Rocknocker: A Geologist’s Memoir. George Devries Klein
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the quarry, I immediately observed three such stacked vertical sequences in the quarry face. I introduced myself to the quarryman and began working, measuring a section and taking samples. After a half-hour, the quarryman came to me and said (spelled phonetically):
“Ya know, Englund was coovered by the sea three toimes.”
I asked him why he thought so and he pointed to the base and top of each of one of my vertical sequences!!
I then asked him why three events. Couldn’t it have happened during a single episode of marine drowning?
He said, “Well, ya know, the lite professor Arkell told me that England was coovered by the sea three toimes.”
He had a contract to quarry limestone for restoration of the college buildings at Oxford. He explained that to quarry the building stone, he scraped off the limy mudstone at the top, and cut down to just above the fossil bed to get good quality stone.
I made many trips back to the quarry, and brought geologists from all over the UK to show these sequences.
That experience was a good reminder that people lacking formal education can make accurate scientific observations and ask intelligent questions about them. It was a sobering reminder that although I made a sedimentological discovery, there were forebears who had seen these features too. The difference in understanding was timing and training.
The summer ended and on my return to Pitt, I immediately wrote a short paper about the three tidal channel sequences in the Great Oolite, submitted it to Nature, and they published it in mid-February, 1963. I also wrote Gerry Middleton inquiring if he wanted a carbonate talk in his 1964 SEPM Research symposium and enclosed a preprint of my Nature paper. He invited me to present a paper at the 1984 SEPM symposium.
The fall began with nothing unusual on the horizon. In Late September, the Pennsylvania Association of Geologists held its field trip in Somerset, PA, and I brought my class. John Rodgers wrote earlier that he was attending the trip, so I invited him to stay with me the Saturday the trip ended, and to join me and Bob Hodgen and Bob’s wife for dinner. He accepted. Bob Hodgen read my GSA paper on Triassic sedimentation, because it was published the week before, and congratulated me. Rodgers had not seen it yet and complimented me on getting it published so quickly.
I served as department colloquium chairman that year and discovered that Robert S. Dietz of the Naval Electronics Research lab was to be an AAPG Distinguished Lecturer at the October evening meeting of the Pittsburgh Geological Society (PGS) discussing plate tectonics. By this time, I was elected to PGS’s council. Because Frederickson just hired Alvin Cohen, an Illinois PhD glass chemist who was conducting tectite research, I called Dietz to see if he could also present a colloquium about meteorites to the department. He told me to contact AAPG to get approval and it was granted.
I met Dietz at 7:00 am at the Pittsburgh airport and checked him into the Pittsburgh Hilton. He hung his clothes, left his brief case in the room, and took his slides with him. He visited different faculty in the department, gave his talk, and we returned to the Pittsburgh Hilton. I dropped him off to park my car, walked back, and waited in the lobby. He didn’t come. I picked up the house phone and called. Bob asked me to come to his room. When I arrived he explained he returned to the room, took his clothes off to take a shower, and after drying off, opened the closet to pick a different suit. His clothes and luggage were missing. He was on the hotel’s case, but luckily, he kept his slides.
I called the restaurant where PGS had its meeting and asked to speak to the PGS President, Scotty Affleck, to let him know we were running late. Eventually, Dietz gave his talk, and met everyone. I connected with Dietz two weeks later at the GSA meeting in Houston and he told me everything was found. The hotel mistakenly switched keys giving him keys to the room next to the one where his luggage was.
GSA that fall was in Houston and I went on a field trip led by H. A. Bernard (BS, PhD, LSU, sedimentology; Shell Research), Rufus LeBlanc (BS, PhD, LSU, sedimentology; Shell Research) and Charles Major (BS, MS, Illinois, geology; Shell, Pennzoil) to the Holocene sediments of Galveston Island and the Brazos River Valley. It was the same trip used by Shell for its training program. It was the best part of the meeting. I took numerous slides of both sedimentary features, and all their color diagrams. These were used for many years in my courses.
On my return, I noticed the atmosphere changed. First, Mrs. Kinch was fired. Freddy hired a Mrs. Orso to replace her and she was barely up to the job. One day, Joe Lipson chewed me out about a trivial matter I can’t recall. There was tension between me and Buckwalter over the way I taught mineralogy because he had to revise his petrology course. Frederickson suddenly cooled towards me. A friend in Tulsa called to alert me to some news I did not know. Pan Am Research fired Harry Werner and he was looking for a job. I was warned that at Pan Am Research, Harry was Frederickson’s lap dog.
Originally, Fred tried to hire Werner to teach petroleum geology, but the administration declined because of the recent hiring of Alvin Cohen. Because I was untenured, my position became vulnerable.
In December, Martin Bender died. Frederickson asked me to teach his historical geology for one semester on an emergency basis and I agreed. When I heard Martin died, I anticipated such a request so was prepared to help out.
In early February, Frederickson called me in and told me my faculty appointment would not be renewed. The tenure committee of Frederickson, Buckwalter, Lipson and Flint chose to turn me down. This came as a surprise because I was never asked for an up-dated CV, reprints, or other supporting documents. I asked why and he told me people found me difficult, students complained about my teaching, high standards, and my demanding workload in courses.
I visited my colleagues to get feedback and got little help.
Some of the graduate students were shocked by this turn of events. They were satisfied with their course experiences with me. One with whom I became friends over time was Dick Gray (BS, Engineering, Carnegie Tech, MS, Geology, Pittsburgh, various engineering consulting firms, past member of GSA Council). With an engineering background, he keyed in on sedimentary processes quickly and led both my graduate classes. He had an exemplary career with various engineering firms including his own, served on the GSA Council, and was North American President of an international engineering geology association. From my perspective, he could have made it anywhere, something I found true of many students every place I taught as a permanent and visiting faculty member, or when teaching industry short courses.
I contacted people around the country to get job leads so I could apply for other positions. I contacted John Sanders, and Carl Dunbar who was spending a year at KU as a visiting professor. In his letter back, Dunbar wrote “once emeritus, stay emeritus.” I also contacted Moore, Foley and Hambleton. Soon, I had a list of leads, but they did not interest me. I applied anyway.
A week later, Frederickson wrote a memo ordering me to cancel my summer plans because I was to teach summer school. I went to David Halliday, Dean the College of Science to object. Halliday explained course staffing was the responsibility of the department head and he could not intervene. He asked me to keep him informed as developments occurred.
I was also advised by friends to move key papers, rock collections, and personal items from my office to my apartment, which I did nights and weekends.
During late-February, a box was delivered to the entrance door of Freddie’s office but left in the Hall. One night I read the visible packing slip and it was a tumbler for polishing jewelry. The packing slip showed that the tumbler was charged to Frederickson’s PRF (Petroleum Research Fund) research grant. Two Sundays later, while packing things in my office, I heard a noise in the hall from Freddie’s office. As I left the building and passed his office, I noticed the box was missing. Frederickson was loading it into the trunk of his car while I entered the parking garage. I said, “Good Morning Dr Frederickson.” He jerked up, hit his head on the trunk lid and turned around red in the face, but said nothing. Clearly, this item was bought for personal use and I let Dean Halliday know.
I made arrangements to attend AAPG in Houston. I interviewed for a position at San Diego State University, but it was a poor match.
On my return, Frederickson