Biografia transcrita por Rubem Queiroz Cobra do site
The Geological Society of America – Memorials
Visitado em 07-02-2011
MEMORIAL TO ROBERT C. SPEED
Program from 1980 to 1992, and he edited the resulting volume of GSA’s Decade of North American Geology, writing several of its sections. He also chaired several panels of the Ocean Drilling Program from 1980 to 1990 and was principal investigator for an ODP-sponsored well drilled on Barbados in 1992.
At the end of 2001, Bob retired from Northwestern University as Professor Emeritus of Geological Sciences. Five days later, in January 2002, he took up residence in the Department of Earth System Science at the University of California, Irvine. Besides teaching introductory geology courses, he began to investigate the western margin of the Santa Ana Mountains of southern California, which he could see from the window of his office at UC Irvine. There, he identified apreviously unrecognized right-lateral strike-slip fault zone that implied active deformation and aseismic hazard. He began collaborating with Lisa Grant of UC Irvine and first transcribed his field notes onto paper in August 2003. Bob’s final field excursion was a trip to this site in a wheelchair with his maps on his lap three days before he died at home on Balboa Island of melanoma on September 18, 2003.
Bob leaves behind family, friends, and colleagues who treasure and miss his strength, caring, and affection.
“…vital force…heart…that impulse which drives a man to choose one of the innumerable paths of life, and to care only for that one…”
(Tolstoy, Anna Karenina).
Nicely done, Bob; lead on.
Acknowledgement
Thanks to John Oldow, Dave Larue, and Christine Speed for their contributions to this memorial.