Kashi Singh

Professor Kashi Nath Singh, the luminous figure of Indian Geography, passed away on Thursday July 18, 2013. He was born in a village in Bhojpur district of Bihar on January 1, 1932. After high school he moved to Varanasi and joined Banaras Hindu University, from where earned his bachelor’s degree, M.A. (1956), and Ph.D. (1963).

In September 1957, Prof. Singh joined the Department of Geography, Banaras Hindu University as Lecturer, and was promoted to Reader in 1968. He was also professor and head, department of geography at Patna University (Bihar). In 1978 returned as Professor of Integrated Area Development in the department of geography at Banaras Hindu University, which he cherished till 1993. During 1991-93 (two terms), he had served as member of the Board of Directors, U.S. Educational Foundation in India (U.S.E.F.I.), New Delhi.

He published 6 textbooks, 11 co-edited volumes, and over 70 research articles. His visits abroad included East Africa, Anglo-America, Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and Bali, U.K. and U.S.A. He was also an Executive Member of the Commonwealth Geographical Bureau, London (1968-1972 and 1976-80); Asst. Secretary, NGSI, and was Life Member of national bodies like NGSI, NAGI, NEGS, IIG, CIG, and UBBP. He was honoured to be the President, National Association of Geographers India (NAGI), 1985-86, and Institute of Indian Geographers (IIG), 1991-92. During November 1993 – June 2008, he was Professor of Geography in the College of Social Sciences, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. After returning from Ethiopia, he lived in Varanasi and sometimes passed his holidays with his doctor son and his family in the campus of Banaras Hindu University.

During 1964-66 he was a Fulbright Scholar at Rutgers University of New Jersey; and in 1965-66 he served as Associate Professor at East Stroudsburg State College/ University, East Stroudsburg PA. In this period he studied and collaborated with Prof. John E. Brush (1919-2007), who was already influenced by the researches of Prof. Singh as an external examiner of his PhD thesis on “Rural Market and Rurban Centres in Eastern Uttar Pradesh (India).”

Professor K.N. Singh specialised in the studies of rural settlements, historical geography and planning, economic geography, and social geography. He was one of the two India-based geographers to have published in the Annals, Association of American Geographers (vol. 58, no. 2, 1968: pp. 203-220), entitled “Territorial basis of Town and village settlement in Eastern U.P., India.” David E. Sopher in his essay, “Towards a Rediscovery of India: Thoughts on some neglected geography,” in, Marvin W. Mikesell, ed. Geographers Abroad (University of Chicago, Chicago, 1973: pp. 110-133) appraised Prof. Singh’s contribution (p. 123) as representative of the Varanasi school in rural settlement and urban morphology. Anthropologist Richard G. Fox, in his book, Urban India: Society, Space and Image (1970, Duke University) wrote about his classical paper (AAAG, 58, no. 2, 1968): “Our papers have different emphases and in several places in the text some criticism is made of K.N. Singh’s interpretation. However, these differing viewpoints and interpretations in no way remove my intellectual debt to Dr. Singh, right only for the paper cited above, but for his [other] original paper on the subject.” Fox in another of his book, Kin, Clan, Raja, and Rule (UCP, Berkeley, & OUP Delhi, 1971), writes: “Recent work by Bernard Cohn, K.N. Singh, M.C. Pradhan, etc. has indicated the important role played by unilineal kin groups of locally dominant Kshatriya ‘Castes’ in the lower level political organisation of traditional North India.” Some of his papers were prescribed in the graduate courses in Hiroshima University, and are highlighted by famous Japanese scholar Prof. Hiroshi Ishida in his book, A Cultural Geography of the Great Plains of India (Univ. of Hiroshima Press, 1972).

The absence of Prof. Singh will be always felt by Indian geography, and we will miss him for many years to come; however his message, insights and visions are always with us.

Rana P.B. Singh
Department of Geography
Faculty of Science
Banaras Hindu University

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Bertha Becker

Bertha Becker, a pioneering Brazilian geographer, died on July 13, 2013. She was 82.

The professor emeritus at Federal University of Rio de Janeiro specialized in Amazonian issues. Her lifelong research, which focused on the political geography of Brazil, took Becker throughout every region of her native country. Extensive fieldwork shaped her findings and unique view of environmental conditions caused by human occupation and devastation.

Becker was a graduate of the University of Brazil, receiving her degree in geography and history in 1952. She completed her doctorate in 1970 at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, where Becker became a long-time professor. She also conducted post-doctorial studies at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s urban studies and planning department.

During her career, Becker received a number of honors. She was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Lyon in France. She was presented the Carlos Chagas Filho Scientific Merit award. The American Geographical Society granted her the David Livingstone Centenary Medal.

Becker had more than 180 published works, including books, articles, papers and chapters. She was a member of the editorial boards of national and international publishers. She consulted for scientific institutions, including the National Research Council, and helped develop public policies for the Ministries of Science and Technology in Brazil.

She served as vice president for both the International Geographical Union (1996-2000) and the International Advisory Group of the Pilot for the Protection of Tropical Forests (1995-2005). She was also a panelist at the United Nations’ Rio + 20 conference.

“Bertha was one of a small cadre of social scientists who brought geography to prominence in Brazil in the late 1950s and ’60s. Her wise opinions will be missed,” noted David J. Robinson, professor of Latin American geography at Syracuse University.

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David J. Campbell

David J. Campbell, professor of geography at Michigan State University, died on May 16, 2013, at the age of 65. After growing up in Wales, he received his B.A. in geography from the University of Bristol U.K. and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Clark University. A faculty member at MSU since 1979, he served as associate dean for research in the College of Social Science. From 1976-1979, he held a post-doctoral position funded by the Rockefeller Foundation at the Institute for Development Studies, University of Nairobi, Kenya. He also conducted research and lived in many African countries including Kenya, Cameroon, Zimbabwe and Rwanda.

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Donald Johnson

Donald Lee Johnson, Professor of Geography at the University of Illinois from 1970-2003 and Emeritus Professor from 2003, passed on May 10, 2013. He was born March 8, 1934, in Long Beach, CA. Don received his Ph.D. in geography in 1972 from the University of Kansas. Diana Johnson was his life partner for 53 years, and wife for 49 of them.

Don’s life and career were an inspiration to many. Though retired, he never stopped his research and writing. He was one of those blessed individuals whose career was his hobby, and he never tired of his work.

Over the course of his career, Don taught 10 different courses in physical geography, soil-geomorphology and zoogeography at University of Illinois. He loved what he taught and his enthusiasm was infectious. Don was always entertaining and positive in the classroom, and his students truly loved him. Don took his enthusiasm for research into the classroom, taking his students on field trips every semester. He led 28 different undergraduates on independent study projects. His list of advisees and graduate committees includes 10 with senior theses, 23 with master’s theses, and 26 with doctoral dissertations. Many of his students have gone on to highly visible careers, but most importantly, they all continued to stay in touch with him. Don truly loved the relationships that he developed with students.

Perhaps the best testaments to Don’s teachings are reports given by his former students. His students left his classroom believing that soils–of all things–could truly be interesting, exciting and important, and that there is still much to learn about them. Never one to simply cite the party line, Don continually challenged the status quo and asked his students to do the same. Most importantly, he taught his students to question what they saw, and to always think outside of the box. He simply asked them to learn by looking. He was a keen observer of natural systems, often seeing things that others ignored. He called it his intellectual filter. There’s no doubt he viewed the world through different intellectual filters than most, and in so doing he saw things that other people looked at but didn’t quite see. Anyone who’s received an email from Don likely noticed a quote in his signature: “We don’t see things as they are, but as we are.”

Don’s list of published papers in refereed journals and books numbers over 80. And yet the numbers don’t do justice to his contribution to these disciplines, nor of the long-lasting impact that his work will have on future generations. Not once but twice, Don won the GK Gilbert Award for Excellence in Geomorphic Research from the AAG Geomorphology Specialty Group (GSG).  His second Gilbert Award – won just this year with colleague and former student Jennifer Burnham for their GSA Special Paper on Mima Mounds – illustrates that Don never stopped doing what he loved: research and fieldwork. In 2005, he received the Distinguished Career Award from the GSG of the AAG. Don was a truly interdisciplinary scholar, as evidenced by the Rip Rapp Archaeological Geology Award that he had also received from the Geological Society of America. Don was equally at home with geographers, geologists, soil scientists, archaeologists, and biologists and published in journals of all these disciplines.

Almost single-handedly, Don published paper after paper, gave talk after talk, and had one-on-one conversations with people from all walks of life, all designed to highlight the importance of bioturbation and biomechanical processes on soil formation. His theoretical papers on soil genesis and evolution dramatically changed the way that the academic community views soil formation. This work has particularly assisted archeologists and tropical soil scientists by helping to explain the formation of stone lines, enigmatic features whose origins had been debated for decades.  His work on mima mounds helped settle a centuries-long debate on the origins of these features. Don’s theoretical contributions continue to be truly revolutionary and of lasting import. His body of work will enjoy a position among the very best soil theoreticians in recent history. And of course, much of this work was done in full collaboration with his career-long field partner, Diana.

Don was an explorer, a field person, and an adventurer. Ever curious, Don and Diana traveled the world seek­ing answers to the question: How do Earth systems really work? Don was a thoughtful and generous man, always taking the time to be kind and gracious to everyone he met, forging many strong friendships. He was a true inspiration to everyone he met. He also loved working in the garden, playing racquetball and writing poems. Don’s family, friends, and colleagues will miss him dearly, but he lives on in our hearts and minds, and his passion for the soil lives on in what he has written.

Jennifer Burnham
Augustana College

Randy Schaetzl
Michigan State University

Selected Bibliography

Horwath Burnham, J.L., and D.L. Johnson, eds., 2012, Mima mounds: the case for polygenesis and bioturbation: Geological Society of America Special Paper 490: Boulder, Colorado, 211 p.

Johnson, D.L., Domier, J.E.J., and D.N. Johnson. 2005. Reflections on the nature of soil and its biomantle. Annals Assoc. Am. Geog. 95:11-31.

Johnson, D.L., J.E.J. Domier, and D.N. Johnson, 2005, Animating the biodynamics of soil thickness using process vector analysis — a dynamic denudation approach to soil formation:         Geomorphology, v. 67, nos. 1-4, p. 23-46.

Johnson, D.L. 2002. Darwin would be proud: Bioturbation, dynamic denudation, and the power of theory in science. Geoarchaeology Special Issue: Formation Processes in Regional Perspective 17:7-40.

Johnson, D.L. 1994. Reassessment of early and modern soil horizon designation frameworks and associated pedogenetic processes: Are midlatitude A E B-C horizons equivalent to tropical M S W horizons? Soil Science (Trends in Agric. Sci.) 2:77-91.

Johnson, D.L. 1993. Dynamic denudation evolution of tropical, subtropical and temperate landscapes with three tiered soils; toward a general theory of landscape evolution. Quaternary International 17:67-78.

Johnson, D.L. and Balek, C.L. 1991. The genesis of Quaternary landscapes with stone-lines.  Physical Geography 12:385-395.

Johnson, D.L. Keller, E.A. and Rockwell, T.K. 1990. Dynamic pedogenesis; new views on some key soil concepts, and a model for interpreting Quaternary soils. Quaternary Research 33:306-319.

Johnson, D.L. 1990.Biomantle evolution and the redistribution of earth materials and artifacts. Soil Science 149:84-102.

Johnson D.L. 1989. Subsurface stone lines, stone zones, artifact-manuport layers, and biomantles produced by bioturbation via pocket gophers (Thomomys bottae). American Antiquity 54:292-326.

Johnson, D.L., Watson-Stegner, D., Johnson, D.N. and Schaetzl, R.J. 1987. Proisotropic and proanisotropic processes of pedoturbation. Soil Science 143:278-292.

Johnson, D.L. and Watson-Stegner, D. 1987. Evolution model of pedogenesis. Soil Science 143:349-366.

Johnson, D.L., 1978.  The origin of island mammoths and the Quaternary land bridge history of the northern Channel Islands, California.  Quaternary Research 10: 204-225.

Johnson, D.L., 1977.  The late Quaternary climate of coastal California: Evidence for an Ice Age refugium.  Quaternary Research 8: 154-179.

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Lewis M. Alexander

“Lew” Alexander, an Emeritus Professor of Geography and Marine Affairs at the University of Rhode Island, died at the age of 91.

Alexander created a national and international following for the Department of Marine Affairs at the University of Rhode Island, according to the university’s website, in large part due to his “focus on the global ocean and its management through his contributions to the United Nations Law of the Sea Conference, and, later, through his work at the Department of State, where he served as geographer.”

Prior to joining URI, Alexander taught at the State University of New York, Binghamton. During the Reagan Administration, Alexander also served as the geographer for the US State Department, which overlapped with his tenure at URI. Alexander earned a BA from Middlebury College and a doctorate from Clark University. Following his academic career, Alexander joined the army during World War II. Later, he served with the Air Force for four years, achieving the rank of Master Sergeant.

In 1981, Alexander received AAG Honors from the Association of American Geographers for his accomplishments in scholarship, teaching, education, and service.

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Wilbur Zelinsky

Wilbur Zelinsky, professor emeritus at Penn State University, died on May 4, 2013, at age 91. He was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1921. Described as a cultural geography icon and explorer of American life and significance, he used his eyes to observe the differences in human landscape, while studying and using data to find deeper information. He inspired countless students to examine culture, literature and music.

From 1959-1973, he held many levels of leadership roles for the Association of American Geographers, including president from 1972-1973.

During his career, AAG recognized his contributions and achievements. In 2006, Zelinsky was given the AAG Presidential Achievement Award for his long and distinguished career in geography; for the influence of his publications across a wide range of topics in human geography; and for his early and fervent support for the incorporation of more women into the discipline. He received the AAG John Brinckerhoff Jackson Prize in 1992 for his book, The Cultural Geography of the United States. And in 1966, the association awarded him Honors for Meritorious Contributions.

During AAG’s 2005 annual meeting, the Cultural Geography Specialty Group honored him at special sessions (I and II). The contents of those seminars resulted in a special tribute issue of The Geographical Review.

Joseph Wood, professor and provost at the University of Baltimore once noted, “For six decades Wilbur Zelinsky has been an original and authentic voice in American cultural geography. His curiosity is endless, his intellectual appetite voracious. He seeks human meaning in every facet of material life and every corner of the American scene.”

Among Zelinsky’s many awards, he also received a Guggenheim Fellowship for geography and environmental studies in the social sciences in 1980 and the Cullum Geographical Medal of the American Geographical Society in 2001.

His large body of work includes more than 200 books, atlases, chapters, articles, reviews, reports and other writings.

He received his bachelor’s degree in 1944 and his doctorate in 1953 from the University of California, Berkeley. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1946 with a master’s degree.

During World War II, he served as a map draftsman with several companies. He then worked as a terrain analyst for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in occupied Germany. After the war, Zelinsky accepted an appointment from 1948 to 1952 at the University of Georgia. From 1952-1954, he returned to the University of Wisconsin as a researcher.

From the mid- to late-50s, he was an industrial location analyst for the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway during which time he also was an adjunct professor at Wayne State University. He then taught at Southern Illinois University for a few years before joining the department of geography at Penn State University in 1963. He remained there for the duration of his career.

Zelinsky’s research and scholarship linked many people and disciplines. His work in the 1960s with Penn State professors of sociology, economics and anthropology created a population research center, which would later become the Graduate Program in Demography. From 1972-1973, he served as the first director of what is now the Population Research Institute. He also served as chair of the geography department and was a fixture at the weekly Coffee Hour promoting interdisciplinary scholarship and collegiality.

Peirce F. Lewis, professor emeritus at Penn State once wrote, “… Wilbur Zelinsky had been an icon to me long before I ever met him—and that was back in the early 1960s. In fact, Wilbur Zelinsky was one of the few icons that I knew about in geography, although I did not think to call him that. To me … Zelinsky’s insight seemed a vision from on high.”

He also played the violin. In 1967, he performed during the State College Music Guild’s first concert featuring Bach’s Brandenberg Concerto No. 5 at the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts. Although the group has changed it’s name to the Nittany Valley Symphony since that first concert, Zelinsky had continued to play in the violin section right up through the February 16, 2013, concert featuring “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

Symphony Executive Director Roberta Strebel remarked, “It’s funny, you know. I never really thought of Wilbur as being a long-time professor of geography. I always thought of him as a violinist.”

Zelinsky’s lifelong explorations connected people both personally and professionally. The field of cultural geography and the greater communities in which he participated will continue to be stimulated by his example.

A memorial service, reception and gathering was held to remember his life.

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Gary Hausladen

Gary Hausladen, long-time professor of geography at University of Nevada, Reno, died on April 8, 2013, at the age of 66. During his more than 25 years at the university, he was respected and honored by all. His awards include the university’s Alan Bible Teaching Excellence Award, College of Arts & Sciences and the Tibbitts Distinguished Teacher Award, the university system’s Regents’ Teaching Award. He also received CASE’s Nevada Professor of the Year for Excellence in Teaching, National Council for Geographic Education’s Distinguished Teaching Achievement Award and the Wilbur S. Shepperson Humanities Book Award for Western Places, American Myths: How We Think About the West.

Hasladen earned his Ph.D. in 1983 and M.A. in 1979 in geography from Syracuse University and received his B.A. in 1969 in political science from Stanford University. After attending Stanford, he joined the Air Force and served as a C130 pilot in Vietnam and Cambodia. During his military service, he became fluent in Russian and later traveled to Moscow as a Fulbright Scholar.

Before settling down at the U. of Nevada, Reno, he taught at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and at Southwest Texas State University. During his time in Nevada, he established and served as the director of the Geography Alliance in Nevada (GAIN) to support teachers in building solid foundations in geography for students in grades K-12.

He was married to his wife Marilyn for 46 years and had three children.

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David Smith

David A. Smith, professor emeritus at SUNY at Buffalo, died on March 28, 2013, at age 83. During his more than 30 years of service at the university, he served part of it as director of graduate studies in the geography department. He was a member of the Association of American Geographers and the National Railway Historical Society.

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Robert Morris Crisler

Bob Crisler, a regional geographer who spent much of his career at University of Louisiana-Lafayette, passed away on March 23, 2013, aged 92.

Robert Morris Crisler was born on January 5, 1921 in Columbia, Missouri. Although his father was a professor of veterinary medicine at the University of Missouri, he seems to have developed an early fascination for regional geography. A childhood friend remembered how, by the time he was in grade school, he could name every town on Highway 40 from St. Louis to Kansas City and state how far apart they were.

After attending Hickman High School, Crisler gained a place at the University of Missouri, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in geology in 1941. He then moved to graduate school at Northwestern University in Illinois but was subsequently drafted into the army after America became involved in World War II.

He served with the 88th Division in North Africa and in the Italian campaign. He left the military in February 1946 as a first lieutenant, having received a Purple Heart after he was shot in the arm and an oak leaf when shrapnel injured his back.

Crisler returned to Northwestern to complete his master’s degree (1947) and doctorate (1949) in geography. His thesis was entitled “An Experiment in Regional Delimitation: the Little Dixie Region of Missouri,” which looked at the geopolitics of that region of Missouri. Many sources credit him for coining and fully defining the term ‘Little Dixie.’

His first teaching assignment was at Washington University in St. Louis, starting in 1948, until he was recalled to the military during the Korean conflict. He was assigned to the Pentagon and worked for the CIA as an intelligence officer.

After discharge in 1952, he returned to teach at Washington University until 1954 when he moved to Southwestern Louisiana Institute and University of Southwestern Louisiana (now known as University of Louisiana-Lafayette) where he stayed until retirement. He was a professor of geography and served as head of the department of social studies. During this period he also served as a Louisiana state representative from 1972 to 1976 for District 45.

Crisler stayed in Lafayette for the remainder of his life. He was involved various local organizations including the Louisiana Retired Teachers Association, American Legion Post 69, Pinhook Rotary Club, Louisiana Historical Association, and First Lutheran Church in Lafayette. He was also involved in SCORE, counseling new business owners. In addition, he was a member of Mizzou Alumni Association, the Geological Sciences Alumni of the University of Missouri, and The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi.

It was for a particular hobby, though, that Crisler was noted. Throughout his life he was an avid collector of license plates. His son, Charles, reminisced about how the interest first developed: “Some people look at license plates when they drive and play games with them. Well, we decided we’d get one from each state. And then we wanted to get one from each year.” Together they amassed 3,000 license plates at one point. He was a member of the Automobile License Plate Collectors Association, attending meets and conventions all around the country and serving the club in many capacities, including several years as its president.

Crisler was predeceased by his first wife, Shirley Spohn, who passed away in 1978, and by his second wife, Freda Glenn Erickson, who passed away in 2012. He is survived by two sons, six grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.

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Donald Deskins

Donald Deskins, Jr. was a native of Brooklyn, New York. He earned his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Michigan in 1960, 1963, and 1971, respectively. He was on the faculty of the Department of Geography at the University of Michigan from 1968 to 2002, and Chair of the Department from 1974 – 1979.   When the Department was discontinued in 1982, Professor Deskins joined the Department of Sociology as professor of urban geography and sociology.

In his highly productive career, Professor Deskins made important scholarly contributions to our understanding of racial dynamics in American society. His research spanned such diverse topics as residential segregation, the construction of urban space, racial factors in site location and employment patterns, economic restructuring and teen pregnancy, and changing higher educational opportunities for minority graduate students. In addition, Professor Deskins produced numerous reports on community and economic development commissioned by the National Academy of Sciences and state and local governments.  A demanding but compassionate mentor, Professor Deskins guided countless doctoral students, many from historically under-represented backgrounds, to the successful completion of their degrees. For his superior accomplishments, Professor Deskins has already received numerous University and national awards and honors.

For his many accomplishments, Deskins was selected to receive the inaugural Harold M. Rose Award for Anti-Racism Research and Practice, awarded at the 2013 AAG Annual Meeting.  He died before being able to accept the award in person.

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