LOOKING BACKWARD, FACING FORWARD

Abstract

Our year of commemorating the centennial of the Seismological Society of America is drawing to a close. We have had an opportunity to reflect on our long and proud history and to take a fresh look at preserving materials from our early years. During this process someone pointed out to me that I have been the chief staffer at SSA for more than one-third of the Society's existence. Once I recovered from the personal implications of that observation, I began to review the many changes I've seen in my years with SSA. When I arrived in 1970, membership in scientific societies was viewed as a civic duty, a special responsibility to support the advancement of one's field of knowledge. From the early minutes, we can see that the SSA founders had big ambitions for the Society. However, by the time I arrived in January 1970, the identity of SSA was defined as much by what it did not do as by what it did. At some point it had been decided that SSA would focus steadfastly on only two activities: publishing the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America ( BSSA ) and holding annual meetings. Perry Byerly, who ran SSA as its elected secretary from 1930 to 1956, institutionalized this maxim in his 1964 published history. It was quoted frequently to me and to anyone who had the temerity to suggest that SSA take on new things. In the early 1970s, funding for nuclear explosion monitoring prompted a great growth in the number of seismologists and seismic installations. The SSA membership and the number of papers in BSSA grew substantially, too. The San Fernando earthquake in 1971 was my first lesson in how funding flows after a disaster. But even as the science expanded, the Society stayed focused for many years …