Harold Norman Fisk as a consultant to the Mississippi River Commission, 1948–1964 — an eye-witness account

Abstract

Fisk was born near Medford, Oregon, in 1908 and received his B.S. degree in Geology in 1930 and his M.S. degree in Geology at the University of Oregon. After obtaining his Ph.D. in Geology at the University of Cincinnati, he joined the Louisiana Geological Survey (LGS) in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where he conducted research on the geology of four parishes in central Louisiana. His research results were published as LGS Bulletin No. 10 in 1938 and Bulletin No. 18 in 1940. The region mapped by Fisk included about 750 square miles (1940 km 2) of the Lower Mississippi Valley (LMV). General Max Tyler, President of the Mississippi River commission (MRC) in Vicksburg, Mississippi, became aware of Fisk's descriptions of abandoned courses of the Mississippi River. Tyler employed Fisk as a consultant in June 1941 to conduct a geological investigation of the LMV over a period of 2 years. A few days after I had completed my master's thesis under his supervision, Fisk selected me to be his assistant on the project. In addition, three other geologists were assigned to Fisk's staff. William Hendy, Ronald Mabrey and Robert Smith. I accompanied Fisk to Tyler's office numerous times when Fisk presented “live progress reports”. His presentations, with the aid of many maps, were absolutely amazing and exciting. Tyler was always eager to acquire new knowledge about the great river that he was trying to control. The political climate in the MRC was not very favorable and Fisk was not a diplomat. There were varying degrees of resentment and resistance to Fisk's geological studies by some MRC engineers. Fisk believed that most of the MRC engineers were smart, dedicated, and practical individuals and he was confident that he could convince them that his research would be rewarding in many ways. Fisk did not have to wait very long. The success of the original 2-year project was so great that Fisk and his staff continued to study LMV for five more years. Fisk was always much more than a consultant to the MRC. He was a very hard working and demanding boss of the staff and the amount of time that he devoted to the project was always much greater than his contract called for. Each geologist reported directly to Fisk and he always assumed full responsibility for all results submitted to the MRC. Fisk resigned as Professor of Geology at Louisiana State University (LSU) in July of 1948 to become Chief of the Geologic Research Section of the Humble Oil and Refining Company in Houston, Texas. Humble permitted Fisk to continue as consultant to MRC and the US Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station (WES) at no cost to MRC. After attaining international recognition, Fisk died in Houston at the age of 56 in 1964. The world lost one of its finest geologists and I lost my former professor, boss, competitor and very close personal friend and colleague.