Strimple Award Research Articles

Presentation of the 2010 Harrell L. Strimple Award of the Paleontological Society to J. S. H. “Joe” Collins

This evening, it is an honor and delight to present to you Mr. J. S. H. Collins, known universally as Joe, who is the 2010 recipient of the Harrell L. Strimple Award. Joe was born within the sound of Bow Bells and brought up in London, and a worse place to develop an interest in field paleontology is hard to imagine. Favorite trips into town as a schoolboy included visits to the British Museum (Natural History) and Geological Museum in South Kensington. When he was ten years old, Joe was presented with his first book on paleontology, Webster Smith's ‘The World in its Past’ (1931). Finally, a school trip to Lyme Regis in 1939 gave young naturalist Joe his first taste of collecting fossils, one he enjoyed. Meanwhile, across the North Sea, Adolf Hitler was (inadvertently) doing what he could to encourage Joe's collecting. Evacuation to a small village near Liphook in Hampshire on the outbreak of war allowed Joe to further pursue his interests in natural history, mainly in entomology. After the war, Joe was in the Royal Navy for 16 days before being discharged ‘visually unfit for naval service’, a strange pronouncement for a man whose descriptions of fossil crustaceans abound with minute observations. Joe then worked for the Wellcome Foundation as an animal technologist in the Immunology and Histopathological departments for 21 years. From 1967 he owned a secondhand bookshop, specializing in natural history, from which he retired in 1989. All the while he was developing his interest in paleontology, and particularly decapod and cirripede crustaceans, the first specimens of which he collected from the Cretaceous Gault Clay in 1947. S.K.D. has been corresponding and working with the awardee since the late 1980s, so he reckons to know Joe's abilities and achievements well. Joe Collins has made an …

Presentation of the 2008 Harrell L. Strimple Award of the Paleontological Society to Thomas C. Witherspoon

It is my honor and great pleasure to introduce Thomas C. Witherspoon, recipient of this year's Strimple Award for outstanding accomplishment in paleontology by an amateur. This award recognizes his prolific collection, preparation, documentation, and donation of hundreds of thousands of invertebrate fossils to dozens of schools, colleges, universities and museums. Tom Witherspoon is an enthusiastic, tireless, and lifelong champion of paleontology and of elementary, secondary, and collegiate education. He is richly deserving of this recognition by the Paleontological Society. The Strimple Award is often given to individuals who have made contributions in a specific area of paleontology, focused on a particular time interval or systematic group, or who have had a close association with one or more professional paleontologists. The winner this year, Tom Witherspoon, fits a slightly different model, what we may call the “Johnny Appleseed” model of accomplishment in paleontology. Tom Witherspoon was born in 1921. As a boy, he moved to Dearborn, Michigan, where he and Catherine, his wife of 64 years, reside to this day. Tom graduated from the University of Detroit in 1955 with a Bachelor's degree in Education. After earning his Master's degree a few years later, Tom continued his teaching career at the John C. McDonald Elementary School in Dearborn. There, for the next 29 years, Tom taught science to fifth and or sixth graders. Tom became interested in fossils and the history of life on Earth from the textbook he used in these classes. To learn more, he went to the Cranbrook Institute of Science Museum …

Presentation of the 2009 Harrel L. Strimple Award of the Paleontological Society to David Kohls

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Presentation of the 2007 Harrel L. Strimple Award of the Paleontological Society to Norman D. Rowe

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PRESENTATION OF THE HARREL L. STRIMPLE AWARD OF THE PALEONTOLOGICAL SOCIETY TO CHRISTOPHER L. GARVIE

It is a great pleasure for us to introduce to you Christopher L. Garvie, this year's recipient of the Strimple award for outstanding accomplishment in paleontology by an amateur. This is well-deserved recognition for his significant contributions to the paleontology of the Paleogene of the western Gulf Coast. Chris was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, and grew up in Hamburg, Germany, and London, England. He majored in Mathematics and Physics at the University of Aberdeen and was awarded a Special Merit Certificate in Mathematics upon his graduation. He has pursued a career in software development with extensive experience in aerospace systems design, simulation, and testing, and in a variety of manufacturing and financial applications. During his professional life, he has worked for a large number of major corporations in these fields in England, France, Germany, and in the United States. This has provided the opportunity for him, once he became interested in paleontology, to collect from classic sites and through a wide stratigraphic range. He collected his first fossil from the Eocene of northwestern Washington while living in Seattle. Soon afterwards, he was living in Munich and began to collect from the Solnhofen Limestone in Bavaria. The Altmuhltal is a delightful pastoral setting in which to look for fossils, but we also suspect that another strong incentive was …

C. W. Wright: a most professional amateur

Claud William Wright (born 1917) is the author of almost 150 articles and monographs, the first published as a fifteen-year-old schoolboy in 1932, the latest published in 2003. The scope of his research spans Cretaceous stratigraphy, ammonites, echinoids, asteroids and crabs, and includes chapters in the Geological Survey Memoir on the Geology of the Country around Weymouth, Swanage, Corfe and Lulworth, the Palaeontolo-graphical Society Monographs The Ammonoidea of the Lower Chalk, The Ammonoidea of the Plenus Marls and Middle Chalk, British Cretaceous Crabs and British Cretaceous Echinoids . He is the author of the Cretaceous Ammonoidea volume of the Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, and the asteroid section of the Echinodermata volumes. His researches have been recognized by the award of the Prestwich Medal of the Geological Society of London, the Stamford Raffles Award of the Zoological Society of London, the Foulerton Award of the Geologists' Association, the Strimple Award of the Paleontological Society of North America, the H.H. Bloomer Award of the Linnean Society, and Honorary Doctorates from the Universities of Hull and Uppsala. Of most note is that all of this was achieved by an amateur, whose professional career was as a Senior Civil Servant in Whitehall, first in the War Office and Ministry of Defence, thereafter in the Department of Education. Childhood collections made with his brother Edward Vere Wright (d. 2001) in Yorkshire led to joint publications, not only in geology and palaeontology, but also archaeology, most notably on the discovery of the North Ferriby Bronze Age boats. This collaboration extended through the war years and into the 1950s. A seminal encounter as an Oxford undergraduate was with W.J. Arkell, and this led to the progression from naturalist to scientist of international reputation in an active and prolific career as a most professional amateur, spanning seventy years.

PRESENTATION OF THE HARRELL L. STRIMPLE AWARD OF THE PALEONTOLOGICAL SOCIETY TO WESLEY C. WEHR

The week before Wes Wehr received the Harrell L. Strimple Award, an article appeared in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer with the headline: “Wes Wehr: Artist, Writer, Paleobotanist.” The night before the award luncheon, the Washington State Museum, commonly called the Burke, held a party in Wes's honor. The party was attended by artists, art historians, critics, carvers, art museum curators and directors, musicians, writers, poets, anthropologists, librarians, archivists, students, a state representative, and not a few paleontologists. It is fair to say that throughout his career, Wes has been an exporter of paleontology, and we are all the better for it. Wes was born in Everett, Washington, in 1929 and was trained as a classical music composer. Quiet and curious by nature, he collected agates and the signatures of interesting people. His requests for a signature sometimes grew into …

PRESENTATION OF THE HARRELL L. STRIMPLE AWARD OF THE PALEONTOLOGICAL SOCIETY TO HANS HESS

Madame President, members of the Paleontological Society and guests, it is with the greatest pleasure that I introduce this year's recipient of the Harrell L. Strimple Award, Dr. Hans Hess. Hans has no formal university training in paleontology. Instead, after earning his doctorate in microbiology, he spent his salaried career in the pharmaceutical industry, retiring in 1991 as head of Pharmacy Research and Development of the Ciba-Geigy Corporation. Hans published more than 40 scientific titles in this career, including an edited book on biopharmaceutics, but he is here today because of many important contributions to paleontology. Hans' reviewers have high praise for his paleontological work: “=ual to the best the academic community has produced”; “consistently high standards”; “presentation and illustration of fossil material are second to none.” Our award is appropriate, but we are not the first to recognize the significance of Hans' research. He was awarded an honorary doctorate for his paleontological contributions at the University of Basel in 1989 and the Bloomer Award of the Linnean Society of London in 1991. His honorary degree is rare recognition because Hans' doctorate in microbiology was from the same institution, which does not usually recognize one of its own with an honorary degree. Since 1950, Hans has published some 60 titles treating all the post-Paleozoic echinoderm groups, but perhaps most striking is his recent book “Fossil Crinoids.” Hans was the senior author, and he was described by one of his co-authors as “very much the inspiration and driving force.” The book has been widely praised for its scope, excellence of illustration, and originality of approach. Hans edited the book and authored or co-authored 15 chapters and the appendices. The other contributors were Bill Ausich, Carl Brett, and Mike Simms. Hans perhaps is best known for his work on crinoids and ophiuroids, …

Presentation of the Harrell L. Strimple Award of the Paleontological Society to Hans Hess

Presentation of the Harrell L. Strimple Award of the Paleontological Society to Hans Hess

Presentation of the Harrell L. Strimple Award to Stephen Felton

Presentation of the Harrell L. Strimple Award to Stephen Felton

PRESENTATION OF THE HARRELL L. STRIMPLE AWARD TO STEPHEN FELTON

In Cincinnati we are very fortunate to have the support of one of the nation's most active and well-informed groups of amateur paleontologists, the Dry Dredgers, founded in 1942 by Ken Caster. Steve Felton has been a member of the Dry Dredgers for 30 yr. During this time Steve has been unquestionably the most knowledgeable member of this enthusiastic group. He has also been the most helpful to professional paleontologists, students, and fellow amateurs among a group of amateurs who are generally very willing to help others in paleontological endeavors. Steve contributes to paleontology in a wide variety of ways, ranging from volunteer presentations at local schools to providing advice to researchers and graduate students to carrying out his own research program. In these activities he has been unflagging in his interest and involvement with research and graduate education at the University of Cincinnati over the 26 yr I have known him. I will briefly share with you some of the many ways Steve has earned our recognition through the Strimple Award. Steve Felton is first and foremost, an astute observer of the complexities and subtleties of Cincinnatian stratigraphy. Early on, I learned about Cincinnatian stratigraphy from Steve. As a newcomer to the region, I was bewildered with the great thickness of seemingly undifferentiated limestone and shale, and wondered how one could ever recognize key horizons. I well remember an early field trip with Steve, a “grand tour” of the Western Hills, on which he pointed out many key outcrops and horizons. It soon became clear to me that Steve had a keen eye for stratigraphic and paleontologic detail, and possessed a vast knowledge of …

PRESENTATION OF THE HARRELL L. STRIMPLE AWARD TO DEAN PEARSON

Dean Pearson functions as a professional paleontologist on all levels and is making amazing contributions to the paleontology of southwestern North Dakota. At 43, he is probably the youngest Strimple Award winner but his contributions easily merit the recognition of this award. In his two day jobs, Dean is a feed mill manager at Equity Feeds on Scranton, North Dakota and is the Bowman County Emergency Manager. He has had a strong interest in the natural world and paleontology since the age of six when he found a fragment of fossil turtle shell on a hike with his father to the top of Chalky Butte, the highest point in North Dakota. In 1983, in an attempt to revisit that site, a 26-yr-old Dean found the humerus of a fossil rhinoceros, which re-ignited his interest in fossils. He contacted the North Dakota Geological Survey, who put him in touch with John Hoganson, a newly hired paleontologist. John introduced him to Mike Williams from the Cleveland Museum of Natural History who was collecting dinosaur fossils in the Hell Creek Formation and Dean began to work with Mike. This began a pattern where Dean would meet and work with visiting professionals. He learned from them and eventually began to collaborate with them. Now they come to him for advice. Dean is a voracious reader and his ability to acquire knowledge is one of his more impressive talents. He takes careful notes and asks thoughtful and practical questions. And he remembers …

Presentation of the Harrell L. Strimple Award to Dean Pearson

Presentation of the Harrell L. Strimple Award to Dean Pearson

Presentation of the 1999 Harrell L. Strimple Award to the Aranguti Family

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Response by Legrand Smith: For the Harrell L. Strimple Award, October 1998

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Presentation of the 1998 Harrell L. Strimple Award to Legrand Smith

Presentation of the 1998 Harrell L. Strimple Award to Legrand Smith

Presentation of the Harrell L. Strimple Award of the Paleontological Society to Hans Hagdorn

Presentation of the Harrell L. Strimple Award of the Paleontological Society to Hans Hagdorn

Presentation of the Harrell L. Strimple Award of the Paleontological Society to William D. and Lois J. Pitt

Presentation of the Harrell L. Strimple Award of the Paleontological Society to William D. and Lois J. Pitt

Presentation of the Harrell L. Strimple Award of the Paleontological Society to Marshall E. Lambert

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Presentation of the Harrell L. Strimple Award of The Paleontological Society to Ross E. Berglund

Presentation of the Harrell L. Strimple Award of The Paleontological Society to Ross E. Berglund