Presentation of the 2016 Harrell L. Strimple Award of the Paleontological Society to Samuel J. Ciurca, Jr.

Abstract

Among the hosts of amateur fossil collectors, very few attain the status of “world authority” or “living legends.” But this year’s Strimple Award winner, Mr. Samuel J. Ciurca, Jr., deserves both of these titles. Google eurypterids and you will find an image of a wiry man up to his knees in water, hauling a “living eurypterid” from the sea: meet Sam Ciurca, posing with a cleverly crafted model of one of the largest eurypterids, he discovered, a 1.3 m Pterygotus . I have known of Sam for nearly four decades. I got to know him quite well when I began teaching at the University of Rochester and I am still working with him to this day. Indeed, in some ways he was already mentoring students when I arrived at Rochester. My first Master’s student, Richard Hamell (who did a study of the famed eurypterid-bearing upper Silurian Bertie Dolostone), was a disciple of Mr. Ciurca, who, even then, was nicknamed “Sam the eurypterid man.” At the time, Sam worked as a chemist for the Eastman Kodak Company, but his true passion was field study of eurypterid beds. Sam began his geological pursuits as a teenager in the early 1960s with initial interests in minerals and petrified wood. Sam started to document and disseminate his findings early on: he wrote an article on celestite in upper Silurian units in 1962, and even had a “petrified wood museum” for public view. It …