I'll be performing in Bay City, TX (July 4) and Millville, NJ (June 24-25) with dad and Nantucket, MA (Sept. 30/Oct. 1) and Cleveland (Labor Day weekend) with Walt - I finally get to perform on my home turf!!.  Dad and I just returned from a show in the United Arab Emirates. Here are a couple photos from that show as well as a shot of me with Ol' Smokey (Walt's plane). I hope everyone is having as much fun as I am!
Jenny
2/4/06 - PEDER OTTERSON - B.S. 1967 (OSU), M.S. 1974

After graduation I received a Fulbright Grant and spent a year in Germany.  In 1976 I was hired as a Research Scientist with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, and was assigned to the Regional Copper Nickel Study. I did some hydrogeology (piezometers) around a waste-rock gabbro stockpile that was leaching heavy metals into an adjacent wetland, and we monitored transport thru the wetland to a bay of Birch Lake.  Then we did some sediment core-sampling from the bay out into the lake to trace levels of metals there. Well, just as it was getting interesting I left to take a job as Area Hydrologist for NE Minnesota (stationed in Duluth). As Area Hydrologist I had the opportunity to work on a "sister-city" project in Petrozavodsk, Russia at the Institute for Water Problems (two expeditions to Russia). I worked out of Duluth for about 12 years before moving down to St. Paul to work in shoreland management. I've had a few other jobs since then, but am back in shoreland management where we're rolling out some new alternative standards that we hope will catch on here--things like conservation-design subdivisions, restoration of native vegetation buffers, and increased use of infiltration for stormwater. I enjoyed seeing G.D. Cooke at the recent NALMS Conference where I made a presentation on the project.  I can honestly say that what I learned at KSU, and practiced through field work on the Twin Lakes Project, helped shape my later career. I am presently Shoreland Hydrologist for the Minnesota DNR in St. Paul, and our family lives in nearby Eden Prairie.
2/4/06 - DANA DAYTON - B.S. 1982

Greetings to all Kent Geology Alums, especially the graduating class of 1982.  We hit the tail end of the 1970s oil/gas boom, just before the crash in the mid 1980s.  I enjoyed working for a small oil and gas exploration company while it lasted but, like some of you, found myself unemployed after awhile. I taught high school science classes for a few years and then found an opportunity with a major insurance company.  In the late 1980s, insurance companies found themselves inundated with claims for pollution clean up due to various environmental laws enacted throughout the 1980s.  Most insurers did not know how to staff their claim operations to deal with the technical issues raised in environmental engineering reports.  The geology degree provided a niche for me and I started work in 1988.  I'm still here.  Part of me wants to get back into oil/gas exploration with the fortunate turn of events the last few years, but I'm happy with what I am doing and I think I'll stay.  Much of my job requires interaction with legal matters and lawyers, but I get just enough of the geology aspect to keep me going.  I hope all of you are doing well and have the same fond memories of classes, professors, and summer field camp.  Would someone from the 1982 Black Hills summer field camp please send in a photo of our group?  I'd like to see it posted on the Alum website.  Best Regards, Dana Dayton
2/4/06 - JOHN WILSON - B.S. 1985 (Slippery Rock Univ.), M.S. 1988

I have been employed as Hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey since January 1989, working on a variety of surface water and ground water related projects. Currently I am working with the National Water Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program. With the NAWQA program I have been collecting ground water samples, working on a ground-water-flow model, and working on a ground-water/surface-water interaction study that includes modeling of streambed fluxes using heat as a tracer (temperature modeling). We are scheduled to have a poster display on this temperature modeling at the 2005 Midwestern Groundwater Conference in Champaign, IL.
1/28/06 - HOWARD ADAMS – B.S.  1968

Hi Dick,   It’s been a long time since I have heard from you and Kent State. The newsletter is a good touch.  It is good you are still holding strong and that your students are still working in geology. The last downturn of the minerals industry (1998-2003) pushed most of those still in mineral exploration into new careers.  Also most of the Schools of Mines merged with other departments and the tenured professors retired.  Now the few of us left are old fossils and grey beards.  There are also fewer mining companies left,  and the one I have contracted with in recent years (Placer Dome, Inc., -  fifth largest gold-mining firm in the world) was just acquired by Barrick Gold. I think I have worked for seven major mining companies over the years and Kennecott is the only name still in existence (under the RTZ group).  I still prefer being a field geologist rather than a computer geologist,  and my strong suit is diamond-drill supervision.  I have overseen 7 core rigs and their logistics 24 hours/day in SE Asia.  Last year I had 6 rigs (two were 24-hour rigs)  plus 1 advanced exploration project. For the past 2.5 years I have been contracting with Placer Dome,  and now that the company has found a drill coordinator,  I expect to be doing more chips/core logging  and field exploration.

I still get back to Ohio about once a year to visit my dad and siblings.  My oldest daughter, Teri Whitmore (BS & MS Univ. of Washington; MBA Missouri State) is Planning Director for the city of Hamilton, OH  so I also visit her and my 2-grandgirls.  My youngest daughter,  Niki (BA from NC State, MA Ohio Univ. and MBA Marquette) is in Phoenix, AZ and is Marketing Director for the Phoenix Suns.  She previously worked in marketing with the Cleveland Cavaliers,  Rockers,  and the new Cleveland Browns.

I enjoyed the departmental web photo of the 1967 Petrology field trip (Upstate NY);  it would be nice to see classes that size again.  Today there is a real shortage of geologists and mining engineers,  and I am not sure they will be available for the future.  Keep plugging the department and encouraging new recruits.  Thank you for your confidence in me.  The feeling is mutual, and I have borrowed your nickname for passwords and computer ID’s.  I have also used it for my truck rental business in Alaska (Hard Rock Wheels, Inc.)  Hope I have your permission,  belatedly (Howard,  Of course – it’s an honor!)  I also remember breaking your tourmaline crystal, sorry again.  (Howard, I don’t remember that story, so you’re in the clear on that one too!  Dick)  Take care,  and tell Rod and Ernie I said Hi!       
                                               
(Howard and Sandi live in Reno, NV.)

Top photo: Howard, propped up by four Phoenix Suns cheerleaders. Phoenix, AZ

Bottom photo: Howard's grandchildren and Wife, Sandi
1/21/06 - LARRY WIEDMAN -  B.S. 1978 (Ball State Univ.),  M.S. 1982 (Wright State Univ.),  Ph.D. 1990
    I am Professor of Biology,  Director of the Environmental Science Program,  and Director of Field Studies at the University of Saint Francis in Fort Wayne, IN.  I  continue to take students to the Bahamas semiannually and backpacking in the wilderness for two weeks each May.  Katie  (M.Ed., in Public Health Ed, KSU 90) is also an Associate Professor of Biology at USF with me.  Our offices are only a hallway and a floor apart.  She has been fulltime there for 6 years and I am on my 12th.  We like it fine.  She teaches mostly Health Ed and Nutrition classes (She is a Registered Dietitian still).  Our lives still revolve around the two girls.  Audrey, who was born in Akron before we left, is a Junior vocal music major at Manchester College and got married in Oct. to a young man who graduated in 2005 with a trumpet performance major at another nearby college.  He now works at the school Audrey attends as a music intern.  As you might guess, we have put in lots of time attending all things musical and dramatic that she has been performing in.  Claire graduated from our home school last year.  We started home schooling them both about 6 years ago and it has been great! She is already enrolled as a freshman at USF and loves it.  She is also quite dramatic, but is currently a Photo/Art History major and looks forward to seeking an M.S. degree in archeology.
We moved back to northeastern Indiana in 1993 to be nearer to both sets of healthy grandparents, and it has been everything that we had hoped for and then some. Both sets are still well and quite active.  We can never keep track of where they will be off to next. Kate's folks have been to New Zealand with Kate's sister and brother-in-law.  We have a niece living there.  Along the way we have gutted and remodeled two old homes; a three- story Victorian Queen Anne in Monmouth IL and the 150 year-old farmhouse that was built to be used as a barn prior to the Civil War.  It's been interesting.  We have about 6 acres that we play on.  Life has been very good to us;  much better than we deserve.   Professionally, most of my "spare" time out of the classroom is used doing the field studies gigs.  I am on the Board of a Caribbean Field Station (International Field Studies; Nelsonville, OH)  and am one of three expatriates helping the Bahamian people establish a 3 million acre land/sea park on/off Andros Island. The third largest barrier reef in the world is there.  I have had several publications in  Proceedings of the Symposia on the Natural History of the Bahamas,  the ANDROS Conference (Feb.3/5,2005),  in the Bahamas Journal of Science,  and in a few others scattered hither and yon.  Well, that about wraps up what we have been up to.  If you are tracking awards and that sort of thing, I have been Faculty of the Year at both Monmouth College (1990) and at USF (2000).  I did a Fulbright/AIT stint in New Zealand in 1993 and was awarded Honor Alum from Ball State (2003).  In July (2005) I was appointed to a United Nation's UNESCO Committee on Biological and Environmental Ethics.  Lots of work,  and we will see what the efforts produce.  I doubt World Peace and Harmony, but we will see.  These and a few bucks will buy a gallon of gas, lol…maybe!  Hope this helps.  I'll look forward to the newsletter.  Say hi to the folks left from my era (Paleozoic).  Ciao
1/16/06 DON LaBONTE (B.S. 1966) I graduated after Fall Qtr 1966 and went to work as a Cartographer for the Air Force Aeronautical Chart and Information Center in St. Louis.  In 1970, I joined the Air Force Logistics Command's programmer trainee class at Wright Patterson AFB in Dayton and worked as a Computer Specialist there until July 1976 when I transferred to Fort McPherson in Atlanta and went to work for the Army Forces Command. I am currently Assistant Chief, Joint Warfighter Support Division, DCS, G-6 (i.e., Deputy Chief of Staff, Command, Control, Communications and Computers).  I plan to retire in the next two years. Charlene and I have three grown children and three grandchildren.,  all living locally with the exception of my youngest daughter who lives in Alabama.  Charlene and I are in Fayetteville, GA.






12/2/05 (1/14/06 photo added) DON GIFFORD  (B.S. 1951)
A Korean War veteran (U.S. Marine Corps), Don is among the earliest group of students to receive a geology degree from KSU.  After graduating, Don launched a long and highly successful career in the petroleum industry, a career which has involved engineering and well-site geology, exploration for oil and gas,  appraisal of oil and gas exploration prospects,  drilling and well completion,  contract preparation,  and exploration management.  His work has focused on the Gulf Coast and the southeastern U.S. where he has been employed with the following companies: Union Producing Co. (1952-55), Seaboard Oil Co. (1955-58), Texaco  (1958-60), American Petrofina (1960-62), and Marr Co. (1962-67).  In 1967 Don went independent, and became a non-consulting petroleum geologist, still active as Gifford Petroleum Co. in Dallas, TX.  He is a member of the AAPG, IPAA, TIPRO, AGI, SIPES, Mississippi Geological Society, and Dallas Geological Society. Because of his career success, generosity, and continuing relationship with the KSU Department of Geology, several years ago he established the Donald C. Gifford Scholarship to help support students in our program.  As Don commented recently, “The scholarship was pay back which I was glad and able to do.” With his wife, Lois, Don lives in Dallas.




Don Gifford in Cuyahoga Gorge (Photo 1948)
1/14/06 - DAVID ARCHIBALD – B.S. 1972,  Ph.D. 1977 (University of California, Berkeley)

My career began with two years as J. Willard Gibbs Instructor in Geology at Yale University followed by four years as Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology  and concurrently,  Curator of Mammals at the Peabody Museum of Natural History there. Being a Californian in spirit, if not by birth, I turned down a promotion to Associate Professor at Yale and returned to California in 1983 for a position at San Diego State University.  Since 1986 I have been Professor of Biology and Curator of Mammals at SDSU.  I have taught or co-taught courses on comparative anatomy, evolution, macroevolution, vertebrate paleontology, paleobiology of mammals, mammalogy, systematics, primate evolution, dinosaurs, and biogeography and lectured extensively around the country  (in 1993-94 I was a Distinguished Lecturer for the Paleontological Society).

I have written 150 articles, essays, monographs  and reviews on the systematics and evolution of early mammals, biostratigraphy, faunal analysis, and extinction. Extensive paleontological fieldwork has taken me from the American west to Middle Asia.  My 1996 book, Dinosaur Extinction and the End of an Era:  What the Fossils Say (Columbia University Press),  documents our knowledge of the fossil record at the time of dinosaur extinction. In  2005  I co-edited a book,  The Rise Of Placental Mammals: Origins And Relationships Of The Major Extant Clades (Johns Hopkins University Press) .

Since 1997 my field research, sponsored by the National Geographic Society and the National Science Foundation, has concentrated on Late Cretaceous sites in Uzbekistan, a former republic of the Soviet Union, where I have been leading expeditions composed of American, British, Russian, and Uzbek scientists.  My specific interests in the Uzbek research involve unraveling the systematics of the oldest known representatives of one clade that gives rise to as many as seven orders of extant mammals collectively termed Ungulata, and another clade that gives rise to rodents and rabbits.

2001 - Field work in Lyme Regis, England.
1/14/06 TRISH NUSKIEVICZ  (B.S. 1997)
My professional career began with an internship in planning at the Trumbull County Planning Commission in the summer of 1996 where I have worked ever since (while completing the B.S. degree at KSU in 1997).  I am currently Floodplain Adminstrator and County Planner III at the agency and the first woman to have been hired as a professional planner there.  I specialize in environmental issues and GIS mapping.  I am also President and a Trustee of the Mahoning River Consortium, a local watershed group which works with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on environmental dredging and restoration of the River.  This is the second largest environmental restoration effort in the U.S., second to the Everglades National Park Restoration project.  I also serve as a member of the District 6 Natural Resources Assistance Council for Clean Ohio Green Space Conservation Fund, a program committing almost $2 million annually to conserve environmentally sensitive areas and open spaces  for passive recreation in Mahoning and Trumbull counties.  I love my work which includes environmental reviews, floodplain permitting, flood-hazard regulation enforcement, storm water-management planning, GIS mapping service to local communities, grant-proposal writing, and promotion of wise land use.  I also manage, and publish on, 3 websites.  I was honored recently  by being the first to receive the Trumbull Country Soil and Water Conservation District “Urban Conservationist of the Year” Award as well as accompanying letters of commendation from the Ohio Senate, Ohio House of Representatives, and U.S. Senate.



1/14/06 JON DONALD  - B.S. 1968

David - We've never met,  but thanks to you and the other folks for the newsletter, web site, and alumni pix.  They are all great.  (Hi, Dr Heimlich, it has been a LONG time!).
 
I am a 1968 grad but never have used my Geology degree (nor my History for that matter).  After graduation I was supposed to go to Arizona State University with a teaching assistantship.  However, true to 1968,  I was drafted right after Summer Field Camp,  but managed to get into the Navy (4 years instead of 2,  but went to the Mediterranean instead of 'Nam).  When I got out in '72, I did get to ASU but whole concepts had changed in four years and I completed only one year there.  But I got an Accounting job with Marriott Hotels (I had opened and worked as a Night Auditor at the University Inn in Kent while in school).  From Arizona's Camelback Inn, I went to Atlanta, then Miami, then El Paso, and finally back to Phoenix at Mountain Shadows Resort.  After those 31 years, the Resort  closed and I opted not to leave Arizona, so I am now retired here in Phoenix. 

I am thrilled to see that Drs. Heimlich, Feldmann, and Carlson are still around and active in the Department.  I know that sitting behind a desk all these years has really detracted from my getting out and even playing at Geology, even though it is an still like an open book here in Arizona.  I looked at the web site and couldn't figure out why I wasn't in the picture from the '67  Adirondacks Petrology field trip ... then remembered it was probably taken while we were trying to catch up after my (my Dad's!!) car broke down, or when I was trying to decide whether to never go home after Howard Adams kicked in the car trunk to 'unstick' the lock, or after our group headed home early so that we would be driving in daylight with that 'sick car'.  Whatever, that trip is impressed in my mind!!  I will see if I can get some  ‘68 Field Camp pix scanned and send them off to you.
1/14/06 Milt Cooper  (B.S. 1969, M.S. 1972) I retired about 7 years ago after working 26 years in the petroleum industry.  Currently, I'm enjoying retirement and do volunteer work at the Eagle River Nature Center.  I spend winters in Florida and the rest of the year in Alaska.  You can reach me by regular mail at: P.O. Box 774603, Eagle River, AK 99577.





1/14/06  Dick Heimlich just received this photo from Gordon ('70) and Joyce Nelson who live in Mayer, Arizona where they are building a home not far from this location.  Gordon retired from employment with the Homestake Mining Company.








12/15/05 05 Tim Shevlin (2004 M.S. Kent State) I recently started working for Carmeuse Lime Company as a technical specialist related to construction. I work at Carmeuse's Technology Center performing research studies using lime as a soil stabilizing agent.  I should note that I got the job because my thesis research at Kent was the use lime kiln dust for subgrade stabilization.  I would never have thought that I could find a job doing something related to my thesis research.  Therefore, I advice new graduates to look elsewhere than the typical consulting firm for work relate to geology, you never know where you may find a potential job!  Talk to you guys soon.








Tim Shevlin at Red Rock Canyon
12/2/05  BOB MALCUIT (1968 B.S. Kent State; 1970 M.S. Kent State; 1973 Ph.D. Michigan State).  After finishing my MS work at KSU with Dick Heimlich on the Bighorn Mountains Gneiss Project I moved on to Michigan State to work with Tom Vogel.  I was preparing to do a project in metamorphic petrology on some Grenville Province rocks and then I rekindled an interest in the “Origin and Evolution of the Earth-Moon System”.  I first got interested in this topic when I was working on the Bighorn Gneiss Project mainly by way of some of Preston Cloud’s articles on the primitive earth.  Another influence was looking at the full moon with a group of geo majors on the way back from the Robinhood Inn after a Paleoecology Exam (some of you may remember these events).  Someone remarked that the “dark areas” on the face of the moon seemed to be on a straight line. Well, when I got to Michigan State in 1970, NASA was well into the lunar landings.  (As a matter of record, Dick Heimlich and I saw the July 1969 moon walk in a Rapid City motel on the was back from the Bighorn Mountains.)  I then pursued some of this Earth-Moon system interest in term paper projects for geochemistry and petrology classes.  Tom Vogel encouraged me to pursue these planetary science interests and this led to the discovery, really the rediscovery, of a fundamental pattern on the lunar surface: A GREAT-CIRCLE PATTERN OF LARGE CIRCULAR MARIA.  With the help of Tom Stoeckley (MSU Astronomy) and Gary Byerly (graduate school colleague now at Louisiana State) I did a set of numerical simulations showing that this great-circle pattern of large circular maria could be produced by tidal disruption of the lunar magma ocean during a close gravitational encounter.   We published the results in a journal called The Moon in 1975.  I said that this was a “rediscovered” pattern because it was first pointed out by a German astronomer, Julian Franz, in 1914 and some Russian scientists commented on the observations of Franz and noted, after the first pictures were returned from the backside of the moon, that this pattern continues onto the lunar backside. But I was the first to relate that pattern to a process of tidal disruption that might be related to a capture sequence of events.  For information on my more recent research interests go to my web page at Denison.edu/geology/malcuit/index.html.
I retired from teaching in 1999 but I am still pursuing my research interests in planetary science.  My wife, Mary Ann, and I spend most of our time in Granville but we get to our condo on Hilton Head Island (SC) a number of times during the year.
We wish all of you a Happy Holiday Season.




11/16/05 MELISSA HANEY
  (1993, M.S.; 1980 B.S. Univ. Rhode Island)
I was a graduate student at KSU from 1985-1988, finally completing my thesis in 1993.  I was an engineering geology graduate student under Dr. Shakoor who probably thought he’d never be rid of me..  Prior to attending Kent, I worked for 5 years at Appalachian Exploration here in Ohio as a well-site geologist.  After Kent, I’ve worked for various environmental consulting firms including HzW and Environmental Mitigation Group (EMG/EDG).  I now work for Burgess & Niple, Inc. in the Akron office.  I do all kinds of things from Underground Storage Tank work to the big Voluntary Action Program projects.  I’ve never regretted my career choice and I still enjoy field work (well, maybe not in January).  I’m married and have two daughters ages 10 and 12.  I still correspond with several of my Kent Geo-Buds and would love to have another mixed combo burrito at Taco Tontos !
11/15/05 GABY ECKSTEIN
 (1989 B.A., Geology; 1992 M.S. International Affairs, Florida State Univ.; 1995 J.D. Law, American Univ.; 1997 LL.M Law, American Univ.)
Its been 16 (ouch!) years since I graduated from Kent State. I can't quite recall what I was thinking I would do at the time, but certainly, I never would have expected my career to develop in the way it has. After graduation, I took time off to travel, do some odds and ends, and do some thinking. Eventually, I decided that while I liked the sciences, I much preferred the policies that result (or should result) from scientific discovery. I also decided that I wasn't quite ready for the real world. I first got an M.S. in International Affairs focusing on East European environment and development issues from Florida State, and then a law degree and LL.M. (master in laws) from American University (in DC). The latter degree focused specifically on environmental law. Yes, there is a trend here. Having the science background (despite my less than stellar performance) was invaluable in my studies and helped open up unique opportunities, including working as a researcher on a World Court case (transboundary ground water issues) and then getting my first "real world" job as a litigator on toxic tort cases. Most recently, I have been involved with UN and OAS projects on facilitating cooperation on transboundary ground water resources as well as trying to develop international rules and guidelines on how countries should manage such shared resources. Again, the science background has been absolutely key in my work. Today, I just received tenure and was promoted to Professor of Law at Texas Tech University. I teach US and international water law and environmental law courses, as well as a seminar on law and science. Also, I am Director of the law school's newly created Center for Water Law & Policy. As my dad would say, "whoda thunk it?" Speaking of my dad (yes, that Professor Eckstein, and no, I was never in his classes), I am especially proud that I can now understand most of what he says and that we have been able to collaborate on a number of papers.
11/15/05 JOHN CARNEY (1993 B.S.; 1997 M.S.)
After working for Environmental Strategies Corp. in Pittsburgh, in 2000 I headed for the east coast ending up in Boston.  I started interning with the Charles River Watershed Association which turned into a full time position as an Environmental  Scientist in 2002.  I worked on a wide variety of projects including nutrient load modeling for the river, developing residential scale storm water infiltration systems, helping develop water resources policy statewide.  I loved the year and a half working for CRWA, but unfortunately funding for much of the work I was doing started to dry up, and I was laid off in early 2004.  Made a bit of a career shift next, teaching sailing for the summer of 2004 and racing sailboats as much as possible, but alas reality set in by the time fall arrived, and I ended up back in the consulting business with a small firm out of the Providence, RI area.  Still sailing on the weekends, however think I'll have to take the next few summers off as my wife and I are expecting our first child early in 2006!
11/15/05 LAURA SANDERS (1981 B.S. Allegheny Coll.; 1986 Ph.D.)
     In the nearly 20 years since I earned my Ph.D. at Kent State, I have been a faculty member in the Earth Science Department at Northeastern Illinois University, a Comprehensive Master's-granting institution in Chicago. After twelve years as head of my department, I stepped down very recently to return to a full time schedule of teaching, research, and service. I teach graduate and upper-level undergrad courses in  hydrogeology, hydrology, aqueous geochemistry, and geotechnical engineering, and I supervise M.S. theses in a broad range of topics touching mostly on ground water modeling, geochemistry, or surface water hydrology.  I am Book Editor for the journal "Ground Water".  My own book, "A Manual of Field Hydrogeology"(Prentice Hall), is used in field methods courses all over the U.S. and Canada.  New writing projects are plentiful but mostly in the embryonic stage.
     I am also busy heading a faculty committee to remodel our Sputnik-era science building.  I like the challenge of anticipating and designing for the pedagogies of the future while trying to balance the needs and quirks of the nine departments in the building with requirements of the architects and engineers who make it all work. I plant and tend a large three-season organic vegetable garden at my 119-year old home, have become a dedicated bicycle commuter (with a fanciful goal this year of biking all the way through Chicago's winter!), and have traveled to Cuba, Denmark, Honduras, Belize, and Mexico in the past few years.


















10/17/05- Kent Faculty, Alums, current students and friends visiting Bingham Canyon Mine, UT while at the GSA. Left to right: Ovidiu Frantescu, Akindele Balogun, Rodney Feldmann, Carrie Schweitzer, Luliana Lazar and Lucas Conkle.
9/28/05 RIK ORNDORFF (B.S. in Mech. Eng. 1984 Virginia Polytechnic Inst.; M.S. in M.E. 1986 Ohio State; Ph.D. in Geology 1994 KSU)   After graduating from KSU with a PhD in 1994, Richard Orndorff accepted a postdoctoral research position at Case Western Reserve University. He then taught at the University of Southern Indiana and University of Nevada Las Vegas before accepting a position in the Department of Geology at Eastern Washington University. He is currently an Associate Professor and teaches courses in surface processes, engineering geology, and GIS. His research interests include glacial geology, geomorphology of arid lands, and spatial modeling. He is a co-author of "Geology Underfoot in Central Nevada" (with KSU geology grads Harry Filkorn and Bob Wieder) and the upcoming "Geology Underfoot in Southern Utah," both published by Mountain Press. He and his wife, Sharen (B.S. 1991 Leicester University, England; M.S. in Geology 1995 KSU) live in Spokane, WA.
9/28/05 BILL HOLDEN (1977 B.S.; 1984 M.S. Colorado School of Mines; 1997 Ph.D. Boston University)  Following graduation with a B.S. from Kent, I spent my first summer collecting stream and sediment samples in the northeastern U.S, then three years as a land seismic data processor in Houston and Denver.  In 1980 I returned to school for an M.S. in Geophysics at the Colorado School of Mines, but later returned to work in 1982 as a processor/programmer at Marathon Oil while finishing school part time.  My thesis was the programming and testing of a wave equation migration algorithm for seismic data.  After receiving the M.S., I became a geophysical programmer (first in Denver, then in Boston) and then a hydrogeologist/environmental geologist completing dam safety evaluations in Massachusetts. This was followed by employment (as an environmental geologist) with the Massachusetts DEP and EPA in New England, upstate New York, New Jersey, and St. Thomas in the Caribbean.  Eventually I moved on to Camp, Dresser and McKee, continuing to perform EPA studies at a number of Superfund sites in the New England area.  In 1990 I once more returned to school, pursuing a Ph.D. in Geology at Boston University, with dissertation research involving a study of groundwater, surface water, and nutrient fluxes at two estuaries in Maine. I then returned to geophysics, and since 1997 I have been with Western Geophysical Co. in Houston, working in seismic data processing.  A plus has been the opportunity to work internationally (I traveled four times to China and once to Russia). Currently, I pretty much stay at the office, having moved on to become a member of our software global support helpdesk. There are advantages in never sticking too long in any one field: hard to get bored.  I seem to have managed to do a little bit of everything. I’m about to get remarried, and will be gaining two stepsons and two granddaughters in the process. Linda and I live in Houston.  
9/16/2005 Marty Ross (M.S. Kent State, 1970).  After finishing my degree at Kent State under Dick Heimlich in 1970 I taught for two years as an instructor at Northeastern University in Boston.   I then returned to graduate school at Washington State University in 1972 and completed my Ph.D. at the University of Idaho in 1978.  My dissertation topic was the petrology and structural geology of Columbia River Basalts in a 300 square mile area of the Blue Mountains centered at Troy, Oregon.  Maggie and I moved to Troy in 1975 where I began writing the dissertation but we soon moved to Cannon Beach, Oregon where I completed it one month before our son, Morgan, was born.  While there I also worked two years as a consultant mapping geologic hazards and writing reports for community and county planners along the northern Oregon Coast.  This was incredibly rewarding work  and I learned a great deal about mapping  geologic hazards and working with planners.  In 1978 I became a licensed professional and engineering geologist in the state of Oregon.
      In the fall of 1978 I was re-hired by Northeastern University to teach igneous and metamorphic petrology, structural geology, environmental geology, two scope courses, physical geology lab, and field geology. In 1979 I  initiated an investigation of the dike swarms of eastern Massachusetts that continues to this day. My work on Columbia River Basalts ended  until my first sabbatical when I did some additional work in the Troy, Oregon area which ended up being published in a GSA Special Paper in 1989. In 1997 Vic Camp, an old friend at San Diego State University, and I teamed up to start an investigation of basalts and related rocks north of Steens Mountain, Oregon.  We mapped nine 7.5 minute quads and did a lot of geochemical analyses with the major finding being that these basalts are, indeed, a part of the Columbia River Basalt Group. Our continuing work in the surrounding regions has greatly  increased the known aerial extent of  the CRB's. We are now deeply involved in the great mantle plume debate as it relates to the initiation of the Yellowstone hotspot.  We have published several papers from our work and,  have more in press, and are presenting an abstract at the Salt Lake City GSA meeting. A complete list of my publications can be seen at  http://www.casdn.neu.edu/~geology/.
     The fingerprints of Kent State and Dick Heimlich, in particular, continue to be all over my research and teaching. My two years of education at Kent State were by far the best that I received and set me off on a career path that has been rewarding, enjoyable, and fulfilling. Though those were hectic times, I greatly enjoyed my stay there, the faculty, and the many friends we made.
     








     

               Maggy and Marty at Trunk Bay, St. John, The Virgin Islands.
8/26/05
    Sadly, we mourn the passing of Hal Province (age 79) on August 8, 2005. He was among the earliest to receive a geology degree from Kent State University. After award of the B.S. degree in 1950, Hal continued his education at the University of Cincinnati where he received the M.S. degree in 1952.  Following a highly successful career in petroleum exploration, he retired in 1986. Hal is survived by his wife, Jan, and their three children.         
8/26/05 News from Paul Hohbach (1975 B.S.)
 Dr. Heimlich, The note that follows is an outline of my nefarious career launched by you and your fellow professors at KSU: Some people go and do things that interest them; they don't plan much. In 1975 I earned a B.S. degree in Geology from KSU and rode cross-country on my bicycle. My parents sent an ad to me in Boston - "Geologists Wanted - Wyoming."  After Tulsa training, I found uranium roll-fronts in the Wind River Basin, ate ketchup on eggs with drillers in Jeffrey City,  and sought gold (not much) at South Pass City. When U238 hit $44/lb three years later we moved to Nevada, toward a berg called Carlin and a tiny pit named Goldstrike in Elko County, center of the gold universe. As a junior geologist I thought that every rock in Nevada had gold in it, and all that mattered was how much.  I planned exploration for Goldstrike's post-discovery,  left for 35-foot snow drifts at Jerrit Canyon, Nevada, married an Aussie,  and then headed to the Outback. Like desert wind, places passed by:  Kalgoorlie's Golden Mile, Leonora (where Herbert Hoover once grew cabbages), New Zealand's Alps ( King of the Hills in Oz),  and a gold discovery in ultramafics.  You nearly wept in 50°C heat and spinifex needles in the Pilbara Craton. The Eden Rift Valley, where it rained constantly, and breccia pipes at Charter's granite Towers in Queensland followed. Except for beaches, why did the Queen want it?!  As Goldstrike grew into North America's second largest gold mine, I went north to New Guinea's  highlands where 3 million nearly-naked tribesmen smoke local tobacco and throw spears at geologists, and to the lowlands, where malaria and salt crocs don't let populations get so large. On the Feni Islands, you work inside active volcanoes and your toes get jungle rot after three days. We looked for gold, copper, chromium, and platinum-group metals and we used helicopters, shovels, guides, remote sensing - we'd try anything. The boom went bust when commodity prices went south, so I flew back east to America. During Nevada Round 2,  now as a Manager, we spent a lot of money but didn't find as much as before. Some discoveries were made, like Sleeper's six-ounce gold grades, but not on our ground. We prospected California's Mother Lode, dug up detachment faults on Highway 66 in Kingman,  and drilled mercury sniffs in ignimbrites along "trends." When I read that gravel companies got $20 per ton for clean, dead stone, I didn't learn anything. I flew to Nairobi, searched Archean belts for gold in Kenya,  and battled cobras and hippos. Now I'm back at it again:  Nevada, Arizona, gold, copper, who knows what's next. Commodity price dips caused detours,  like property management, recycling,  and even stock broking - but never was I a taxi driver. I've traveled the world, met interesting people,  and earned my living. That's why I chose a geology career!   Steamboat Springs, CO 
8/19/05 Howard Hobbs (1970 B.S.; 1973 M.S. Univ. North Dakota; 1975 Ph.D. UND)  After receiving the B.S. at KSU, I entered graduate school and stayed through the Ph.D. (I have Rod Feldmann to thank for suggesting that I apply to UND where he told me they offered Norwegian).  I used my two semesters of Norwegian there for the language requirement, and have kept up with it ever since.  I am now trying to learn Icelandic.  I chose glacial stratigraphy for my research at UND.  After a one-year sabbatical replacement job at Weber State University in Utah and a year with the North Dakota Geological Survey, I joined the Minnesota Geological Survey in 1977 and have been there ever since.  Most of my production with the Survey has been geologic maps of the surficial deposits (mostly glacial).  In 1982 I prepared a preliminary map of surficial deposits for the entire state, and have since authored or co-authored 9 county maps and 9 quadrangle maps. I have written a number of papers on various topics, such as peat bogs, Glacial Lake Agassiz, the Driftless Area, and the Iowan erosion surface.  I met Ann Bjornson at UND, married her in 1972, and we have three grown children.  We live in Golden Valley, MN (a western suburb of Minneapolis).
8/19/05 News from Paula Hunt (B.S. 1985)
After Kent , I briefly collected asbestos samples for an engineer in Cleveland and then made concrete cylinders and performed compaction tests on construction sites for ATEC Associates in Alexandria, Virginia.  Then I attended Purdue University (MS 1988 - hydro thesis with Dr. Darrell Leap).  At Purdue I met Tim Warner, and we were married in 1992.  Tim teaches Remote Sensing in the Geology and Geography Department at West Virginia University (we just found out he has been promoted to full professor!), and we live in an old house on the Monongahela River just outside of Morgantown, West Virginia.  I have been doing environmental-type work since graduating from Purdue, and recently (Jan '05) started a new job as a geologist with Moody and Associates in Houston, Pennsylvania.  Send me an e mail: pjhunt at xemaps.com.  I'd love to hear from you!
News from Craig Williams (B.S. 1986)
     I thoroughly enjoyed my years at Kent State hanging out with my fellow classmates and friends in the Geology Department.  I miss all of you and hope to hear back from some of you.  For those of you that remember me I lived at the house of Mrs. Greene.  What a house full of Geology majors and a mixed bag of others. My on campus claims to fame include being the vice president of the geology club 1984 and 1985---helped arrange 3 geology club trips to Spruce Knob WV, secretary of the May 4th Task Force 1986 and 1987, campus van driver 1983 through 1988. Also worked part-time at the NASA Lewis Space Museum in Cleveland, OH, 1985 through 1987.  Summer Field Camp 1985---anyone remember the sight seeing tour helicopter crash at Keystone SD. when we stopped there on July 6th while we were wrapping up field camp.  Glad I was unable to talk anyone into going on a ride that day and I must have asked a dozen or so including Dr. Dahl.  Upon graduation I worked in the gas and oil fields as a geotechnician "mudlogger" with my best friend and fellow 1985 KSU geology graduate Tom Lorenz.  Remember his "Whole Earth" parties down at his farm in Dover, Ohio.  We primarily logged the "Rose Run" sandstone layer to as deep as 6000 feet and hit some "big" gas/oil wells.  As the local gas and oil business slowed in the early 90's I eventually accepted a physics teaching position with the Great Oaks Institute of Technology and Career Development school system in Cincinnati, OH.  I recently retired from the Army National Guard as a flight status Blackhawk helicopter crew chief and flight instructor after 25 years of service and numerous deployments. To date (2005) I am happily married, have two daughters ( 9 and 15), and I am the proud owner of a dozen electric guitars.  So to all of my geology associates "rock-on."


News from Clive Bailey (B.S. 1971)
 .........after leaving Kent we moved west in 1972 worked a year in Borehole geophysics (Urinco) Worked a couple years in gold with a early heap leach mine at Eureka, NV. Worked in uranium for General Electric and Energy Fuels for 5 years mainly in the Uravan mineral belt  Colorado- Utah.  Worked in gold for another twenty years Viking Exploration MT, Western States Minerals NV, Pegasus Gold (Relief Canyon NV & Zortman Landusky MT) General Manager for the Buffalo Valley Mine for Horizon Gold NV. Closed two mines for Horizon and explored the Commonwealth Mine (Pearce, AZ) Worked overseas for General Minerals  in Central China, Bolivia, And Chile. Co-discovered the Atocha Silver mine in Bolivia.
     Currently work at Nord resources as the Chief geologist and Environmental Coordinator, Dragoon, AZ
     I'm Married with two grown children and 3 grand children. We live in a rural setting on a patented mining claim Tam-o Shanter, with a great view of Texas canyon.
News from Don Blackert (1980 B.S.)
   Post graduation summary – Married Natalie a month after graduating in 1980.  For the first few years after graduation worked and lived in Kansas, Alabama, Utah and Colorado in the oil exploration business.  Changed to environmental consulting in 1988 and moved to Pittsburgh area.  Bought a farm 40 miles south of Pittsburgh, and have two kids, 16 and 13 years old.  Trying to retire but can’t find the time.  The past seven years have been spent as a principal with KEY Environmental in Carnegie PA.  Currently working from a home office (724-228-8314) and focusing on consulting and management of groundwater projects in the U.S. Canada, Chile, and Europe for industrial clients.

News from Daniel Fisher '86:
After graduating from Kent, I got married and worked 2 years for the New Jersey  DEP, Trenton (along with fellow alumni Stan Radon, Joe Krulik & Stu Mitchell).  From there, I moved to Ebensburg, PA to work for L. Robert Kimball for less than  2 years, after which I worked for Killam Associates [formerly Duncan, Lagnese & Associates (DLA)] in Warrendale, PA -- closer to my old home. After about 18 months there, I moved to  Michael Baker, Jr., Inc. (dba Baker Environmental) in Moon Township, PA (right  next to the PIT airport), and I've been here ever since. Rich Bonelli and Jim Culp  are fellow Kent Staters here in Baker's "Airside" Office. I don't care what the  environmentalists say, the grass is really no greener...  I do a fair amount of flow & transport modeling and just completed my first expert witness job.  It was a very harrowing experience.  They say I did well, but it's hard to tell...  the scars will heal someday.  My wife, Sheryn, and I live in Economy Borough, Beaver County, PA and have five  sons, born in 1989, 1994, 1997, 2000, and 2002. Needless to say we are very  busy, between scouts, sports, music lessons, and church.  My work email is dfisher@mbakercorp.com

6/28/05 News from Dale Tshudy '93:
Dale Tshudy (Ph.D. 1993) is a professor in the Geosciences Department at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. Since leaving the Feldmann lab in 1993, he has taught a variety of geology and oceanography courses on the Edinboro campus and at various field stations. Despite a heavy teaching load, he continues to research the evolution of crustaceans, especially lobsters, publishing a paper or two per year. In 2002, Edinboro University named him "Faculty Researcher of the Year". Recently (Fall, 2004), he enjoyed a productive research sabbatical in the DNA laboratory of crustacean biologist Dr. Darryl Felder at the University of Louisiana - Lafayette.

Dale and his wife, Johnna, have a daughter (11) and son (8). He enjoys all kinds of family activities, as well as playing hard rock guitar, gardening/landscaping, fishing with his son, etc. He sends a hearty "hello" to the old Paleo Posse!
6/28/05 News from Lauren Bechtol B.S. 1973:
After the death of my father during spring break of my senior year at Kent, I put off graduate school for a year to help shut down the family jewelry business for my mother.  However, upon arriving home after graduation I was approached by a past mayor of our city to seek election as a director on the Board of Public Affairs.  The directors currently manage the electricity, communication, and water departments in Bryan, OH.   My degree in geology, with my interest in hydrogeology, was promoted as "just what the water departed needed at the time" and I won with 67% of the vote for my first term in 1973.  I am currently seeking my 6th nonconsecutive four-year term on the Board.  My degree in geology has been an asset for the Board in matters dealing with our aquifer-supplied water and the several geologists and well-drilling and well-maintenance firms involved with city projects during the past 30 years to maintain our well fields. Bryan was one of the first cities in Ohio to have completed a wellhead protection plan.  Recently I became a founding member and a director of the Michindoh Sole Source Aquifer Group with the goal of protecting the Michindoh Glacial Outwash Aquifer, one of the most productive aquifers in the region.  We have started the process of having the EPA designate the aquifer a Sole Source Aquifer.  As a Board member I have used my geological engineering background from Kent for Bryan's purchase and rehab of a major hydro-electric dam on the Auglaize River at Defiance, OH.  In addition, the utilities started a study to determine the possibility of developing Ohio's second wind-generation facility.  After the decision to remain in the family's jewelry business, in 1985 I obtained my Graduate Gemologist title from the Gemological Institute of America.  Now I am working with some of the most expense and beautiful "rocks" in the world.  In fact, some our "rocks" have found their way onto the space shuttles for a couple of trips around our planet. My wife (Christine) and I live in Bryan, OH. I can be reached at schuck@cityofbryan.net, 419-636-3536.
6/28/05 Keith McClintock ’01 & ’03:
     After graduating with my Mater’s Degree in ’03 (thanks Dr. Jon Harbor!!) I moved out to the east coast (White Plains, NY) and worked for the Westchester County Department of Environmental Planning as an Associate Planner/Hydrology.  I loved the job but did not care for the east coast, the high cost of living, and deer tics – so I made my way back to NE Ohio.  I landed a job with the Geauga Soil and Water Conservation District as their program administrator.  I worked there for five years and really enjoyed the work.  An opportunity came up to apply for a position with Geauga Park District in 2000.  All went well and I am now the Deputy Director.  Nothing beats walking into a park every morning!  I do a lot of administrative work; however, I still have a chance to get out into the field.  I just completed a 5800’ stream restoration project on Silver Creek, and have our work crews incorporating bioengineering into most of our projects.  I was married to my wife Jennifer in 1991.  We now live in Chardon, OH with our four year old daughter Corrine and our golden retriever Bella.  Hey class of ’01, ‘02’ and ’03 – don’t be strangers!  Drop me a line!
mcclintock@geaugaparkdistrict.org
6/25/05 News from DON BEAL '66
 After graduation (B.S. 1966) , I took a job with Ferro Corporation at Independence, OH as a Petrographer studying industrial ceramic products. After a few years, they turned me into a Research Ceramist and then a Senior Research Ceramist.  Some of the materials I worked with included hard ferrites, cordierite, mullite, spodumene, eucryptite, petalite and a broad range of spinels.  After 17 years in research, I had an opportunity to transfer into Corporate Development - really interesting. Ultimately, at Ferro I managed a new internal venture in Advanced Ceramics which gave me the opportunity to travel in Europe and Japan. The year 1991 was a tough one in the business world, and that, along with a regime change at the top management level, led to cancellation of my program. That's when I took the plunge and acquired an emerging business (Performance Ceramics) which consisted of some promise, some equipment, and a small inventory of materials.  Now, 14 years later, I'm still at it. My wife Donna and I live in Peninsula, OH within Cuyahoga Valley National Park!
6/20/05 News from Kate Pickford '95:
I am working for the State of Colorado, Department of Natural Resources, Division of Minerals and Geology.  My position title is Environmental Protection Specialist and my duties are directly related to the permitting, monitoring, reclamation, and regulation of hard rock and construction materials mines in the state of Colorado.  I am lucky enough to work for an organization which actually has the word geology in its title and to live in the most beautiful part of the country.
6/20/05 News from Kris Teepen-Garcia '85:
Work:  I've been involved with environmental work since 1984, starting with 5 years in the U.S. EPA Superfund program.  After EPA, I moved into consulting.  I'm currently working as a Sr. Project Manager for the Environmental Unit of The Winter Construction Company (www.wintercompanies.com).  My team primarily works on environmental remediation projects. We also manage Brownfield acquisition projects on a turn-key basis that takes a project from the preliminary investigation phases through the regulatory and remediation processes.

Personal: I'm in Midtown Atlanta, Georgia and have been here since 1984.  I've been married to my husband, Bill, for 16 years.  Bill is an architect with the firm Thompson Vintulette Stainback and Associates (www.TVSA.com).  He's a graduate of the Georgia Tech School of Architecture.  We have a beautiful (and kinetic) daughter, Shelby, who is 12 years old.  There's also an assorted menagerie of cats, dogs and hermit crabs.
6/19/05 Douglass Owen '70:
I just heard from Douglass Owen who is the Lead Interpreter and Park Geologist at Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve for the National Park Service.
He sent me some of the upcomming events Geology events at Craters of the Moon:
Two day Geology Seminar for college credit--June 24 & 25 through the Sawtooth Science Institute
Friends of the Pleistocene (FOP) trip PNW cell--September 9-11, 2005.
Great Rift Science Symposium--October 6-9, 2005 being held at Idaho State University with many field trips into the Monument.
6/19/05 News from Dave Mitchell ’93:
I left Kent in 1990 after finishing my coursework and joined Golder Associates as an engineering geologist in their Buffalo, New York office.  Three years later, after much prodding from my future better half, I received my M.S.  I worked at Golder for 10 years on various remediation, hydrogeologic and civil engineering projects and left in 2000 as a Senior Geological Engineer and Associate.  Along the way I picked up a Professional Engineering license in New York and Ohio.  Recently I completed a Masters in Geological Engineering from the University of Idaho that was culminated with my wife and I taking a great trip to Moscow, Idaho where I defended a research project on design of reinforced segmental retaining walls.   So in 2000 I got tired of the consulting business and was hired by Kodak as Corrective Action Program Manager for their industrial complex in Rochester, New York.  I remain in that role currently and also serve as a Technical Associate working on US and international projects.  Over the years in my consulting role and current industrial role I have been fortunate to work with a lot of skilled Kent alumni and I must say I not only received a great education at Kent (thanks Dr. Shakoor and other profs), I had a blast socially.  My mind is full of many fond memories of fellow geology students, department events, parties, and times at Rays, the Acropolis, and other spots downtown.  I live in Penfield, a suburb of Rochester, New York with my wife Maryann (12 years) and three children: Anthony (9), Elenie (6), and Michael (4) and our black lab Sally.


6/19/05 News from John Spurney '84:
I am pleased to report that this geologist (BS 79 and MS 84 from KSU) is alive and well and still residing in Costa Rica.  We (including my wife Meylin and 3 children) celebrated our 13th year here in March, and have no plans at present, to go elsewhere.  With metals prices soaring it's been a busy time in the consulting business and exploration game.  Mainly I have been involved with clients, both majors and junior companies, evaluating mainly gold, silver, and base metals (Cu-Zn-Pb-Mo) prospects. Recently I began representing a company that has acquired several exploration licenses in Mongolia, and during the past month we carried out a drill program in the S. Gobi Desert, to test a gold target (an orogenic sheeted quartz vein/veinlet swarms deposit hosted by Devonian sericite-ankerite-pyrite altered phyllite) on one of the properties.  At one point, we even used camels to complete some reconnaissance in the area (as shown in the accompanying jpg) - although Toyota Land Cruisers also do the job pretty well.   In addition to Mongolia, work during the past 18 months has taken me to China (4X), Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Panama, El Salvador, Honduras, Guyana, (and of course the U.S. and Canada).  Still, Costa Rica remains a home base, and I look forward to returning there at the end of each outing. Consulting Economic Geologist, San Jose, Costa Rica "spurney@racsa.co.cr"




John,  Meylin  and their children  (Massiel, Johnny, and Terry).  Photo taken in San Jose, Costa Rica (June, 2008) just before they re-located to the U.S. (right near the KSU campus).  John continues as a minerals exploration consultant, making frequent trips to Latin America,  and currently Vice-President of Virgin Metals, Inc. (mostly involved with exploration of molybdenum and copper in Mexico).

6/14/05 Troy Schultz '90:
     Troy Schultz (B.S., 1990) has been Vice President/Chief Technical Officer at BJAAM Environmental in Ohio since 1999, having joined the firm in 1994 as Senior Risk Assessor.  His efforts have focused on development of a highly specialized remedial services and risk assessment division for the firm. Troy's specialty is the development of site-specific standards.  He has given numerous lectures to, and on behalf of, government entities (e.g. the Ohio EPA, Argentina, Puerto Rico, etc.) regarding implementation of risk-based approaches to corrective actions.  He has also provided expert witness reports and testimony regarding remediation costs and risk assessment on behalf of companies such as Federated Insurance, Shell Oil and BP.  Troy's professional career began as a Site Coordinator for the state of Ohio and was followed by work as a private consultant.  During his tenure with the state, he was appointed Chair of the Bureau's Risk Assessment Committee, served on the Brownfields Committee, and he developed the Site Feature Scoring System action levels and Risk Assessment Guide for Risk Assessors and Project Managers.  Troy also serves currently on the BUSTR Risk-Based Corrective Action Advisory Committee for Generic Standards and Risk Assessment Procedures.  He recently returned from Spain where he presented a week-long short course on risk assessment at the University of Madrid.
6/14/05 Tom Iivari '79
     Tom Iivari (B.S., 1967, and M.S., 1979) just co-authored a book, "Soil Degradation in the United Sates."  Tom's career began in 1971 when he served as an Assistant Manager of the "Northeast Ohio Water Development Plan" while employed with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Water.  Shortly thereafter, he became New Jersey State Geologist and Environmental Coordinator for the New Jersey office of the Soil Conservation Service (SCS).  In 1980 he was promoted to Regional Sedimentation and Environmental Geologist and Water Resource Planning
     Specialist with the SCS, overseeing 13 northeastern states.  In 1991, he became National Geologist with SCS in Washington, D.C. where he was placed in charge of developing national agency policy on erosion, sedimentation, groundwater, geology and water quality.  In 1995, he became Senior Hydrologist and representative to the President's Council on Environmental Quality.  He received the Vice President's "Golden Hammer Award" in recognition of his significant contributions.  In 1999, he was transferred to the newly-formed Animal Husbandry and Clean Water Program Division as Natural Resource Manager, and he has served on the President's Clean Water Action Plan task force, conducted USDA Water Quality national workshops, chaired an ASTM task group, collaborated with the EPA and U.S. Department of Commerce, assisted the U.S. Forest Service and, in all these endeavors, he received four USDA Certificates of Merit and two Certificates of Commendation for superior service.  He has published over 35 papers in national and international journals and provided technical assistance to 49 states and 7 foreign countries.  After 32 years of federal service, Tom retired recently from the U.S. Soil Conservation Service and he is presently a consultant for the EPA in the northeastern U.S.
6/14/05 news from Frank Stark '66:
I graduated in 1966 with a minor in Geology and remember Dr. Heimlich as one of my favorite teachers. I've been working as Project Manager at Prospect Mold in Cuyahoga Falls. The time I spent at Kent State University were the best five years of my life because of the learning and the atmosphere!  My daughter, Nicole, is a Senior in Psychology at KSU this year and will continue toward her M.S. and Ph.D. I tried to interest her in geology, but... I am looking forward to receiving a newsletter.
6/14/05 news from Chris Brown '94:
     After leaving Kent in 1991, I worked as an engineering geologist with Blazosky Associates, a small firm in State College, PA. In what appears to be a pattern with Dr. Shakoor's students, it took me a few more years to finally get my M.S. I then got a job with Gannett Fleming, serving as the sole geologist in the firm's newly formed geotechnical "branch" in King of Prussia, PA. I got my hands on a wide variety of projects at Gannett Fleming, from sinkhole remediation to planning large-scale subsurface investigations. I took a detour in my career for four years, working for the Delaware Nature Society, a regional, non-profit environmental organization. I coordinated a state-wide network of volunteers collecting surface water quality data, and conducted many educational programs.  For the past three years I have been working as a hydrologist with the state of Delaware's Dept. of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, overseeing a number of leaking underground storage tank investigations and remediations. I also coordinate the state fund for the removal and remediation of "orphaned" underground storage tanks. I have been married to my wife, Gretchen, for 13 years, and have a 6-year old daughter, Abigail, and a 3-month old son, Mitchell.
6/14/05 news from Greg Taylor '89:
     Greg Taylor (B.S.'85; M.S.'89). After finishing my Master's Degree I continued to work for Ohio EPA as an inspector in the Division of Hazardous Waste for a couple of years.  Upon leaving the OEPA in 1992, I worked for American Waste Services in Warren as an Environmental  Specialist. In 1994, I decided that it was time to get out of the trash business and look for other employment. Since then, I have been employed by The Lubrizol Corporation at its main research and development facility in Wickliffe, Ohio. I provide guidance on compliance with all state and federal environmental regulations and also assist other U.S. facilities. Over the years I have served as a Boy Scout leader and have had the opportunity to take the troop out to the Badlands and Black Hills of South Dakota on two occasions. The experience was a lot different than field camp back in '84. My best to all of you.
6/11/05 Carl Fry '96:
     Right after graduation (B.S. 1996) I started working for Solar Testing Laboratories in Columbus (doing construction observation and testing). They landed a large sanitary sewer project that required a geologist to be on site with a drill rig. After about a year and a half working on a drill rig (hard dirty work and low pay), I became Drilling Manager for CTL Engineering in Columbus and have been there for about 7 years now. I have approx 10 staff directly under me, and work with 5 geotech engineers and another 10 lab and office staff. I manage 5 CME drill rigs and just ordered a brand new track rig ($180,000) for our office. The best advice I could give any students is if you can get an internship while you are in school, take it. Don't be afraid to get dirty and start at the bottom. You won't get rich, but if you like to get out of the office and see some woods before they turn it into a Wal-Mart, it's not a bad profession.  My wife (Shannon), daughter (Katherine), and I live in Delaware, Ohio.
6/11/05 Rich Bendula '85:
     Rich Bendula (B.S. 1982 Miami; M.S.1985 KSU) Upon graduation, Rich began work with the Ohio EPA Southwest District Office where he is currently Manager of the Ground Water Program in the Division of Drinking and Ground Water.  His duties include providing technical assistance to other divisions throughout the Ohio EPA, other state agencies, and the public as well as overseeing the sampling of a network of water supply wells to characterize the water quality of Ohio's aquifer system.  He also supports public outreach and educational activities.  Special interests include arsenic in ground water, design of public water supplies, and water quality studies.  Rich has published articles on arsenic in ground water and on surface water impacts on ground water quality and presented papers at professional conferences on ground water.  He is married to Susan, and with his two children, they live in Brookville, OH.
6/9/05 News from Allen Standen '76:
     I have been living in Austin, Texas since 1979, my wife's name is Patti and I have one daughter, Chelsea (now 20 years old).  Since leaving Kent in 1976, I have had a wide variety of geological jobs that includes everything except oil and gas.  I obtained a masters degree in geology from the University of Texas, Austin in 1986 specializing in gold exploration.  Over the years my geological activities include uranium, base and precious metal exploration in the western U. S., a research scientist for the Texas Bureau of Economic Geology, environmental work specializing in nuclear test and storage site characterization, and groundwater resource evaluation for cities in Texas and New Mexico.  My present position is the Texas Water Resources Director for Daniel B. Stephens and Associates.  I would very much like to hear from my old friends that I haven't heard from in a while and catch up.  Please send emails to astanden@dbstephens.com  I am looking forward to hearing from you.
6/9/05 Brian H. Greene '01:
     Brian has been busy as ever both with his job at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Pittsburgh and with a myriad of professional activities. He is completing his 28th year with the Corps of Engineers and continues to serve in a position that recognizes him as a Corps national technical expert in engineering geology. During the past year he has worked on interesting projects including the innovative Braddock Dam Float-In Project in Pittsburgh (1st concrete dam ever floated onto a river based foundation!), seepage remediation of Center Hill Dam in Tennessee, and technical review of a report prepared by Argonne National Lab on the environmental effects of oil and gas drilling in the Great Lakes.  As far as professional society work, Brian is currently a member of the National Dams Committee of AEG and is a co-organizer of the Dams Symposium scheduled to be held in Las Vegas in September 2005. He is also member of the Geo Institute's Technical Publications Committee and is an AEG representative to the Fields of Practice Task Force jointly sponsored by AIPG, AEG and the Geo Institute of ASCE. Brian has been actively publishing papers on topics including Braddock Dam and most recently a paper on the Austin Dam (Pa.) Failure of 1911 co-written with Daniel Martt '02 and Abdul Shakoor. Brian continues to support KSU Geology helping to line up colloquium speakers in engineering geology and he co-led the 2005 dams fieldtrip for Dr. Shakoor's Advanced Engineering Geology Class (for the 7th time). Brian continues to teach Geology for Engineers at Youngstown State University, and at Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh. Brian and Dr. Shakoor will be serving as co-organizers of the Engineering Geology symposium of the spring 2006 North-Central Section Meeting of GSA being held in Akron.











Brian with the 2005 Advanced Engineering Geology Class visiting the Kinzua Dam and pumped storage hydropower reservoir in Warren, PA.

Brian (tall guy in the center) Shakoor (right)
5/29/05 news from Tom Manley '74
I graduated in 1974 (B.S. in Geology and Mathematics) and instead of heading into the field of environmental geology I chose to pursue a career in oceanography.  I was accepted into the Ph.D. program at Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory (now known as Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory) of Columbia University. I worked extensively in the Arctic oceans living on the ice for months at a time. My work dealt with mesoscale features such as eddies. After receiving my degree ('81) and living on soft money for nearly 10 years at LDEO, I switched focus toward physical limnology when our family moved to Vermont (married Pat Booth ('74)). As a visiting assistant professor for the past 16 years, I teach oceanography at Middlebury College (thanks Dr. Feldmann) and captain the Middlebury College research vessel the RV Baldwin. I now work closely with municipalities on water quality issues and spend most of summers investigating the hydrodynamics of Lake Champlain with researchers from NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Lab, WHOI and LOCEAN at Paris, France. If you are in the area drop in. We can always use an extra pair of hands on board.


5/29/05 news from Pat Booth Manley '74
After graduating in 1974 and marrying Tom Manley (our honeymoon was field camp in the Black Hills of South Dakota), we headed to Columbia University where Tom went to graduate school and I worked as a research technician. After working in an amino acid racemization lab and then marine geology mapping, I was accepted in the graduate program at Lamont-Doherty Geologic Observatory. I received my PhD degree in 1989 studying large sedimentary features in the oceans (deep-sea fans, sediment drifts).  We moved to Vermont when I got a tenure track position at Middlebury College. Now tenured, a full professor and chair of the geology department for several years, I teach general geology, marine geology, geophysics, field mapping and sedimentary rocks. I feel my solid geologic training by the Kent State geology department and the support in particular of Glenn Franks helped me achieve my career as a woman in geology. I continue my research on Lake Champlain as well as in the North and South Atlantic Oceans and the Southern Ocean near Antarctica.
5/12/05  Denise Harrington Ketcham '91:
     I am a Sun-certified Java Programmer and Web Developer in beautiful Austin, TX. After leaving Kent I got my Master's at The University of Texas at Austin in Isotope Geochronology (1994). I worked in environmental geology for a year and as a field geophysicist on a seismic ship for a year before deciding to make a career change.  I worked for a number of years at the Center for Instructional Technology, University of Texas before striking out into the consulting world.  Geology is still very much a part of my life though, as I married a fellow graduate student. My husband, Dr. Richard A. Ketcham runs the UT High-Resolution CT Facility, Jackson School of Geosciences, The University of Texas at Austin. I have two children, Genevieve (8) and Tristan (6). Tristan wants to grow up to be a "dinosaur-hunting Daddy", his idea of a paleontologist.

All you folks out there from '91 and '92 I wish you well! Hi Keith, Andy & Ed!
5/10/05 News from Beth Ullom '89:
     I graduated in 1989 with an MS in geology, specializing in geophysics.  My advisor was Don Palmer.  Since that time I have worked primarily in the environmental consulting business, first for Vadose Research in Canton, then North Point Engineering, and now work for Bowser-Morner Engineering, which is headquartered in Dayton.  I'm a project manager in the engineering department, responsible for managing permitting and construction at a number of construction and demolition debris and a couple of solid waste landfills, but also responsible for new business development for their environmental sector. I also provide expertise for the staff geologists performing the environmental work such as environmental site assessments, site characterizations, and remediation projects. I currently work out of my home in Canton until Bowser decides whether it is a good idea or not to open a NE Ohio office, however, I travel to Dayton a couple of times a month to work there too.
      In my personal life, I am the proud mother of two wonderful sons. My oldest son Bill is an environmental specialist with an engineering company, is married to a mental health counselor, and the proud father of a beautiful little girl. That makes me a doting grandmother! My youngest son, Andrew, is a music major at Otterbein College in Columbus.
5/10/05 News from Don Hilton '84:
1984 - Married to Kathy Sikora. Still married. Go figure. Have held a variety of jobs since graduation.
     Two year stint as a geologist on an Oak Ridge Research Fellowship. I did research in unconventional gas resources at the Morgantown Energy Technology Center in Morgantown WV. I spent my time building and breaking apart methane gas hydrates and studying potential gas hydrate reservoir rocks from Alaska's North Slope and National Reserves.
     Three years as a geologist with BP Coal in Cleveland, OH. Mostly mapping layer-cake stratigraphy for West Virginia, Indiana, and Illinois deep mines with some strip mining thrown in, just for fun. The usual coal mining stuff; isopachs, splits, sulfur, ash content, btu, roof and floor maps.
     Two years with R&R Associates in Berea, OH. I performed statistical analysis and numerical computer modeling of point-air pollution sources for state and federal environmental impact statements. The highlight of the job; overseeing a Vancouver, BC project, sorting 5 tons of garbage into 136 different categories of trash. The engineers simply weren't up to the task. Who says an education in geology doesn't prepare for most anything the working world throws your way?
     It was about this time (1992) that my children were born. Twins. A girl (Kasha) and a boy (Evan). At twelve, they are wonderful children getting straight A-s in school. They are very much like their mother...
      Five years at Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH, in their computing center. "Academic" computing - setting up and maintaining computer technology for various academic departments on campus. The geology department ran Macs and I was Windows support. Oh, well.
      I've spent the last eight years with Moen (the faucet company) in North Olmsted, OH. I do lots detailed system/network administration, but I enjoy it a great deal.
     I've done a lot of freelance writing and recently finished a book - Conneaut Lake Ferry Tales -which is an oral history on the passenger boats that ran on Conneaut Lake, PA, where I grew up.
      I've been studying martial arts for several years and, lately, earned a 2nd degree black belt in taekwondo. I have to cheat to beat the teenagers and 20-somethings, but what the heck?
      I don't do a whole lot of geology, which is probably a good thing for the science as a whole, but I still look at road-cuts and peer into freshly dug ditches whenever I get the chance. I did give a talk on fossils to my kid's science class when they were in 4th-grade. They all thought I was the smartest guy in the world.
     One more thing... I survived a huge scare and major surgery with colon cancer. I am here to tell all of you geologists to let the doctors to run tubes up into any old place they desire. It saved my life.
5/10/05 News from Bill Rintala '77 and '80:
I started work for Texaco in 1979. Texaco hired me to work in Houston and transferred me to New Orleans in 1984. I worked for Texaco as an Exploration Geophysicist throughout the oil bust that spanned the 80s.  In 1992 I took voluntary separation and started a second career.  In 1995 I was graduated with a degree in Nursing and became a Registered Nurse.  I worked as an Oncology nurse at a 200 bed hospital in New Orleans from 1995 to 1998.  In 1998 I joined the I.T staff at the hospital and worked as a Clinical Systems Analyst until 2003.  In 2003 I joined a healthcare software company, Eclipsys, as an Implementation Consultant.  My job is to help hospitals configure our software to meet the needs of their facilities.
     My geology experience these days is limited to visiting places near the hospitals that I am working. A current account is in Amarillo, Texas, so I have done some wandering around parts or the Palo Duro Canyon.  A year ago I worked an account in Phoenix and took a run up to the Grand Canyon and spent a few days in Sedona, Arizona on my way back.
5/10/05 News from Mark Craemer '94:
     I graduated from Kent State in 1994 with a B.S. I started working in the environmental field in Canal Fulton with BJAAM Environmental which had several KSU Alumni employed there at the time. I had the pleasure of working with Dr. Dave Hacker '98, Laurie Hillenbrand, Bob Worstall, Kris Albaugh, Rick Anderson, Gene Chini and Paul McMasters '96, all KSU grads. I am currently working at MV Technologies in Fairlawn, OH, where I have performed environmental services for the last 5 years. Many of our jobs are street jobs with ODOT which consist of Phase I screens, Phase I and Phase II. When I am not at work, I am trying to raise two boys. My oldest boy (Ty) just turned 16 and my youngest boy (Rory) turned 11, recently. I also have a stepdaughter (Kelsey) that is pursuing a graduate degree at Akron University in consumer science and should be done by the end of the year.
5/10/05 News from Gayla Gray '85:
   I graduated in 1985 with a B.S.  Class sizes were really large (40-50 students) back then from all the students who became interested in geology from the petroleum industry boom that followed the OPEC energy crisis. Unfortunately, domestic oil exploration/production work had pretty much fizzled out by the time we graduated! The good news was federal and state environmental laws and regulations had been recently enacted and implemented, so I was able to pursue a career in the environmental field.  I was a geologist in the Groundwater Division of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency upon graduating from KSU. I stayed with OEPA for two years - the approximate length of time it took to realize the working degree for a geologist was an MS. So, I got my MS in Environmental Geology from the University of Akron (but still used the KSU Library for research projects!) and found work as an environmental scientist with Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) - a very large government consulting firm that hardly anyone has heard of! I was with SAIC for five years, working on site investigations at NASA Lewis Research Center and NASA Plum Brook Station, and environmental impact statements and RCRA Part B Permit Applications for the Department of Energy. The last year with SAIC was spent on leave-of-absence to do one year of service with AmeriCorps. From my AmeriCorps experience and the contacts I made there I was recruited by the Seneca Nation of Indians to review and comment on a draft environmental impact statement I had helped write while I was at SAIC! Oh, what a tangled web we weave. That was almost nine years ago, and I'm still with the Seneca Nation's Environmental Protection Department, the Department of Energy's nuclear waste site is still about 25 miles upstream of one of the Seneca's territories, and the environmental impact statement is still a draft. I still work on environmental issues related to the nuclear waste site, from reading all the reports to conducting sampling projects to check for contaminants in fish, sediment and water; I've produced a video documentary, written successful grants, enforced Seneca environmental regulations, and writing scopes of work and requests for proposals (it's great being the client). I've helped improve the Nation's emergency response capability, developed fish consumption advisories, helped establish the Tribal Historic Preservation Office, and occasionally I get to do some geology! My geomorphology notes have really come in handy recently - Dr. Anderson's detailed chalkboard drawings that we all tried to copy in our notes - you could hear everyone's colored pencil drop on the desk when we quickly switched colors and tried to keep up with him! And yes, I still have the rocks we all lugged back from Dr. Heimlich's petrology field trip to Ontario - the metaconglomerate is outside my back door.
6/10/05 News from John Oneacre '74 and '78:
     Life as a hydrogeologist/engineering geologist has been a blessing, having worked for Fortune 500 companies such as SOHIO and Browning-Ferris Industries (BFI) as well as two geotechnical consulting firms.  My career has taken me to thirteen countries and most of the US states.  Projects have been wide ranging from large earth fill dams to the TARP tunnel project under Chicago, to landfill design projects in Hong Kong and New Zealand.  Having worked on more than 200 landfills around the world, I guess I am the quintessential "garbage man".  Several of these projects include remediation management of large NPL Superfund facilities.  As a result of this experience, I have been an invited speaker at several universities (including Kent), several state and Federal regulatory agencies and even the Australian EPA.   Last year, NGWA strong-armed me to conduct a short course on ground water monitoring. Currently, I am owner of a ground water consulting company in Houston with a branch office in Pittsburgh.  We provide hydrogeological expertise to major corporations representing the solid waste, waste-to-energy, oil, and gas industries.  In addition to our hydrogeological consulting work, we also provide expert witness reports and testimony for major clients involved in large litigation cases. For all these great experiences in my professional career, I owe a debt of gratitude to many of the Kent State geology department faculty including Frank, Feldmann, Heimlich, Carlson, Anderson, McComas and others.  As a way of giving back to society and honoring those who taught me geology, I lead teams to Guatemala to drill water wells for poor villages that have no safe source of drinking water. And yes, Dr. Feldmann, I still have the Fairlane!
5/8/05 News from Margaret (Berardi) Giller '83:
      I graduated in 1983, and have had quite an interesting life since then. After I got my B.S. I moved out west, did a semester at the University of Wyoming in a Master's Program (Water Resources Engineering), but then moved to Denver.  I worked in a city engineering department then geotechnical testing firm for about 2 years.  I then got interested in the Safety and Occupational Health field and proceeded to move to Germany to work for the US Army in that field (as a federal employee).  I have about 15 years experience in that field now, having worked for the active Army and US Army Reserve.  My last position was that of a GS-11, then GS-12 supervisor at reserve headquarters in Pittsburgh.
      Currently, I am back in NE Ohio taking some time off for family and parents.  I have two teenage daughters; we are preparing to move back to Germany.  I very much enjoyed the safety field, and will be returning to a major US training area to help with hazardous materials exposure, training, Radiation Protection and more. I will be in Portage County until mid-June.  I'll stop by the department if time permits - it would be great to say hello.  Every time I drive through Kent I remember the wonderful years I spent there, the geology banquets, and more.
6/8/05 News from Keith Davis '74:
    Much has happened since I graduated with a B.S. in geology from KSU in 1974.  I have been employed in the coal mining industry since graduation working for AEP's mining operations, first as an exploration geologist, then in mine operations management, then corporate management and most recently as Manager of Coal Properties developing mining operations and coalbed methane projects in Colorado, Utah, Indiana, Ohio and West Virginia.  Along the way I received an MBA from Ohio University and am a member of AIPG, SME and the Ohio Geological Society.  I also taught operations management classes for eleven years at OU as an adjunct faculty member.  I recently accepted the position of VP - Agency/Sourcing with Peabody Energy and begin my new job on May 2 in Peabody's Charleston, WV office.
    My wife, Mary Ellen, and I will celebrate our 29th anniversary on May 1, and we have two sons, James who is married and employed in Washington, D.C., and David, who recently married, is a Petty Officer in the US Navy, and currently serving in Afghanistan.
5/7/05 I just got news from Skip Skotte 69-94:
      I am currently working as an environmentalist with the State of Tennessee's Division of Solid Waste Management in the Hazardous Waste section.  My duties include field inspections of hazardous waste generators, report writing and reviewing geologic and engineering site reports.
     I was very fortunate after leaving Kent in 1973 - the faculty, esp. Dr's Heimlich, Carlson and Feldmann, gave us all a fundamental background in the basics of geology - esp. field work that prepared me for a career in mineral exploration.  I was fortunate enough to kick around in the mineral exploration field for about 12 years.  I looked for copper porphyry type deposits in Arizona, Uranium in a volcanic caldera in northern Nevada, gold in the states of Nevada, Arizona, California and New Mexico, and chrome in Northern California.  My last project was looking for volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits in Pre-Cambrian rhyolite in the Bradshaw Mountains in central Arizona.  Great job!!!  Lots of geologic mapping and exploration drilling that led to the sinking of an exploratory shaft.  Unfortunately, we did not find enough mineralization to keep going and the company went under.
      I was very fortunate to work for several great companies including:  Chevron, the Union Pacific Railroad, Newmont Mining, The State of New Mexico's Geological Survey and currently the State of Tennessee's Department of Environment and Conservation.
      I owe a great deal to the geology department at Kent - I have met and worked with a number of geologist from all across the country and I don't think any were prepared any better than I was for a career in geology.
5/6/05 I just received news from Audrey (Wagner) Martin  '04.

We congratulate Audrey on her marriage!

  After graduation, I was hired as a staff geologist at J & L Laboratories.  J & L is a small geotechnical engineering firm in Wadsworth, OH.  I have helped with various projects including bridge replacement and reconstruction, culverts, roadway improvement/development and relocation, high mast light pole projects, interchanges, dams and residential developments.  My responsibilities are lab testing, fieldwork, data reduction, and assist our principle geologist (fellow alum Lance Cole) and engineer as needed.  I am also slowly learning some of the basics of writing reports.

In August, 2004 I was married to Elio in Riviera Maya, Mexico.  We currently live in the small town of Litchfield, OH.
5/6/05  Dr. Larry Wiedman '90 has been named faculty of the year at both Monmouth College (1990) and at USF (2000). He also did a Fulbright/AIT stint in 1993 and was awarded Honor Alum from Ball State (2003). We congratulate him on these accomplishments!
    I am a full professor in the Dept. of Biology and am the Director of the Environmental Science Program at the University of Saint Francis in Fort Wayne, IN.  I am also the Director of our Field Studies Program and continue to take students to the Bahamas semiannually, and backpacking in the wilderness for two weeks each May. Katie (MEd, in Public Health Ed, KSU '90) is also an Associate Professor of Biology at USF with me.  Our offices are only a hallway and a floor apart.  She has been full time there for 5 years and I am on my 11th.  We like it fine.  She teaches mostly Health Ed and Nutrition classes (She is a Registered Dietitian still).  Our lives still revolve around the two girls.
    We moved back to northeastern Indiana in 1993 to be nearer to both sets of healthy grandparents and it has been everything that we had hoped for and then some. Along the way we have gutted and remodeled two old homes; a 3 story Victorian Queen Anne in Monmouth IL and the 150 year old farmhouse that was built to be used to be a barn prior to the Civil War.  It's been interesting.  We have about 6 acres that we play on.  Life has been very good to us; much better than we deserve. I am on the Board of a Caribbean Field Station and am one of three expatriates helping the Bahamian  people establish a 3 million acre land/sea park on/off Andros Island. The third largest barrier reef in the world is there.. Say hi to the geezers that are left from my era (Paleozoic).
5/5/05 News from Chris Stefano '04:
I've been a PHD student at the University of Michigan for the last year. I am focusing on some aspects of the geochronology of sedimentary rocks.  I'm just getting started and some big stuff will happen this summer. I'm going to be a TA for our field camp in Wyoming; in May I am going to Scotland on a field trip; and I've spent the last month in Boulder, CO and Anchorage, Alaska, taking survival training courses. My advisor has some projects in Alaska and the flight company he uses requires this training in case I do research work in Alaska. I've done a lot of traveling lately.  Cara Delahanty and I are planning to get married in May next year. Hi to everyone.
5/3/05- I just got news from Dale Andrews '04, he just passed his Professional Geologist exam and we congratulate him!
     Hello all!  Since leaving Kent in ’99, I begin working full time for Gannett Fleming, Inc. in June of that year.  Even though I was no longer a full time graduate student, I was amazed by how often I would hear from my graduate advisor Dr. Abdul Shakoor (and I am sure hat had nothing to do with me not having my thesis completed until May, 2004).  As for my job, it has provided me with wonderful opportunities to work on large projects in the Pittsburgh and surrounding areas.  Job responsibilities have included bridge, roadway, and structure foundation design, landslide & rock slope stability analyses, mine subsidence, anchor design and inspection, environmental reconnaissance, and my favorite…drilling inspection.
     In addition to my course work, Kent’s geology program also taught me the importance of associations in furthering education and networking in the geologic community.  I have been active in the Geo-Institute, Pittsburgh Geologic Society (PGS) and the Association of Engineering Geologists (AEG).  Actually, I have just been nominated as Chair of the Allegheny/Ohio Section of AEG and am quite sure that will keep me busy enough to stay out of trouble.
     For those of you who may be reading this as a student, I can speak first hand that Kent State’s geology alumni are sought after and come highly recommended.  I personally work with two other Kent alumni, Matt Morris '04 and Paul Hale '99, here in our Pittsburgh office and know of many other Kent alumni who work at Gannett Fleming’s other offices.  Kent State’s geology program has and continues to provide students with an outstanding education and the word has gotten out!
    Wishing everyone all the best both personally and professionally,
 -Dale C. Andrews, P.G.











        Yosemite National Park with Yosemite Falls in the background
Thomas W. Kammer '75 received the Outstanding Undergraduate award from Kent State University's College of Arts and Sciences during an April 21 awards ceremony.
 
Kammer earned his B.S. degree from the Department of Geology in 1975. He later received his Ph.D. in 1982 from Indiana University.

Tom now teaches at the University of West Virginia and studies "Evolutionary paleoecology of Paleozoic crinoids, plus lithostratigraphy, biostratigraphy, and sequence stratigraphy of marine Mississippian rocks in the east-central United States"

Tom at the April 21 Award Ceremony with his wife. (From left to right:Heidi Kammer '82, Tom Kammer '75,  Rod Feldmann and Carrie Schweitzer '00)
4/26/05 News from Robert Peterson '67:

I am one of the early graduates of the KSU Geology Department (B.S. 1967), having had the real privilege of learning from the initial team of dedicated teachers:  Heimlich, Rau, Anderson, Miller, Frank, Szmuk, and yes, Feldmann!  (He will remember me as the dedicated cataloger of all his and Barry's paleo cards!  Ask him if he remembers the "Bison Barry" episode!). 
    After four great years at KSU, I was compelled to head west and get more involved in my dream of becoming an oceanographer:  Jacques Cousteau had set my mind to the tropical oceans at an early age.  Ending up at Oregon State University, my subsequent experiences were heavily oriented toward sea-going adventures.  Unfortunately, they were not aboard wooden-decked sailing vessels in the South Pacific, but rather, aboard steel-hulled diesel vessels rolling about in 30-ft swells in the Northeast Pacific.  In any event, I did end up with advanced degrees and great sea stories!  If there was one bit of advice I would offer to new students, please encourage them to follow their interests and passions, and not to worry about the potential for a good job at the end of their formal education years...it will be unpredictable anyway.  (I found myself unemployed after finishing a Ph.D., as the market for oceanographers dropped precipitously in the late 1970's).
    Without dwelling on the in-between years, I'm currently a staff scientist with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington.  My work involves groundwater at the Hanford Site, and in particular, its discharge to the Columbia River, which flows across the Site.  I would be happy to correspond with students who might have an interest in groundwater-related research, or an interest in employment with Battelle (Battelle runs several national laboratories; corporate offices are in Columbus, Ohio).  I can be reached at:  robert.peterson@pnl.gov
 



4/26/05 News from Matt Morris '04

After leaving Kent in ’99 I began working for Gannett Fleming, Inc. as an Engineering Geologist (along with fellow KSU alum’s Paul Hale '99, Dale Andrews '04, Andy Smithmyer '01, and Mitch Weber).  The next few years were a bit of a blur what with marriage, work, travel, new home construction, and oh yeah… my thesis, which at long last I finished in ’04.  I guess it’s true that a real masterpiece takes time.  Work has been great and I have had the opportunity to practice engineering geology related to civil engineering projects (foundation design, rock slope stability, mine subsidence, and countless landslides).  Elizabeth and I don’t have any kids yet, just two Labrador Retrievers and a new log house in the country.


Elizabeth and I at the Natural Bridge in Aruba (Note the KSU hat).
4/26/05 news from:   "Tex" Gilmore '76

     I have been gainfully employed since my graduation as a geologist.  I started my career in groundwater monitoring for US Chemical in 1977, then worked for Cravat Coal from 1978-1982 in Cadiz, Ohio and Greenup, Kentucky, then for Texasgulf (now PCS Phosphate) from 1982-present.  I am a Board member of the Aurora Fossil Museum and currently the Chairman of the NC Board for Licensing of Geologists.

The following is from press release from PCS Phosphate (August 24, 2004):
Gilmore Elected Chairman of Professional Geology Board

(Aurora, North Carolina) – Ivan K. “Tex” Gilmore was elected Chairman of the North Carolina Board for Licensing of Geologists on August 5 in Raleigh.  Mr. Gilmore was appointed to the Board in 1999 by former Governor James B. Hunt and re-appointed in 2003 by Governor Michael F. Easley.  Gilmore fills the Mining Geologist position on the Board.

Mr. Gilmore is the Superintendent of Mine Planning and Chief Geologist of PCS Phosphate in Aurora. Gilmore has over 26 years of experience working in the mining industry as a professional geologist.  He received his geology degree from Kent State University in 1976.

Mr. Gilmore is active in the Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration (SME), the American Institute of Professional Geologists (AIPG) and the Association of Engineering Geologists (AEG).

The North Carolina Board for Licensing of Geologists has statutory authority to establish standards and conduct examinations for licensing of geologists and has the power to regulate the practice of licensed geologists in North Carolina. The board consists of six members, five of whom are appointed by the governor.

PCS Phosphate is a division of PotashCorp, the world’s largest fertilizer enterprise and a leading supplier to the agriculture, animal nutrition, and industrial chemicals markets.  At the Aurora facility about ninety percent of its 1,000 employees are native to the area.  PCS Phosphate has shown the ability to properly balance the substantial economic benefit it brings to eastern North Carolina with the important responsibility of being good stewards of our resources and the environment.








4/1/05 Maciej Manecki '99 was in Kent for a visit.
Maciej (right) and Donald Palmer  (left)










3/14/05 Fred Cichocki '69 and Milton Cooper '72 came to visit Dr. Feldmann and the Geology Department. Milton is visiting from Alaska where he retired from the oil industry and currently volunteering at a nature center. Fred is visiting from Strongville Ohio where  is retired from PPG Industries where he was research and development scientist.  Photo taken outside McGilvrey Hall (left to right: Milton, Rod Feldmann, and Fred)
3/5/05 Patricia Manley '74 received the 2004 AWG Outstanding Educator Award, we congratulate her. Read the write up in GAEA (vol. XXVII No. 5, p. 1-2, September-October 2004) here.
2/28/05 Tom Bjerstedt '83 sent us some news about what he has been up to:  Greetings fellow KSU geotypes and friends.  In the early 1980s a B.S. and M.S. in geology from KSU helped prepare me for what has been an eclectic geocareer thusfar.  A doctorate from West Virginia University studying the lower Mississippian of the Catskill delta in the central Appalachians involved me in trace fossil research where I could test what academic life was like.  In 1987 I taught stratigraphy and paleontology at St. Lawrence University in New York.   Selecting against an academic career, I segued into nuclear programs with the Dept. of Energy in an improbable phase for a soft rocker.  I worked 9 years on the Yucca Mountain Project, easily this country’s most challenging environmental program.  There I worked in regulatory documentation and somehow evolved into a valued project spokesman giving interviews and often winding up on camera.  One day we may yet build a geologic repository for spent reactor fuel in the Miocene volcanic tuffs on the Nevada Test Site.  Wanting to get closer to technical work, I made an abrupt transition in 1997 to become an exploration geologist with Texaco working the Gulf of Mexico first in New Orleans and then Houston.  To learn and master workstations and PCs full of software and to constantly defend your maps and interpretations made it the most demanding and interesting work that I have had.  Desiring to remain employed after 50, after 9/11 I declined to remain with the merged ChevronTexaco and returned to Uncle Sam, this time with the Dept. of the Interior where I am today.  There I write environmental reviews for deepwater exploration and development projects in the Gulf, barrier island restorations, gas hydrates testing, and offshore wind farms. 
More from Tom:

What advice would I have to offer people who want to work in this field?  To manage a geocareer you should 1) keep an open mind for how geology manifests itself in your work, 2) keep your friends and alums close, but keep your references closer, 3) consciously balance the personal and career tensions between stability and stimulation, and 4) prepare for a career arc that migrates from being a practitioner toward roles in science management or integration.  You need good writing and people skills, amiability, and a sense of humor to effectively transition between career phases that are elective along with those that are not.  Best wishes.

2/24/05 News from Jim McCombs 02'

After grad school I started work as a “Field Geologist” for Conestoga-Rovers & Associates’ at their Chicago and Indianapolis branches for almost two years.   There I conducted drilling associated field activities on environmental projects throughout the Midwest.  I moved from Indianapolis in June of 2004 to Marietta, Ohio when Jamie was accepted to Marietta College’s Physician Assistant program.  Since then, I currently work as a Project Manager for PROSONIC Corporation, a large Sonic drilling company.  At PROSONIC, I manage drilling projects spanning several markets including: mineral exploration, geotechnical, water supply and environmental.  Jamie is currently doing her medical rotations with local doctors including her brother’s practice, which she plans to work for this fall after graduation. 












2/24/05 Joe Hannibal 90' had a short message for us: "Joe Hannibal continues to work in the basement of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History."

The photo is the cover for Joe's walking tour of Cleveland,


2/23/05 News from Marty Woodard 04':
   My wife Dodie and I can't seem to get enough of the Allegheny-Ohio region.  After a two year stint working as an assistant professor at Radford University teaching engineering geology I am now about to complete my second year my relocated home at Michael Baker located in Beaver, PA. The big news for me is that my son Jack just turned 16
months, and as you may see from the picture I have everything completely under my control.  I am working with fellow alumns Ryan Tinsley, Ed
Barefield and Chris Ruppen on many interesting geotechnical problems. Oh yea, I finally finished in May 2004
2/23/05 I just got word from Dan Schweitzer 01': I am now with Sanborn, Head and Associates (Environmental Engineers, Scientists) In the past few years I have worked in England on several jobs (I even got to do some structural interpretation, although it was all boring soft rock like shales, sandstones, and limestones). I also worked for a few weeks in France. While in France I got a pizza with french fries and a half cooked egg on it. It was called "The Texan". I am looking forward to some new projects that we have up and coming, which look to be quite interesting. Since I stayed in Ohio and in the Environmental Filed, I primarily work with hydrogeologic issues and groundwater contamination and remediation, but it's pretty interesting, and I do a lot of different things, ranging from report writing, to risk assessments, to drilling, to soil, soil gas, and groundwater sampling, to site reconnaissance and characterization. It's pretty diverse and I don't really dread going to work so I think I'm pretty lucky.  I'd like to be home more these days to work on repairing renovating our old house in Kent and spending time with our daughter Emma who was born in February 2004, she is doing well along with my wife Holly.
2/23/05 David Taylor '02  David is working on a Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration here at KSU. "I started missing geology more and more so I recently subscribed to GSA. It's strange, you do something and it becomes a part of you"
2/20/05 I just heard from Jason Lambright '04. He is in the Air Force serving our country; we thank him and wish him our best. Jason writes: "I graduated (finally) in Dec. 2004 and hope to either return to grad school or get a job as a geologist. Currently I'm back in the Second Gulf War, working as a flight mechanic. Hope to get back off active duty soon, but I'm not sure. In any case, it'll be an adventure!"
    In this Photo Jason is sitting next to boxes that contain items for our troops that Carrie Schweitzer's 00' Geology Club at Kent Stark collected.
   I'm sure Jason would love to hear from you, and his current email is: jason.lambright@auab.centaf.af.mil
2/19/05 News from Shellie Rose '01:  After graduating from KSU in 2001, I went on to finish my master's degree from Ohio University in 2004 working under a former KSU graduate student, Dave Schneider 95'.  Now I am a PhD student at the University of Pittsburgh working for Dr. Michael Ramsey.  My dissertation focuses on Remote Sensing and active volcanism.  Over the next few years I will be closely studying Mount St Helens and Cerro Negro volcano (Nicaragua), monitoring thermal flux of the lava domes and fumarole fields via the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflectance Radiometer (ASTER satellite). I hope to complete this degree in three to four years.





2/18/05 News from Joel Allen 04':
   After graduating in December '04, I am currently working in at Ray's while awaiting graduate college acceptance letters.  I hope to concentrate in the field of volcanology.  At Kent I found more acceptance and help from the faculty than I ever expected.  Though knowing my aspiration for volcanolgy and structural geology, Dr. Feldmann invited me to study a Permian Horseshoe crab that he had on the back burner.  I learned a great deal from his guidance and earned a publication in the Journal of Paleontology of a new genus and species.


3/31/05 Photo added of Joel collecting Horseshoe crabs in Florida.
2/18/05 I just heard from Dan Martt '02:
  I am working still at American Geotechnical and Environmental Services, along with Al who is working on his Ph.D at Kent. Brian Greene 01', Dr. Shakoor and I are publishing an article in the GSA Bulletin, Environmental and Engineering Geoscience, titled, "Austin Dam, Pennsylvania, The Sliding Failure of a Concrete Dam," based on my thesis work at Kent.  This should come out in late February or March.
    My current projects include I-95S in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and Section 51H of the Mon/Fayette Expressway, Uniontown to Brownsville, a large bridge across the Monongehela River south of Brownsville, Pennsylvania.  A large project is the Pennsylvania Turnpike Renovation, MP 40 to 48, just north of Pittsburgh.  This will expand the Turnpike from two lanes to three each way, and should include a great deal of mine subsidence remediation.
2/18/05 New from Brad Shotwell 73'
  During Fall Semester, 2004, Brad Shotwell, B.S. (Earth Science Education - 1971) M.S (Geology - 1973) returned to KSU to pursue additional studies in Engineering Geology.  He remains a part time employee of Wiss, Janney, Elstner, an engineering firm with offices around the country.
   Brad said that working part time will slow the rate at which he can take classes toward another degree, but it allows him to apply his new found knowledge to current projects at work.  For example, his recent training in soil mechanics allowed him to help in preparation of a WJE proposal to study and recommend repairs on an historic adobe mission church located in California.
2/16/05 News from Carrie Schweitzer '00:  I’m currently teaching at the KSU Stark Campus.  My research on fossil crabs, lobsters and shrimps (decapods) continues to be both fascinating and fun, and Rod Feldmann and I have traveled to many decapod localities, usually with students, to conduct field work.  Our travels have taken us to Romania, Croatia, Baja California, New Zealand, and Patagonia in the last couple of years.  Work on the revision of the Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology keeps both Rod and I very busy.  Teaching also keeps me busy as does the KSU Geology Club at Stark, which is quite active.  We have had several KSU alumni speak to the students about life as a geologist.  Daniel Schweitzer 01' recently spoke about his career as and environmental geologist, and Beth Ullom 89', Brad Nelson 83', and Dr. Tom Kammer 75' have also given presentations to the club.






2/16/05 I got news from Christie O'boyle 03':  I graduated from Kent in 2000 with my B.S and finished my M.S. in 2003.  I did my graduate work with Dr. Holm in structural geology (he's the best!)  Currently, I am living in Los Angeles, CA.  I was working as a Staff Geologist for a few months at a company called Tetra Tech, Inc. before I got my new job as an Assistant Professor at Los Angeles City College. I am teaching Geology (lecture and lab), Earth Science, Meteorology, and Oceanography.  I love my job!!!  Hope to hear from the rest of the alum soon!!


The photo is Christie in Beaumont, CA, holding a steven's Kangaroo Rat!!
2/15/05 I just heard from Nate Saraceno 05' his message follows:
    I'm working full time for the Cleveland branch of ATC Associates, Inc. (it's actually in Brecksville).   My title is Field Geologist.  I mainly do report writing at the moment, however I also do fieldwork including groundwater sampling, drilling, geoprobing, and geotechnical field services.  Our branch is planning on gaining the ability to do geotech lab analysis sometime within the next year, and I will be largely involved with that aspect of our branch. Nate is working on his photo...
2/15/05 David Waugh 03' I guess since I am soliciting people for news I should start by writing a blurb myself. I graduated with my M.S. in 2003 and am still at Kent working with Dr. Feldmann on my Ph.D. My project includes a continuation of my work on crab cuticle microstructure and some newer work on the taphonomy of decapods. I am also in the final stages of guest editing a issue of The Compass (SGE) for the Kent Geology Department, it should be coming out in the next few months. All this keeps me busy, but I hope that more alumni will submit news and I am happy to be working on this project of keeping in touch with alumni. This winter I went home to NJ for a few weeks; Rob Crawford (almost 06') and his wife Beth came to visit for New Years, we made a pilgrimage to the NJ shore where Rob took this photo.