PRESENTATION OF THE CHARLES SCHUCHERT AWARD OF THE PALEONTOLOGICAL SOCIETY TO STEVEN M. HOLLAND

Abstract

It is a great pleasure and honor to introduce this year's Charles Schuchert Awardee, Steven M. Holland: another proud member in the grand lineage of the “Cincinnati school.” In summarizing the contributions of another prominent Cincinnatian, Kenneth Caster once wrote: “[he] was inducted into fossil-hunting early in his youth” in Cincinnati and went on to become a “distinguished professor of paleontology.” These words could well describe this year's Schuchert Award recipient, but they were not written about the awardee, but rather about the award's namesake. Charles E. Schuchert, as Caster noted, was “a self-made paleontologist,” whose formal education comprised “no more than six-grades of elementary education in the Cincinnati public schools.” (A testimony to the excellence of Cincinnati education in the late 1800s! Steve, of course, has had a bit more formal training than Schuchert did.) The Cincinnati area has spawned a disproportionate number of eminent paleontologists: Schuchert and his mentor E. O. Ulrich, Nathaniel Southgate Shaler, Ray Bassler, Auguste Foerste, and many more; including, more recently, Richard Bambach (though claiming no Cincinnatian inspiration!) and Steve Holland, both of whom are being honored this year. Steve grew up in the Cincinnati suburb of Mason and went to Moeller High School in Montgomery (the same school, incidentally, attended by Ken Griffey Jr. and Barry Larkin: maybe Steve could have been a baseball player, but fortunately for us, he chose a “road even less travelled”). Already as a young student, Steve showed great promise and enthusiasm for paleontology. He also took an interest in people. He worked with local amateurs, including last year's Strimple Awardee, Steve Felton, and even volunteered his time at the Cincinnati Museum to help lead field trips with Dr. Richard Davis. This enthusiasm and propensity for teaching has characterized Steve's academic career. After he graduated Summa Cum Laude …