Acceptance of the SEG Silver Medal Award for 2001

Abstract

President Dummett, members and friends of the Society of Economic Geologists: To be selected for the Silver Medal, and to join what I consider to be a remarkable list of past recipients of the medal, is indeed a great honor. It is humbling to be recognized by one’s peers for accomplishments that stemmed from the tremendous opportunities I’ve had over the last two decades to work in outstanding field locations with many exceptional people. In fact, I wouldn’t be standing up here today were it not for the good fortune I’ve had working and interacting with so many colleagues and friends in government, industry, and academia. Come to think of it, I’d probably be some type of accountant in New York City, if it weren’t for a chance encounter back in undergraduate school in 1973. I was an unhappy math major at the time and wandered into the room of a good friend who now runs the best bagel shop in California. I happened to ask him what he was majoring in and he said geology, something I knew nothing about, and when I questioned him on what that involved, he replied, mainly hiking around the woods and drinking beer. That sounded good to me and I signed up the next day for a geology major. I’d like to acknowledge the late Denis Marchand for thereafter keeping me focused through my remaining undergraduate days and eventually dragging me out to the western United States and introducing me to Cordilleran geology, although at that time from a geomorphologist’s viewpoint. The person that actually is responsible for subsequently getting me off the streets of San Francisco and into economic geology …