Memorial to Carl A. Moritz1914-1991

L. L. SLOSSDepartment o f Geological Sciences, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208

Carl Moritz was an extraordinarily good geologist, but it is likely that he will be remembered best as a master player in som e com bination o f h is favo rite ro les— husband, father, g randfather, supportive colleague, exploration counselor, teacher, fie ld and office supervisor, L ittle League coach, valued friend. Good science came to Carl naturally but he really worked hard at these other pursuits.Carl published papers from time to time in learned journals, guidebooks, and trade media, but burdening the literature was not one o f his goals. Rather, he made science live by personal contact with students and associates.

Born to a Kentucky m inister’s family as one o f five siblings, Carl w as introduced to serious geology at the University o f Kansas. Here, like many other budding earth scientists o f his generation at Lawrence, his future was heavily influenced by the ambiance created by R. C. Moore; a career as an applied stratigrapher was ordained. He met another lasting influence, Margaret Learned, during the years at K.U. With B.A. degree in hand, Margie and Carl ventured forth into an uncertain world in 1940. A couple o f years as a graduate student and teaching fellow at Washington University and strategic side excursions to help out the Coast and Geodetic Survey, a coal company, and the Phillips Petroleum Company were followed by and interleaved with further graduate work at Harvard (M.A., 1948, Ph.D., 1950).

It was summertime service for Frank Phillips that brought me into intimate contact with Carl Moritz. We were parts of an exploratory effort in an area that extended from southwestern Montana to central Utah and from the Wyoming thrust belt to the Great Basin and central Idaho. Our ostensible mission was to synthesize the regional stratigraphy in support o f mapping crews charged with finding interesting drilling prospects, an enterprise that was continued under the banner of the Gulf Oil Corporation and which was at least partly responsible for the drilling of several fascinating dry holes (in one such venture involving a picture-perfect sheepherder anticline, the Devonian section was drilled a minimum of three times).

C arl’s years o f Phillips and Gulf summer holidays in the mountains were truncated by health problems that imposed a lower level of physical activity. At the time, 1952, he had been a dedicated academic at Dartmouth for four years, enriching his students with the fruits o f his research and nourishing them with his personal warmth. All this came to an end; Carl and M argaret moved to Tulsa, where Carl’s manifest talents were combined with gifts of a very different sort embodied in Alex W. McCoy III. Alex had been our supervisor when Carl and I worked for both Phillips and Gulf; w ith Carl looking over his shoulder, M cCoy Associates, Inc., was formed to offer consulting services to the burgeoning oil industry. Alex was responsible for the wheeling-dealing chores while Carl assembled expert teams of geologists and engineers for studies o f producing and prospective areas o f the United States and western Canada. C arl’s experience in regional geology and in prospect evaluation, combined w ith innate leadership qualities, was quickly appreciated. Capitalizing on the unlikely union of M cCoy’s brilliant

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entrepreneurship and M oritz’s grip on science and technology, the firm prospered and expanded, opening offices in Denver, Casper, Calgary, and the Appalachian Basin.

Some 34 years after the doctors made dire predictions, Carl gracefully retired to relish the joys of his diverse avocations. Among these was a career-long attachment to GSA; he and Margie took special delight in joining their contemporaries at the annual Senior Fellows reception and were looking forward to the festivities at last year’s San Diego meeting when Carl’s time ran out at the end of September.

Thomas Herndon put it well: “Carl loved the earth sciences with a passion but his family even more.” A note from Margaret after Carl’s death says “I loved him more than life itself.” Tom went on, “If any man’s wife feels that way after fifty-or-so years of their living together, he’s got to have had a lot going for him.” So say all of us!

Printed in U.S.A. on Recycled Paper 11/92