Robert N. Thomas

Bob Thomas, emeritus professor at Michigan State University, noted for his scholarship on the geography of Latin America, passed away on May 8, 2015, at the age of 88.

Robert N. Thomas was born on July 17, 1926, in Pittsburgh. He studied first at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and earned a bachelor’s degree in geography and social science education in 1950. Following this he taught high school geography and science in Oakmont, PA, his former high school, and in the Hampton Township schools.

While teaching, he continued his own education, earning a master’s degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 1958. In 1960 he returned to Indiana University of Pennsylvania as a professor of geography and taught there until 1969. During this period he also undertook a PhD in geography at Pennsylvania State University and served as an urban planning advisor for the U.S. Agency for International Development in Guatemala (1965 and 1966), as well as supporting a young family.

One of his sons, Scott, reminiscing about his childhood, noted how his father encouraged travel and the discovery of new places; the family took every opportunity to take a trip somewhere. “When summer vacation time came around the corner, I think we sometimes just flipped a coin to decide North, South, East or West. By the time I was out of high school we had driven through every state in the Continental United States except for one.”

Not only that but “when my father was working on collecting data for his doctoral thesis we even drove all the way to Guatemala. Not once, but twice! And when more research was needed, we drove even further to spend a summer in Honduras.”

Scott also remembered lots of gatherings at their family house in Indiana of students from different nationalities from Japan to South America.

Having been awarded his doctorate in 1968, Thomas moved to Michigan State University (MSU) in 1969 to join the geography faculty, where he stayed until his retirement.

Thomas’ research interests were in the geography of Latin America, particularly population, migration and tourism. He traveled extensively throughout the Central American countries, Mexico, the Caribbean islands, and South America. In 1972 he was a Fulbright Scholar to Colombia.

He became the assistant director of MSU’s Latin American Studies Center in 1974 and its director in 1985. He authored and co-authored dozens of research articles published in academic journals and edited three books including Population growth and urbanization in Latin America: the rural-urban interface with John Hunter and Scott Whiteford (published 1981).

Thomas was a dedicated lecturer who greatly enjoyed teaching undergraduate courses, not only on the geography of Latin America, but also on the geography of North America and population geography. His classrooms were always full and students had only favorable comments about his courses.

Beyond the classroom, he took both undergraduate and graduate students on field experiences in Cuba, Mexico and across Latin America, exposing them to different cultures and environments.

He was a founding member of the Conference of Latin Americanist Geographers. He was also a member of the Association of American Geographers, the National Council for Geographic Education, American Geographical Society, National Geographic Society, and the Geography Commission of the Pan American Institute of Geography and History (PAIGH).

Thomas retired in 1990 but, as emeritus professor, continued to be active in research, writing, teaching and participating in departmental activities. Through MSU’s Office of Study Abroad he continued to direct and accompany students on international field experiences. He also worked on several monographs concerning his travels and experiences in Latin America. In 1999, Thomas and his wife established a Geography Endowment Fund at MSU to support geography-related student activities.

He also maintained a strong alliance with Indiana University of Pennsylvania over five decades, acting as a mentor to geography graduates and contributing to the Geography and Planning Faculty Scholarship Fund.

Beyond the two universities, he lectured on cruises to Latin America and also engaged in community service as a speaker for Rotary clubs and in public schools.

Thomas was named an honorary affiliate of the Pan American Institute of Geography and History in 2005. Indiana University of Pennsylvania honored him as a distinguished alumnus in 2007 for his achievements in academia, his contributions as an educator, his service as a mentor, and his authoritative knowledge of population geography and tourism in Latin America.

Despite declining visual ability, Thomas maintained his office at MSU, visiting the geography building almost every day, including the day he passed away. He inspired generations of students with a fascination for Latin America and was a major influence in the careers of many geography graduates. He will be missed tremendously by both colleagues and students.

Bob is survived by his wife Dorothy of 60 years, their two sons, Scott and Robert, his wife Cari, and their two sons Colin and Connor.

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Matthias Kuhle

Matthias Kuhle, physical geographer and a leading expert on high mountain regions from the University of Göttingen in Germany, died in the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck Nepal on April 25, 2015.

Kuhle was born in Berlin on April 20, 1948. His undergraduate studies at the Free University of Berlin spanned German philology, geography and philosophy. After graduating in 1972 he moved to the University of Göttingen where he was to remain for the rest of his career.

His PhD was in the natural sciences, specifically geography, geology and philosophy with a dissertation on the geomorphology and former glaciation of South-Iranian high mountains. Awarded his doctorate in 1975, he moved on to further research and achieved his habilitation in geography in 1980 with a monograph entitled Dhaulagiri- and Annapurna Himalaya: A Contribution to the Geomorphology of Extreme High Mountains.

In 1983 he became a Professor of Geography at the University of Göttingen and in 1990 was promoted to Professor of Geography and High Mountain Geomorphology.

Kuhle’s passion was high mountain regions but his academic interest was broad, spanning ecology, periglacial and glacial geomorphology, climatology, paleoclimatology and glaciology, as well as tourism and transport issues.

His specialism took him to the mountain ranges and plateaus of High and Central Asia, to the Andes and to the Arctic. In fact, he undertook more than 50 field expeditions to high mountain areas over the course of his career, many of them lasting for several months.

A particular research interest was seeking to reconstruct the former ice cover in High and Central Asia caused by the plate tectonic-induced uplift of the Tibetan Plateau and surrounding mountain areas above the snowline. Based on measurements of radiation energy and budget in these high altitude subtropical areas, he developed a theory that ice sheetcovered practically the entire Tibetan Plateau during the Pleistocene.

Kuhle produced a large number of academic papers on his field-based research in leading geography, geology and scientific journals. He also had an interest in science theory and co-authored a number of papers with his wife.

He was leading a student fieldtrip to Nepal, sharing his passion and knowledge for high mountains with the next generation, when the enormous earthquake struck. The group was in a remote area called Yaruphant just 10 miles from the epicenter and was caught in a rock fall; the students and assistant survived but Kuhle sadly died.

Kuhle leaves behind his wife, Sabine, and loving family.

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Stephen White

Steve White, former Head of the Geography Department at Kansas State University, passed away on March 21, 2015, aged 67.

Stephen E. White was born on April 15, 1947, in Frankfort, Kentucky. His academic studies were all at the University of Kentucky, where he gained a bachelor’s degree in 1969, a master’s degree in 1972 and a doctorate in 1974.

He spent his career at Kansas State University rising up the ranks as Assistant Professor (1975-1980), Associate Professor (1980-1985) and Professor (from 1985).

White taught courses on world regional geography, world population patterns, geography of the United States, human geography, and perception of the environment.

He was recognized for his excellence as a teacher. Kansas State University awarded him the Conoco Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award in 1988 and the William L. Stamey teaching award in 1989. In 1991, the National Council for Geographic Education bestowed on him the Distinguished Teaching Achievement Award for Excellence in Geography.

Broadly, his research interests were human-environment interactions, population and health geographies, and rural and regional geography all with particular reference to Southwestern Kansas, the Great Plains and Appalachia. Among the focuses of his research was the issue of water, particular in the High Plains region; he researched and wrote about water use and irrigation, groundwater depletion, water management and policy, and water rights.

In all, White authored or co-authored over 75 articles and book chapters, one of which was awarded the Journal of Geography Award for Best Content Article in 1987. Among his many interesting publications were his 1994 paper in the Annals of the AAG entitled “Ogallala Oases: Water Use, Population Redistribution, and Policy Implications in the High Plains of Western Kansas, 1980-1990” and his 1998 paper in Rural Sociology on “Migration Trends in the Kansas Ogallala Region and the Internal Colonial Dependency Model.” He also co-authored the population geography chapter in the first volume of Geography in America edited by Gary Galle and Cort Willimott (1989).

At Kansas State, White served as Head of the Geography Department from 1979 to 1987 and again from 1994 to 1998. Following his second stint at the helm of the geography department, he joined the institutional management as Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences (1997-2002). Following the departure of the incumbent Dean, he became Interim Dean before being appointed fully to the position in 2003.

White became a member of the Association of American Geographers in 1972. He was designated as an AAG Outstanding Teacher-Scholar from 1995 to 2000 and served as the AAG delegate to the American Council of Learned Societies. He also had a stint as President of the Population Specialty Group and was awarded the Contemporary Agriculture and Rural Land Use Specialty Group John Fraser Hart Award for Research Excellence in 2001.

White was also a member of the National Council for Geographic Education and served on their Teaching Awards Task Force and Journal of Geography Awards Task Force.

Aside from his recognition for teaching and research, the award he was most proud of was the Manhattan Parks and Recreation Department 1988 Youth Baseball Coach of the Year for Cookie League.

Steve is survived by wife, Susan; sons, Eric and Ben; and grandchildren, Jaden, Ellie, Dominic and Mattie; as well as his mother and stepfather, Doris and R.L. Marshall; and his three brothers and their families.

There will be a memorial session commemorating Steve’s life and academic contributions at the AAG’s Annual Meeting in San Francisco in 2016. Please contact Max Lu at [email protected] to participate in planning. 

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Richard R. Randall

Dick Randall, geographer, cartographer, and former executive secretary of the US Board on Geographic Names, passed away on March 14, 2015, at the age of 89.

Richard Rainier Randall was born on July 21, 1925, in Toledo, Ohio, into a family of surveyors and cartographers. His middle name came from his relative Admiral Peter Rainier, after whom Mount Rainier was named. Several decades later Richard found himself on the map too.

His father, Robert H. Randall Sr., initially worked as a surveyor with the US Geological Survey in Ohio. Then in 1917 he founded a geodetic and topographic surveying company and his contracts resulted in the first large-scale topographic maps of about 35 cities in the US that were to prove invaluable for local city-planning programs.

In 1936, Robert moved his family to Washington, DC, and joined the US National Resources Board as an adviser in natural resources and cartography. He was then appointed as Coordinator of Maps with the Bureau of the Budget, responsible for liaising with different federal agencies to coordinate cartographic programs and reduce the duplication of map and chart production. He was also instrumental in creating the American Congress of Surveying and Mapping in 1941, a national body for professional surveyors and mappers, and was its first president.

Robert’s career had a significant impact on his three sons. The eldest, Robert H. Randall Jr., received a degree in civil engineering and became an ensign with the US Coast and Geodetic Survey. He served on ships surveying US coastal and undersea areas to produce or revise maritime charts. He later joined the US Navy Hydrographic Office. The middle son, William E. Randall, also studied civil engineering then worked with the US Coast and Geodetic Survey from 1943 to 1974. He spent many years on survey ships in the Atlantic, Pacific and Caribbean, as well as doing aerial photogrammetric mapping in Alaska. The youngest son, Richard R. Randall, was to follow in a similar vein.

During the summer of 1943, 18-year old Richard was employed by the Alaska Branch of the US Geological Survey in Washington. Its mission was to work with aerial photographs and stereoscopic instruments to plot principal points as the basis for detailed topographic maps.

This was followed by a stint in the US Army, serving with the 94th Infantry Division in Europe during the Second World War. He was awarded the Combat Infantryman badge, the Bronze Star, and four Battle Stars.

After the war, Randall entered George Washington University and followed in his brothers’ footsteps to study civil engineering, but soon changed his major to geography. He received his bachelor’s degree in 1948 and master’s degree in 1949. After working for a year as a geographer with the Army Map Service, he entered Clark University Graduate School of Geography. His period of studies included a Fulbright Scholarship to Austria (1953-54) which shaped his doctoral thesis on The Political Geography of the Klagenfurt Plebiscite Area.

After gaining his PhD in 1955, Randall worked with the Central Intelligence Agency for the next six years, first specializing in editorial work in its Geography Division and later developing studies of Eastern European countries from a geographical perspective.

In 1961 he became the Washington representative for publishers Rand McNally and Company. He was responsible for collecting maps and related geographical data from federal and foreign sources to support the company’s extensive program of producing maps, atlases, globes, textbooks and other products.

One of Rand McNally’s flagship products was the Cosmopolitan World Atlas. In 1969 Randall developed the first series of maps showing the world’s oceans and water bodies for inclusion in the atlas. He secured the collaboration of William Menard, a leading academic expert in oceanography, to identify sea-bottom features, while he obtained photographs of deep-sea creatures and other features, and wrote descriptions of them.

After eleven years with Rand McNally, Randall moved back into government service. In 1973 he became the geographer of the Defense Mapping Agency (now the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency) and the executive secretary of the US Board on Geographic Names (BGN).

The BGN is the arbiter of the nation’s nearly four million place names and of the federally-accepted version of the uncounted millions of foreign names, including the labels for topographic features on sea-beds and on extraterrestrial bodies. Its mandate extends from the smallest crossroads hamlet to the far side of distant planets, and its decisions affect legal, political, economic, academic, and military matters.

In these positions, Randall worked with representatives of many foreign countries and international bodies such as the United Nations.

His interest in oceanography continued while at the BGN. One of the programs that he administered related to naming undersea features. This required work with the United Nations Working Group on Undersea and Maritime Feature Names and the International Hydrographic Organization. He was active in formulating definitions of features being revealed by US sea-bottom surveys and establishing the conventions for naming them.

 

The latter period of his time at the BGN saw particularly dramatic boundary and mapping issues relating to the break-up of the Soviet Union, to which Randall made a significant contribution.

After 20 years at the helm of the BGN, Randall retired in 1993. A year later, the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names named a 3,000-meter mountain in Antarctica as Mount Randall in recognition of his contributions to geographic nomenclature.

In retirement, he wrote a book entitled Place Names: How they Define the World – and More (Scarecrow Press, 2001). Drawing from his life’s experience, he explored how place names influence many aspects of people’s lives and shape the way people view the world around them. He demonstrated how place names have become essential elements of our everyday vocabulary, and are ingredients of music and literature. He explored the political importance of place names in military and diplomatic matters and described various disputed and controversial location names. There was also space in the book to share some of his work on the importance of identifying and naming undersea features.

Randall was a member of American Congress on Surveying and Mapping and established its first press relations program in 1966. He joined the Association of American Geographers in 1956, and was also a member of the American Geographical Society, the American Names Society, the Cosmos Club, and the Explorers Club.

During his retirement years in Washington, DC, Randall remained occupied with various professional and civic organizations. This included contributing to the AAG’s Careers in Geography program. He held his own career up as an example of how to be a practical geographer outside of academia and teaching.

In recognition of his contributions to geographic naming, Randall was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the NGA in 2008. Further honor came in 2009 when the BGN named a group of four seamounts located southeast of the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean as the Randall Seamount Group after a father and his three sons who made such a distinguished contribution to surveying, cartography and geographical nomenclature.

Randall was fascinated by the world and the people in it. He relished meeting new people, learning about their lives, sharing his experience, and exchanging ideas.

He was also actively engaged in his local community, both the Cleveland Park neighborhood in Washington, DC, where he and his wife lived since 1966, and the West Virginia farmlands where they owned a family retreat. He absorbed all he could about history, points of interest, and local issues.

Dick leaves behind his wife of 52 years, Patricia; their children, Allison, Susan and Richard Rainier Jr.; and grandchildren Lily, Felix, Hazel, Kumari and Truman.

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James W. Merchant

Jim Merchant, professor of geography at University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and aspecialist in applied remote sensing and GIS, passed away on February 27, 2015, at the age of 67.

James William Merchant Junior was born on November 10, 1947. He earned a bachelor’s degree in geography from Townson State University (1969) followed by a master’s degree also in geography from University of Kansas (1973).

He began his career at the University of Kansas Space Technology Center. From 1979 to 1986 he worked as a senior remote sensing specialist on the Kansas Applied Remote Sensing Program and completed his doctorate (1984). He went on to serve as an Assistant Professor of geography at the University of Kansas. During this time Merchant was the co-founder of the MidAmerica GIS Consortium (MAGIC) and hosted the first MAGIC Symposium in 1988.

In 1989, Merchant moved to University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) to take up a post as Associate Professor of Geography and Geographic Information Science in the School of Natural Resources. In 1998 he was promoted to Professor.

His research and teaching interests focused on the applications of remote sensing and GIS in natural resources management and environmental assessment. He taught undergraduate and graduate courses in these areas, and also offered an annual professional seminar focusing on research methods and professional development in geography. In addition he held a courtesy professor appointment in the Department of Agronomy and Horticulture.

Merchant also made an important contribution to the university’s Center for Advanced Land Management Information Technologies (CALMIT), serving as associate director (1989-2008) then director (2008-2011). During his tenure, he greatly enhanced and broadened the scope of the center’s activities. His research focused on land-cover mapping with coarse-resolution satellite data.

Merchant was a major player in the widespread implementation of GIS technology in the state of Nebraska. He was instrumental in working with many partners in the formation of the Nebraska Geographic Information System Steering Committee (NGISSC) which was established by the Nebraska Legislature in 1991. In 1998, he was one of GIS professionals that began the formation of an organization for Nebraska GIS users called the Nebraska GIS LIS Association.

The applied nature of Merchant’s work is seen in the large number of grant-funded projects that he led. In recent years these included: Implementation of the AmericaView Program in Nebraska for the U.S. Geological Survey; Geospatial Data Analysis Support for the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency; Monitoring, Mapping, Risk and Management of Invasive Species in Nebraska for Nebraska Environmental Trust; Land Use and Land Cover Mapping of Nebraska for Nebraska Department of Natural Resources; and GIS Support for the Nebraska Health and Human Services System.

Don Rundquist, emeritus professor and former CALMIT director, said “Jim had exceptional skill in dealing with the staff of governmental agencies and he definitely knew how to get things done.”

Recognition for Merchant’s work included Alan Gordon Award from the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (1991), ERDAS Award for best scientific paper in remote sensing (1994), John Wesley Powell Award from the U.S. Geological Survey (1997), Outstanding Contributions Award from the Nebraska GIS/LIS Association (1999), Career Achievements Award from the MidAmerica GIS Consortium (2004), and Certificate of Appreciation from the U.S. Geological Survey (2005).

Merchant was a member of the Association of American Geographers since 1979 and actively involved in the activities of the Great Plains­­–Rocky Mountains Division and the West Lakes Division. The AAG’s Remote Sensing Specialty Group recognized his work with an Outstanding Contributions Award in 1998.

He was also an elected a fellow of the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing and given their Outstanding Service Award in 2008.

Merchant was due to retire in June 2015. Until his untimely death he was still teaching courses, supervising PhD students, publishing papers and writing portions of the Academic Program Review document.

Director of the School of Natural Resources, John Carroll, said “Jim loved UNL and the School of Natural Resources. But more importantly, he loved geography and teaching students. When he was getting sick, the thing he was most concerned about were the students in his courses. We have lost a colleague, friend and true academic.”

Jim leaves behind his wife, Loyola Caron, and their children, Karl and Anne, as well as four siblings and their children.

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Chiao-Min Hsieh

Chiao-Min Hsieh, emeritus professor of geography at the University of Pittsburgh, passed away on February 26, 2015, at the age of 96.

Hsieh was born in Shaoxing, Zhejiang province, China. As the youngest child with three considerably older siblings, he was somewhat mollycoddled by his mother. His move in 1931 to Chenghui High School, a boarding school, came as something of a shock with its rigid discipline and lack of special favors.

The school emphasized three areas – academics, behavior, and athletics – and Hsieh confessed that of these he excelled only at athletics! Yet the pressure was on as his siblings had gone on to achieve respectable careers – his eldest brother a university professor, his middle brother a businessman, and his sister a teacher married to a college professor.

It was the death of his mother during his early years at high school that shook Hsieh out of his childhood innocence and academic reluctance. In 1937 he graduated at the top of his class and sat the week-long entrance exams for the country’s top universities. Before the examinations started, candidates had to rank their top choices and the field in which they wanted to study. Zhejiang University, founded in 1897 and one of the oldest universities in the country, was Hsieh’s first choice, next to which he wrote “Geography.”

Hsieh passed the tests and was accepted into the Department of History and Geography. In September 1937, he travelled the 100 miles from his home city to Hangzhou to enroll at Zhejiang University. He found the classes intense and the material new; it was hard work but he was excited to be learning in this environment which was quite different from high school. Hsieh and his fellow students studied into the night by the light of burning incense sticks until one of their professors invented a covered oil wick lamp that gave better illumination.

Among their professors were some who were Western-educated, at the time something that was highly respected. They encouraged a different mode of learning focused on free thinking and problem solving, and had a different relationship with their students, joking with them at times. Physical education was compulsory but Hsieh was already a keen athlete and particularly enjoyed basketball.

Hsieh enjoyed the privileged life of being a student living on a beautiful campus, but this idyllic time was soon interrupted. The Japanese had invaded China a few months previously. After conquering Beijing in July 1937, the army marched southeastwards, along the way bombing towns, burning farms, destroying factories, and torturing civilians. By August, Shanghai had fallen and Hangzhou was next in line.

Among other things, the Japanese were trying to obliterate Chinese culture so schools, colleges, universities and libraries were particular targets. The administration of Zhejiang University decided that the students should be evacuated inland to a safer place. This was to start with the 200 freshmen who were just a month or so into their first semester. Hsieh and his fellow students were moved to Chanyang Temple at Tianmu Mountain. In this idyllic spot, and living among the resident monks, their lessons continued during the week, while weekends were spent exploring the mountains.

In November, Japanese troops landed in Hangzhou Bay and the city came under aerial bombardment. People started to evacuate in greater numbers. Many of the university students, angered by the invasion, began military training, learning different maneuvers and gun handling skills. But it was the university’s Harvard-educated Chancellor, Dr Zhu, who persuaded the students that there were multiple roles in a war and that theirs was to protect the culture and history of China; their duty as scholars was to be the keepers of books.

The decision was made to move Zhejiang University inland to a small city called Jiande. Hsieh was among the 300 freshmen, staff and their families who travelled down from Chanyang Temple to Jiande – girls and families in cars, boys and men on foot. When the Japanese later reached Chanyang Temple, they completely destroyed it. Meanwhile, those still at the main campus in Hangzhou packed up and moved by car and boat, in an operation that took a week.

Jiande was only a small city and the university used temples, homes and schools as residence halls, offices and classrooms. Although all were in fear of Japanese bombardment, the university never considered shutting down. And this story was to continue for the next 8 years. Forced to keep on relocating – from Jiande to Ji’an then Taihe in Jiangxi province, through Hunan province to Yishan in Guangxi province, and finally to Zunyi in Guizhou province – the 800 students, faculty and their families covered more than 1,000 miles, largely on foot.

They faced constant fear and worry due to the threat of enemy air strikes, as well as hunger and malnutrition, disease and exhaustion. Yet all the time the university was still operating, setting up temporary dormitories, classrooms, laboratories and libraries in the succession of towns where they sought refuge from the war.

And with them they carried more than 700 boxes and sacks containing the university’s 50,000 library books, 30,000 pieces of equipment, over 700 machines, and 12,000 biological and geological specimens. In addition, they were also entrusted with the safekeeping of a copy of Wenlan Ge, one of China’s greatest library treasures consisting of over 70,000 volumes of priceless cultural works, some dating back thousands of years, which was packed into 139 boxes.

For Hsieh the travelling was eye-opening. He had spent all of his life in Zhejiang, one of China’s smallest provinces, surrounded by Han Chinese. Moving inland, he met people from minority ethnic groups, heard them speaking differently, saw different customs and costumes, and found out about different religious beliefs. He was fascinated by other traditions that were very different from his own cultural norms.

His geographer’s imagination was also blown away by the physical landscape. Seeing the karst landforms in Guangxi region, and having the chance to explore them on day trips, was a real thrill, although once, while wandering about alone with a textbook and map, he was stopped by a policeman who thought he was a spy!

In 1941 Hsieh took the final exams and graduated. He then moved to the Institute of Geography, a research center in the town of Beipei near Chongqing, Sichuan province. Although this time was intellectually interesting, it was socially restrictive as the area was so remote. However, one Sunday in the town’s bookstore he met some former classmates from Zhejiang University. Among them was Jean Kan, who had joined the Department of History and Geography in 1940, and he was rather attracted to her. Jean had graduated in 1944 and was teaching at a high school several hours travel from Beipei so they corresponded by letter and saw each other occasionally.

At the end of the Sino-Japanese War in 1945, Hsieh and many others were keen to leave the interior and return to their homes in eastern China. Meanwhile Taiwan, which had been a Japanese colony, had now reverted back to China and scholars were needed to assist with the transition of the education system from the Japanese system to the Chinese model. Hsieh’s older brother became a founding member of Taiwan Normal University and Hsieh was invited to become a lecturer in geography. In 1947, he asked Jean to marry him and she took up a position as a high school teacher near Taipei.

While life in Taiwan was pleasant, Hsieh was interested in studying abroad. He sat an open examination for the Chinese National Scholarship and, scoring the second highest marks, was selected to study human geography in America. His former university teacher, Chancellor Zhu, recommended him to an old friend, Professor Cressey at Syracuse University. Hsieh left China in December 1947 on a boat bound for America to begin his graduate studies. Jean joined him a year later and studied for a master’s degree in geography also at Syracuse.

Hsieh received his PhD in 1953. At this tumultuous point in history, he was unable to return to China; however, neither was it easy for foreigners to obtain teaching positions at American universities. Through recommendations, Hsieh was offered a teaching position at Dartmouth College followed by a research associate position at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He subsequently taught at the University of Leeds in England and then at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. for 10 years. In 1968 he settled in a permanent professorial post at the University of Pittsburgh where he remained for the next 30 years.

The focus of his academic work was the Far East. Among his publications were China: Ageless Land and Countless People (1967), Taiwan Ilha Formosa: a Geography in Perspective (1964), Atlas of China (1973), Changing China: a Geographic Appraisal (with Max Lu) (2003), and China, a Provincial Atlas (with Jean Kan Hsieh) (1995).

He was a Fulbright Research Fellow three times, and a Senior Fellow of National Endowment for the Humanities, as well as an honorary visiting professor at Peking University, and an advisory professor at Zhejiang University.

After retiring in 1992, Hsieh continued to publish geography books and to lecture at universities in the Far East including Hong Kong University, National Taiwan Normal University, the Chinese Culture University, and his alma mater, Zhejiang University. He was also awarded a grant for Geography and Cartography by the Rockefeller Foundation in 2002.

His last book, Race the Rising Sun: A Chinese University’s Exodus during the Second World War (2009) was a personal account, co-authored with his wife, which told the story of Zhejiang University’s evacuation and long trek during the Sino-Japanese War.

Hsieh’s enthusiasm for basketball from his student days continued throughout his life and he became a keen follower of the University of Pittsburgh team. He was also a passionate Chinese chess (xiangqi) player.

Jimmy was predeceased by Jean, his loving wife of 65 years, who passed away in 2012. He is survived by their two children, daughter, Eileen Hsieh, and son, An-Ping Hsieh, and their families including five grandchildren whom he loved very much: Brian, Andrew and Kyra Tomenga, and Jessica and Alexander Hsieh.


For a full account of Jimmy and Jean’s student years in the context of the university’s evacuation from Hangzhou and displacement in the interior during the Sino-Japanese War, see their excellent autobiographical book, Race the Rising Sun: A Chinese University’s Exodus during the Second World War (Hamilton Books, 2009).

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Ruth Shirey

Ruth Shirey, professor emerita in the Department of Geography and Regional Planning at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP), and an expert and authority on geography education, died unexpectedly and suddenly at her home in Indiana, Pennsylvania on February 20, 2015, at the age of 72.

Shirey was born in 1942 and raised in Johnstown, PA. She received a B.A. in geography education from IUP in 1965 before completing an M.A. and Ph.D. in geography at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville in 1968 and 1970 respectively. Her field research took her to Latin America and she produced a thesis entitled “An Analysis of the Location of Manufacturing: Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula, Honduras.”

She began her teaching career at the Tennessee Technological University in 1968 before returning to IUP in 1970 to become a faculty member, where she remained until her retirement in 2007.

Shirey taught courses across the spectrum of the discipline including the geography of Latin America, the geography of Pennsylvania, physical geography, climatology, physiography, industrial geography, the geography of energy, the history of cities and planning, and cultural geography.

At Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Shirey provided leadership as department chair of Geography and Regional Planning from 1977 to 1988, and interim associate dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences from 1987 to 1989. Her excellence at IUP was recognized by the Graduate School in 1996 with an award for Outstanding Commitment to Sponsored Programs, and by the College of Humanities and Social Sciences in 1998-1999 with an award for Outstanding Service.

Shirey was a widely respected and beloved leader in the field of geography education. Over her career, she wrote numerous articles and books on geography education, and was awarded more than $1.8 million in external grant funds. Her sustained efforts over many decades enhanced geographic literacy in elementary, secondary, and postsecondary schools.

From 1988 to 2002, she served as the executive director of the National Council for Geographic Education (NCGE), simultaneously coordinating efforts to develop and implement national geography education standards in cooperation with teaching colleagues from across the education spectrum.

In the early 1990s, she served as project administrator for the National Geography Standards Project, a groundbreaking effort that led to the articulation of content standards for geography education nationwide. She also served as the coordinator of the Pennsylvania Geographic Alliance during this same time period, conceiving and organizing geography teaching workshops for educators from across Pennsylvania.

Because of her tireless work, Shirey was very well known and admired among geographers in the United States and internationally, and was honored with the National Council for Geographic Education’s George J. Miller Award for Distinguished Service (1996), the Pennsylvania Geographical Society’s Distinguished Service Award (2001), and the Association of American Geographers’ Ronald F. Abler Distinguished Service Award (2013).

Shirey was also internationally-minded. In 1988, she participated in a Fulbright faculty exchange with the University of Poona in India. Back home at IUP she was known for inviting international students to her home for holiday meals, and for making them feel welcome at the university while far away from home. She was also very proud of her role on the “Committee to Save John Sutton Hall” in the 1970s, which played a pivotal role in preserving the building which is the focal point of the IUP campus today.

The role of women in science and academia was another passion. Shirey was elected to the Society of Woman Geographers in 1980, and after her retirement she served as the chair for the Society’s Fellowship Award Committee.

In 2008, IUP honored Shirey with a Distinguished Alumni Award for achievements in academia and for contributions to geography education, research and administration, as well as efforts to advance geographic literacy in the United States.

Shirey was very active in the Association of American Geographers. Having joined in 1965 she was due to receive recognition of her 50 years of continuous membership at the Annual Meeting in Chicago in April 2015. She was also a member of the Conference of Latin Americanist Geographers and the Gamma Theta Upsilon International Honor Society.

Until her untimely death, Shirey continued her active community life through work with the League of Women Voters and the Indiana County Democratic Party, as well as her continued association with Department of Geography and Regional Planning, most recently assisting with fundraising for the department’s facilities in a new building.

Ruth will be greatly missed by her colleagues at IUP, her many students, and by all those in the geography community whom she inspired. She will be remembered for her groundbreaking accomplishments in geography education, her many contributions to the Department of Geography and Regional Planning, and her dedication to Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

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Charles Sargent

Chuck Sargent, professor emeritus of geography at Arizona State University, who researched the evolution of frontiers and the growth of towns and cities, passed away on February 3, 2015 at the age of 78.

Charles Scales Sargent was born on April 14, 1936 in Baltimore, Maryland but grew up on a remote ranch in Wyoming. As soon as he was able, he began a life-long fascination with seeing and understanding the wider world.

Sargent completed his bachelor’s degree at the University of Wyoming followed by a master’s degree at the University of California at Berkeley. He remained at Berkeley for a PhD and received a National Research Council Foreign Field Research scholarship to carry out work in Argentina. His thesis, completed in 1971, was entitled “Urban dynamics and the changing pattern of residential development: Buenos Aires, 1870-1930.” He subsequently produced a book based on this work: The Spatial Evolution of Greater Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1870-1930 (1974).

His first teaching job was at the University of Nebraska before moving to Arizona State University (ASU) in 1971. He specialized in urban geography and Latin America, and was a popular lecturer. His courses frequently drew large enrollments, with students respecting his far-ranging knowledge and enjoying his lively lectures, despite his reputation for tough exams and grading.

Sargent’s research interests lay in urban geography including comparative world urbanism, historical urban geography, the evolution of frontiers, and the dynamics of urban growth. He maintained his interest in cities of Latin America, as well as studying the urban geography of North America. Of particular note is his edited volume, Urban Dynamics (1977), a selection of readings from the Wall Street Journal about the changing face of America’s cities. Meanwhile his work on the evolution of the Phoenix metropolitan area provided the foundation upon which much research has since been built.

In 1988, when the Association of American Geographers held its Annual Meeting in Phoenix, each participant received a copy of Metro Phoenix, a book edited and largely written by Sargent. The text described the development of Arizona’s urban system and the evolution of the Phoenix area from its founding to the present.

Sargent had a fascination with, and feel for, European languages. He spoke French, Spanish, German and Italian, and his pronunciation made him sound as though he was a native speaker. His love for language and geography converged in a fascination about place names.

Another of Sargent’s loves was fine food. Fellow ASU professor emeritus, Tony Brazel, said “Not only did he love food, he taught a popular course on food and drink – a masterful, engaging geography of regions and countries through analysis of food and drink evident in cultures.”

Sargent retired from ASU in 1993 then spent the next 12 years as a lecturer on cruise ships, which enabled him to spend several months a year travelling the world. On one of the cruises he met a woman who predicted that he would like her sister. She was right and Chuck met and fell in love with Martha Spruell. Chuck curbed his world travel to go and live with Martha in Richmond for a few years before luring her back to Arizona where they lived between their further world travels.

He filled his mind and shelves with books, his ears and imagination with opera and classical music, his hands with his beloved dogs and plants.

Chuck was known by colleagues, students and friends as an outgoing and entertaining character. He constantly played with the sound and meaning of words. In particular he loved sharing his sought-after advice on where to go and what to eat the world over.

He is survived by a sister and brother, as well as Martha Spruell, his partner in life and love for last 20 years.

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William Garrison

Bill Garrison, one of the leaders of geography’s “quantitative revolution” in the 1950s and an outstanding transportation geographer, passed away on February 1, 2015, at the age of 90.

William Louis Garrison was born in April 1924 and raised in Tennessee. During the Second World War he did meteorological work for the US Army. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Peabody College in Nashville and a doctorate in geography from Northwestern University.

In 1950 Garrison moved to the University of Washington and, as a young faculty member, led the way in revitalizing the field of geography through the use of scientific methods. In particular, he came up with the idea of using of statistics and computers to study and better understand spatial problems. Thus began an immensely exciting and important period in the history of geography, the so-called “quantitative revolution.”

Under Garrison’s supervision at the University of Washington were a number of doctoral students who were also interested in scientific approaches to spatial problems. They included Brian Berry, William Bunge, Michael Dacey, Arthur Getis, Duane Marble, Richard Morrill, John Nystuen and Waldo Tobler, and were dubbed the “space cadets.” Starting with computing systems such as the IBM 604 and IBM 650 they went on to be instrumental in the evolution of geographic information systems.

In 1960 Garrison moved to Northwestern University and subsequently had stints at University of Pennsylvania, University of Illinois and University of Pittsburgh, before moving to University of California, Berkeley in 1973 as a Professor in the Civil Engineering Department.

By this time Garrison’s interests had shifted to transportation. His work at Berkeley focused on how innovation and technological change occurs in large transportation systems. This included an interest in alternative vehicles and the future of the car. He was genuinely able to ‘think outside the box’ in envisioning a better and more efficient transportation future; for example, he organized the first ever U.S. conference on Intelligent Vehicle-Highway Systems.

Garrison made invaluable contributions to the Transportation Engineering Program in the department, expanding and strengthening the planning and policy elements of the curriculum. From 1973 to 1980 he was also Director of the university’s Institute of Transportation and Traffic Engineering (later renamed the Institute of Transportation Studies). During his tenure he set out to broaden its scope beyond transportation and traffic engineering. He believed in the value of interdisciplinary work and drew in colleagues from the departments of City and Regional Planning, Economics, Geography, Public Policy and Sociology.

He served on numerous national committees advising the Bureau of Public Roads, Department of Transportation, Department of Commerce, and Bureau of the Census, as well as the National Science Foundation, National Science Board, and National Research Council. He also served as consultant to non-profit and business organizations, and had a stint as Chairman of the Transportation Research Board.

Garrison retired from UC Berkeley in 1991 as Professor Emeritus of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Emeritus Research Engineer in the Institute of Transportation Studies but that was by no means the end of his academic career. Post-retirement publications included the book Tomorrow’s Transportation: Changing Cities, Economies, and Lives with Jerry Ward (2000), the report Historical Transportation Development (2003), and two editions of the book The Transportation Experience: Policy, Planning, and Deployment with David Levinson (2005, 2014) which drew on his work in Austria examining the growth trajectories of various transportation technologies.

Garrison was a long-time member of the AAG, having joined in January 1947. His early contributions to the discipline were recognized in 1960 with an award for Meritorious Contributions in the annual honors. In 1994 two of the AAG Specialty Groups also bestowed their highest honors upon him for his outstanding contributions: the Edward L. Ullman Award from the Transportation Geography Specialty Group and the James R. Anderson Medal from the Applied Geography Specialty Group. Beyond the AAG he received the Roy W. Crum Award from Transportation Research Board in 1976 and the Award for Distinguished Contribution to University Transportation from the Council of University Transportation Centers in 1998. In 2000, his “space cadets” reunited to honor his 50 years of inspirational leadership in geographical and transportation sciences.

An AAG award was also established in his name. The biennial William L. Garrison Award for Best Dissertation in Computational Geography aims to encourage students to use advanced computation for resolving the complex problems of space–time analysis that are at the core of geographic science.

Garrison was one of the most important geographers of the twentieth century. When introducing him as the speaker at the 2007 Anderson Distinguished Lecture in Applied Geography, Ross Mackinnon described him as “a true ‘Mount Rushmore’ figure in modern American geography.”

Bill is survived by his wife Marcia and their four children, Deborah, James, Jane and John; his three children from his first wife Mary (who predeceased him), Sara, Ann and Helen; as well as 16 grandchildren, and one great grandchild.

 

Further reading

Barnes T. J. (2001) “Lives lived and lives told: biographies of geography’s quantitative revolution” Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 19 (4) 409–429

Garrison, W. L. (2002) “Lessons From the Design of a Life” in Peter Gould and Forrest R. Pitts (eds.) Geographical Voices: Fourteen Autobiographical Essays Syracuse University Press

DeVivo, M. S. (2014) Leadership in American Academic Geography: The Twentieth Century Lexington Books

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Graeme Hugo

Professor Graeme Hugo AO from the University of Adelaide, one of Australia’s leading geographers and a world authority on demography and migration, passed away on January 20, 2015, at the age of 68 after a short illness.

Graeme John Hugo was born on December 5, 1946, and grew up in Adelaide. His academic studies began with a BA at the University of Adelaide. He then stayed in Adelaide but moved to Flinders University where he spent 3 years as a Tutor in geography and completed an MA (1972). Next he moved to the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra for a PhD (1975), his thesis investigating circular migration in West Java. At that time ANU had just commenced its strong focus upon the demography of Indonesia and Hugo’s research played a role in developing this.

After completing his doctorate, Hugo returned to Flinders University where he stayed from 1975 to 1991, rising through the academic ranks. He was instrumental in establishing the postgraduate program in Applied Population Studies and also made significant contributions to the National Institute of Labour Studies based at the university. During this time he also held visiting positions overseas at Hasanuddin University, Indonesia (1977-78), University of Iowa, USA (1985), University of Hawaii (1988), and University of Auckland (1989).

In 1991 Hugo was appointed Professor of Geography at the University of Adelaide, and served as head of the department from 1992 to 1996. He also had a stint as a Visiting Scholar at the United Nations Population Division in New York. In 1996 he became Director of the university’s National Centre for Social Applications of GIS, and in 2012 the Director of its new Australian Population and Migration Research Centre.

Hugo’s academic career was spent studying migration, mobility and development in Australia and Southeast Asia, particularly Indonesia. He was interested in both international and internal migration, its changing patterns and causes, the implications for social and economic change, and the role and contribution of migrants and refugees in a multicultural society. A colleague noted his ability to think outside the box, and in so doing seed new subfields within migration studies, almost effortlessly.

His publications output was prolific. He produced more than 30 books, about 200 refereed articles, and over 250 book chapters, as well as over 1,000 conference papers, 20 plenary addresses, 120 reports and over 30 book reviews, with many more in progress at the time of his death. The latter included an entry on “Population Geography” for the AAG’s forthcoming International Encyclopedia of Geography.

Hugo’s work led to a much more sophisticated understanding of the theory and practice of migration in the Asia-Pacific region. His scholarship has been well cited, perhaps most notably the books The Demographic Dimension in Indonesian Development (1987) with Terry and Valerie Hull and Gavin Jones, and Worlds in Motion: Understanding International Migration at the End of the Millennium (1998) with Douglas Massey and others.

Hugo was renowned for his willingness to pitch in when others of a similar rank would decline, for example, teaching first year classes and marking their exams, reviewing papers for an astonishing 53 different journals, and refereeing grant applications. He also supervised 22 Masters theses and 36 PhD theses, with a further 20 ongoing when he passed away.

Recent large research projects included an Australian Research Council (ARC) Federation Fellowship (2002-07) for a study entitled “The new paradigm of international migration to and from Australia: dimensions, causes and implications” and an ARC Australian Professorial Fellowship (2009-13) for a research project on “Circular migration in Asia, the Pacific and Australia: Empirical, theoretical and policy dimensions.”

In 2012 Hugo became the Director of the new Australian Population and Migration Research Centre at the University of Adelaide, a world-class center tasked with developing a sustainable population and workforce strategy for Australia and the Asia Pacific, and looking at international patterns of migration and the challenges posed by an ageing society. Some of his most recent research focused on the problems, including discrimination, faced by jobseekers from non-English speaking backgrounds.

In addition to his extraordinary intellectual output, Hugo was an activist, concerned with the development of equitable population and migration policies informed by evidence, building positive relationships between Australia and Asian nations, and the rights of migrants and refugees. He was also a regular voice on radio as a social commentator.

In Australia Hugo was much in demand from both federal and state governments for advice on population, ageing and migration and served on a vast number of committees. In 2011 he led a major enquiry by the Australian Government on population policy. On the international scene he frequently participated in meetings focused on migration policy sponsored by agencies such as UNFPA, the World Bank, the International Organisation for Migration, and the Asian Development Bank. His reports for these agencies were highly influential. In 2009, with colleagues, he completed a study of Climate Change and Migration in Asia and the Pacific for the Asian Development Bank.

Hugo became a member of the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP) in 1977, and throughout his career actively contributed his expertise and time to IUSSP scientific groups and publications. He was also a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (Australia), and a Member of the Institute of Australian Geographers, the Australian Population Association, the Australian Association of Gerontology, the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia, and the Population Association of America. Hugo gave very valuable service to Geography as Chair of the ARC’s Expert Advisory Committee on the Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences between 2000 and 2004.

In 2006, Hugo was an inaugural recipient of Flinders University’s Distinguished Alumnus Award for his vast contributions to academia as a teacher, researcher and author; for his distinguished service to population growth, migration and ageing; and through various leadership and advisory roles, including service to government agencies and international organisations.

This was followed in 2012 by the highest honor of the Order of Australia (AO) ‘for distinguished service to population research, particularly the study of international migration, population geography and mobility, and through leadership roles with national and international organisations.’

He was also recognized within the discipline in 2014 with the Australia-International Medal of the Institute of Australian Geographers in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the advancement of geography worldwide.

Hugo was one of the most distinguished, dedicated and productive geographers that Australia has ever seen, and considered the leading expert on population migration in the Asia-Pacific region. He was internationally respected for the depth of his knowledge, yet also made a significant contribution to the real world beyond academia’s ivory towers. He was an inspiration to many generations of students, and a much-loved friend and colleague known for being genuine, kind, and generous.

Graeme leaves behind his partner Sharon, daughter Justine, step-daughters Melissa and Emily, and two faithful dogs, Jesse and Tyler.

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