Society of Economic Geologists Ralph W. Marsden Award for 2008: Citation of Frederick T. Graybeal

Abstract

Mr. President, fellow SEG members, guests, and others assembled: I am very pleased to introduce Dr. Frederick T. Graybeal as the 2008 recipient of the Ralph W. Marsden Award for “outstanding service to the Society” of Economic Geologists. I have known Fred for 35 years and from time to time have half-listened to descriptions and commentary concerning various SEG business in which he was involved. When I recently coerced from Fred some details of his committee activities, committees known by name only to most SEG members, I realized that Fred, in a somewhat clandestine life, has been one of the silent operators who keeps SEG afloat and moving forward. Those operators can be quiet, named only on the inside back cover of Economic Geology , their operations mostly unpublicized, and their impact largely unrecognized, until a proper moment, which is now. Frederick T. Graybeal, Fred to everyone, unquestionably deserves the Marsden Award. Service to the Society can be viewed as two components: one is direct participation in the committees, conferences, publications, correspondence, and reporting behind Society functioning. The second is professional work in the …