Presentation of the Harrell L. Strimple Award of the Paleontological Society to John and Michael Topor

Abstract

It is a great pleasure to introduce John and Mike Topor as the 2011 recipients of the Paleontological Society's Strimple Award recognizing outstanding contributions to our field by avocational paleontologists. Nearly 40 years ago, John and Mike, two brothers from Hamtramck, Michigan, were encouraged in their interest in paleontology by Professor Robert Kesling of the University of Michigan. Kesling and others, including Ruth Chilman, Jean Wright, and Aurele LaRocque, had just started a group called the “Friends of the University of Michigan Museum of Paleontology” that met monthly in Ann Arbor and provided an informal setting in which a cross-section of professional and avocational paleontologists from southern Michigan and northern Ohio discussed specimens and ideas, planned field trips, and generally shared knowledge of our field. John and Mike soon became two of the most conscientious and energetic supporters of this group, managing work and family obligations so that they could attend these meetings each month, despite the two hour round trip. They continue today as core contributors to this group, frequently having served as its president and on its board of directors. John and Mike have collected fossils at many localities in the U.S. and Canada, but they soon developed a special affinity for Middle Devonian exposures along the Ausable River near Arkona and Thedford, Ontario. For over 30 years, they have maintained a three-season program of weekend fieldwork in one or another of the Arkona-area quarries, systematically collecting the full range of its marine fauna. Tireless, observant, and ingenious in the field, they realized that the disarticulated and fragmented remains that were abundant on surface exposures and that had satisfied other collectors for generations were the end-products of weathering and disaggregation of initially much more intact specimens preserved at depth in poorly indurated shales. By taking the time to excavate …