GSA Leaders, Past & Present

¹ James Hall (known to historians as James Hall, Jr.) was born in Hingham, Massachusetts, on 12 September 1811 and died of a stroke in Echo Hill, Bethlehem, New Hampshire, on 7 August 1898. Role as a GSA Founder: Hall, like J.D. Dana, was in his 70s during the decade of the 1880s, which culminated with organization of GSA. The main voices in the efforts to organize an American geological society from 1881 to 1888 belonged to younger geologists. But such efforts benefited greatly by the support of recognized "elder statesmen" in the geological profession. Hall was at the Ithaca meeting in 1888 and was honored by being elected as the first President of GSA (and the only President under GSA's first-year name, The American Geological Society). Source: The Founding of The Geological Society of America: A Retrospect on Its Centennial Birthday, 1888–1988.

² James Dwight Dana was born in Utica, New York, on 12 February 1813 and died in New Haven, Connecticut, on 14 April 1895. Role as a GSA Founder: Dana was in his mid-70s when GSA was born in 1888. Although he was not present at the Ithaca meeting on December 27 of that year, as a distinguished elder he had supported the efforts of American geologists to organize a geological society. When the new society was established (the first year as the American Geological Society), Dana was elected First Vice-President of the American Geological Society (1889) and then President of GSA (1890). Source: The Founding of The Geological Society of America: A Retrospect on Its Centennial Birthday, 1888–1988 by Arthur Mirsky.

³ Alexander Winchell was born in the town of Northeast, New York, on 31 December 1824 and died of heart disease in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on 19 February 1891. Role as a GSA Founder: Alexander Winchell was among the first of the active founders to propose the establishment of an American geological society and, more than anyone else, saw the effort through to its successful conclusion. At the August 1881 meeting of the AAAS in Cincinnati, it was Alexander, along with his brother Newton, who led the discussion about the desirability of organizing an independent American geological society. After some years during which the idea was tabled, Alexander chaired the reactivated organizing committee that met in August 1888 at the AAAS meeting in Cleveland and approved the idea of a new society. He continued as chairman of this committee during the succeeding months, culminating in the December meeting in Ithaca when the new society was formally approved and officers elected. Winchell continued another year as chairman of the committee to revise the constitution. Truly, Alexander Winchell could be considered the father of GSA, if anyone should be so acknowledged. He also served GSA as the initial Second Vice-President (1889–1890) and as President (1891), though he did not live to complete his term. Source: The Founding of The Geological Society of America: A Retrospect on Its Centennial Birthday, 1888–1988 by Arthur Mirsky.

⁴ John James Stevenson was born in New York City on 10 October 1841 and died of pneumonia in New York on 10 August 1924. Role as a GSA Founder: Stevenson was one of the most active of the founders of GSA. He was a member of the first committee appointed to consider organizing a geological society at the Cleveland meeting of AAAS on August 14, 1888. He served on the committee charged with writing a provisional constitution and reporting back to the assemblage the next day. He was also Secretary of the organizing committee that, in the following months, distributed the First Circular, and he prepared the Second Circular of organization of the new geological society in October-November 1888. When the new society was finally born on December 27, 1888, Stevenson was elected its first Secretary (1888–1890), and later served as a Councilor (1891), as Second Vice-President (1893), as First Vice-President (1897), and as President (1898). Source: The Founding of The Geological Society of America: A Retrospect on Its Centennial Birthday, 1888–1988 by Arthur Mirsky.

⁵ Herman LeRoy Fairchild was born on a farm near Montrose, Pennsylvania, on 29 April 1850 and died of the infirmities of old age following a fall at his home in Rochester, New York, on 29 November 1943. Role as a GSA Founder: Fairchild was the last survivor of the original 13 founders who attended the Ithaca meeting in 1888. In fact, in 1932 he wrote the history of the founding of GSA, in part because he was the only one left who had been there at the beginning. His first service to the new society was, with Alexander Winchell, to revise the constitution and formulate the bylaws of the just-born GSA. He then served as Secretary (1891–1906) and, during the same period, Supervisor of Publications, thereby taking a leading role in establishing the foundations and the scientific reputation of GSA. He served as GSA President in 1912. Source: The Founding of The Geological Society of America: A Retrospect on Its Centennial Birthday, 1888–1988 by Arthur Mirsky.

⁶ Israel Charles White was born on 1 November 1848, in Monongalia County, Virginia (now West Virginia), and died from a cerebral hemorrhage on 25 November 1927 in Baltimore, Maryland. Role as a GSA Founder: White was in Ithaca, New York, on December 27, 1888, as one of the original 13 founders of GSA. White's stature with regard to Appalachian coals and hydrocarbons was firmly established by this time, but his presence at Ithaca was certainly influenced by his mentor, J.J. Stevenson, another of the original 13. At the Ithaca meeting, White was appointed to the publication committee along with W.M. Davis, J. Le Conte, W.J. McGee, and N.H. Winchell. Perhaps his most significant contribution to GSA was his service as Treasurer (1892–1906). During these 15 years, he served without any compensation to himself or for the running of the office, and he raised the publication fund to $10,000 by investing in first-class interest-bearing securities. He also served as a Councilor (1891), as First Vice-President (1912), and as President (1920, while also President of AAPG). Source: The Founding of The Geological Society of America: A Retrospect on Its Centennial Birthday, 1888–1988 by Arthur Mirsky.

⁷ James Furman Kemp was born on 14 August 1859 in New York and died of a heart attack on 17 November 1926, at Great Neck, Long Island. Role as a GSA Founder: Kemp was a young geologist just beginning his affiliation with Cornell University in Ithaca when the organizing committee met there in 1888 to approve a new geological society. Kemp attended the meeting and supported the new organization. In the years that followed, he became more active with GSA, serving as Councilor (1905–1907), First Vice-President (1913), and President (1921). Source: The Founding of The Geological Society of America: A Retrospect on Its Centennial Birthday, 1888–1988 by Arthur Mirsky.

⁸ Richard Alexander Fullerton Penrose Jr. (17 Dec. 1863–31 July 1931) was an American mining geologist and entrepreneur. He served as the president of GSA in 1930, but his greatest contribution to the Society was his generous bequest of nearly $4 million dollars upon his death in 1931. His bequest continues to support GSA's research grants program and other efforts of the Society. Many say that without this bequest, the Society as we know it would not exist. For example, income from the fund enabled GSA to purchase the land it now occupies on what is aptly named "Penrose Place" in Boulder, Colorado, USA. Background: Penrose earned a Ph.D. from Harvard in 1885. He performed geological surveys in Texas and Arkansas until 1892, and then traveled the U.S. as a mining surveyor. Most notable was his survey of Cripple Creek, Colorado, for the U.S. Geological Survey. After his father died in 1908, Penrose made a complete career change, using his knowledge as a mining geologist to succeed as a mining investor and as an entrepreneur in other areas as well. Penrose refrained from purchasing or investing in mines in the Cripple Creek area because of what he saw as his ethical responsibility as a USGS employee, but did purchase and invest in mines elsewhere, including silver and copper mines in Arizona.

⁹ Henry Shaler Williams was born on 6 March 1847 at Ithaca, New York, and died of pleurisy in Havana, Cuba, on 30 July 1918. Role as a GSA Founder: Williams was Secretary of the committee appointed at the AAAS Cincinnati meeting in 1881 to write a constitution for a proposed new geological society; Williams actually wrote most of the constitution, which was approved by the assembly, but further action was deferred. At the AAAS Cleveland meeting in August 1888, Williams was a member of the reconstituted committee to organize an American geological society. Williams apparently invited the geologists to Ithaca for the meeting of December 27, 1888, at which GSA was born, and Williams and his wife hosted the social gathering that followed. After the new society was established, Williams served GSA as its first Treasurer (1889–1891), as a member of the Council (1892–1894), as Second Vice-President (1903), and as First Vice-President (1904). (Source: The Founding of The Geological Society of America: A Retrospect on Its Centennial Birthday 1888–1988 by Arthur Mirsky)