Mary Meader

Mary Meader, a well-known pioneer of aerial photography, died recently in Kalamazoo, Michigan at the age of 91. Born Mary Rachel Upjohn in April of 1916, she dropped out of Smith College in 1935 to marry the aviator Richard Light and partner with him on an unprecedented 35,000 mile journey across the Southern hemisphere. She took flying lessons, learned Morse code, and became her husband’s navigator, radio operator, and sometimes emergency co-pilot, but her primary mission was to capture the first aerial photographs of various remote or little-known places of the Earth. Mary and Richard Light would often risk their lives in a small Bellanca monoplane lacking heat and pressurization in an effort to capture photographs from the sky. The effort took ingenuity as well as daring, and Mary Meader has often been credited with creativity and invention in certain technical aspects of her photographic work.

The 95-pound Meader built a sling from canvas and clothesline to hold her heavy Fairchild F8 camera in place as she took photographs out of an open window, often from heights exceeding 10,000 feet and in freezing temperatures. In this way, the couple made the first aerial photographs of the Nazca lines in Peru, and they were the first to capture the stunning crater at the top of Mount Kilamanjaro on film as well as the peak of Mount Stanley. They later captured many of the Pyramids of Egypt from an aerial perspective as well as surrounding settlements and urban areas. The journey was supported by the American Geographical Society. In 1941, their book, Focus on Africa, written by Richard and illustrated with Mary’s photographs, was published, causing a sensation. Mary Meader’s photographs have appeared in various exhibitions throughout the years, including at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum.

Mary and Richard Light divorced in 1961. She later married Edwin Meader, a professor of geography. She was one of 11 grandchildren of Dr. W.E. Upjohn, founder of the Upjohn Company, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical concerns. Mary and Edwin Meader became well-known philanthropists who gave generously to education and the arts. In 2006, Mary Meader was asked to sign the Explorer’s Globe at Western Michigan University in a special ceremony. The Globe includes the signatures of Amelia Earhart, Charles Lindbergh, Neil Armstrong, Sir Edmund Hillary, and John Glenn, among others.

Mary Meader (Necrology). 2008. AAG Newsletter 43(5): 16.

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Dan Irwin

Dan Irwin, emeritus professor of geography at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, passed away recently. Irwin first came to SIUC in 1959 as Director of the Cartographic Lab. He earned a masters degree there while working as the Cartographer for the Mississippi River Valley Studies Program. Irwin later earned a PhD at Syracuse University. He then took a faculty position on the Geography Department at SIUC, where he worked for many years, after the MRVS program was phased out. In addition to publishing in scholarly journals, Irwin co-authored Exploring the Land and Rocks of Southern Illinois, with Stanley E. Harris, Jr. and C. William Horrell. Before his retirement in 1991, Irwin started work on an historical novel about the contributions of topographers and mapmakers in delineating the terrain of the West during the first half of the nineteenth century. To Walk Upon High Places was published in 2005.

Dan Irwin (Necrology).2008. AAG Newsletter 43(2): 19.

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Calvin Beale

Calvin Lunsford Beale, senior demographer at the Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service, died on September 2, 2008 at the age of 85. A lifelong resident of Washington, DC, Beale earned an undergraduate degree at Wilson Teacher’s College in 1945. He studied geography under O.E. Baker at the University of Maryland and received an M.S. in Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His 62-year career in the federal government began at the Veteran’s Administration in 1942 and included jobs in the Office of Strategic Services and the Census Bureau. Beale came to USDA in 1953 and, at the time of his death, had the Department’s longest record of full-time federal service.

Beale conducted ground-breaking research on the U.S. farm population, tracing and explaining its rapid decline over several decades. His comprehensive reporting on black farmers chronicled the circumstances underlying the massive rural exodus of the 1950s and 1960s. He was the first to uncover the 1970s’ nonmetropolitan turnaround, when for the first time more people were leaving metropolitan areas than were moving in. More recently, he drew national media attention by documenting the disproportionate placement of prisons in nonmetropolitan counties.

Beale collaborated with Donald Bogue on Economic Areas of the United States, based on their county-level delineation of State Economic Areas. Released in 1961, it remains the most comprehensive socioeconomic portrait of the U.S. to appear in a single volume.

Beale combined a legendary command of statistical data with firsthand knowledge from 50 years of travel that took him to over 2,400 U.S. counties. Conversations with USDA extension agents and other local officials allowed him to spot emerging trends and issues relevant to rural policymakers back in Washington. A love of American architecture led to a collection of over 2,000 county courthouse pictures. Several of his best photos are published as magazine covers and featured at the very popular County Courthouse web site.*

In 1990, the RAND Corporation published A Taste of the Country: A Collection of Calvin Beale’s Writings. Edited by Peter Morrison and reissued in 2002 by Penn State University Press, it includes notes from his field visits and a selection of previously unpublished papers. Beale received the USDA Distinguished Service Award in 1968 and the Secretary’s Award for Superior Service in 2003. He was made an honorary fellow of the Population Reference Bureau. In 2005, Beale received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Melungeon Heritage Association for his pioneering research on mixed-ancestry groups.

Calvin Lunsford Beale (Necrology). 2008. AAG Newsletter 43(10): 17.

*Please note: The original URL highlighting Beale’s county courthouse photos is no longer available, however these images can be researched via the Internet Archive.

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Larry Sommers

Larry Sommers, emeritus professor of geography at Michigan State University, died recently at the age of 88. He was widely influential in the discipline as an administrator, researcher, and mentor to students.

Sommers received his PhD from Northwestern University in 1950 with a study of the Scandinavian fishing industry. Although his initial graduate studies were interrupted by service with the U.S. Army in North Africa, he returned to earn a master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin following World War II, in 1946.

Sommers received his first academic appointment from Michigan State University, where he received promotion to full professor in 1955. He became the first Chair of the new MSU Department of Geography and helped bring that program to national prominence, overseeing the creation of a PhD program. After 25 years as chair he spent a number of years in the office of the provost. Sommers accepted emeritus status in 1989, 40 years after his first appointment.

After his retirement, Sommers became increasingly active in the Phi Kappa Phi National Honor Society, for which he served as national president. In later years he was particularly active in applied geography and was a founding member of the Applied Geography Conference. He also served as U.S. representative to the International Geographical Union and left his mark on numerous other organizations, including the AAG, AGS, WRSA, AAAS, NCGE, Sigma XI, and the Explorers Club.

Lawrence M. Sommers (Necrology). 2007. AAG Newsletter 42(9): 17.

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Jacquelyn Beyer

Jacquelyn Beyer, Professor Emerita of Geography and Environmental Studies at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, died on July 22. Jackie, as she was widely known, was a pioneer. Raised by her mother in a cabin in Colorado, her earliest ambitions were to be a foreign correspondent. Too young to fulfill her wish to enlist in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps on the outbreak of World War II, Jackie completed her B.A. (1944) in journalism at the University of Colorado, then joined the army and ran a photography lab in Germany. On return to the U.S., she earned an M.A. in Geography (University of Colorado, 1954). Unwilling to pursue the conventional goals expected of women (marriage or secretarial work) in the 1950s, she earned a PhD in Geography at the University of Chicago (1957) with Gilbert White, emphasizing resource management issues in the American West. She was one of very few women to receive the doctorate in geography in that era.

After short-term academic positions in the U.S., Jackie traveled and taught at the University of Cape Town. An important avocation in mid-life was piloting her own plane.

Beyer made long-term contributions at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs (1970-1990), where she initiated the Geography and Environmental Studies Department, serving as its Chair between 1970-76 and 1980-84. Her innovations including introducing personalized, active learning approaches to geography, and one of the earliest courses nationally in feminist geography. She established a scholarship fund for women in geography which has supported more than thirty students. Contributions to sustain this program are welcome (CU Foundation/Women in Geography Endowed Scholarship, P.O. Box 7150, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80933-7150).

A fifty-plus year member of the AAG, Jackie led the way in promoting equity. As a Regional Councillor her achievements included writing the report that introduced the non-discrimination clause into AAG’s Constitution and By-Laws and securing funding to support the Committee on the Status of Women in Geography. Her commitments to women and sexual diversity were recognized by an Award for Significant Achievement from the Sexuality and Space Specialty Group and the AAG’s Enhancing Diversity Award, of which she was very proud.

Jacquelyn Beyer (Necrology). 2008. AAG Newsletter 43(8): 17.

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Mahmut Gokmen

Mahmut Gokmen, a PhD student in Geography at the University of Oklahoma, died July 21, 2008 in Norman, Oklahoma. He was 27.

Gokmen was born in Havza, Turkey on July 2, 1981. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Istanbul in 2002. He completed his master’s degree at the University of Akron in 2007 under the supervision of Ghazi-Walid Falah. At the University of Oklahoma, Gokmen was working on his PhD under the supervision of Darren Purcell.

Mahmut’s research interests included political geography, geopolitics, sovereignty, territoriality, and the history of geographical thought. He was the author (with Tyler Haas) of “Modern Mapping of Orientalism on the Arab World: National Geographic Magazine, 1990-2006” in The Arab World Geographer (volume 10, 2007). He received the Charles Standley Memorial Award for outstanding graduate student publication from the OU Department of Geography in April 2008.

Mahmut Gokmen (Necrology). 2008. AAG Newsletter 43(8): 17.

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Bill Hance

Professor emeritus and former chair of the department of geography at Columbia, Bill Hance, died on July 12, 2008. Hance was born in New York City. He served during World War II as a naval officer and later earned his PhD from Columbia University (1949). Hance was an active member of the American Geographical Society and served a term as AGS President from 1972-73. He also served on the faculty advisory committees of the American Assembly, the Columbia University Press, and the Smithsonian Institution International Program on Population Research, and on many Columbia committees including the University Senate.

Hance was a founding fellow and director of the African Studies Association. In 1967, he was named an honorary fellow of the AGS, and was honored by the Nigerian Society of Geographers for “distinguished contributions to the science of geography in Africa.” He gave visiting lectures on Africa at many of American colleges and universities in the 1950s, when the future of Africa was emerging an important topic of public debate in the U.S. in the years following WW II. Hance also served as a consultant to several government agencies, including the State Department and the Office of Naval Research.

Bill Hance (Necrology). 2008. AAG Newsletter 43(8): 17.

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Herbert Donald Hays

Herbert Donald Hays, retired professor of geography at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, passed away on July 6, 2008 of natural causes at the age of 86. He was a native of Berea, Kentucky. Hays’ education was interrupted by World War II, serving his country as a military pilot. After the war he completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Kentucky and later did graduate work at the University of Michigan.

Hays took a faculty position in the Department of Geology and Geography where he taught geology, physical geography, microclimatology, urban and regional planning, and air photo interpretation. He collaborated on The Atlas of Alabama and traveled widely as a consultant in oil and gas exploration. Hays was an active member of the AAG and SEDAAG over his 36-year career. He played an important role in establishing the Department of Geography at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa. He retired in 1986.

Herbert Donald Hays (Necrology). 2008. AAG Newsletter 43(7): 22.

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Todd Reynolds

Todd Reynolds passed away on Sunday, June 22 at his home in Syracuse, New York. Reynolds was serving as a post-doctoral fellow at the Center on Human Policy, Law, and Disability Studies at Syracuse University at the time of his death at age 37. He was working on an advanced training project in rehabilitation research and disability policy funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research. Reynolds was born in Milwaukee and grew up in the Atlanta area. He earned a B.A. in geography in 1994 and an M.S. in 1999, both from the University of Alabama. He completed his PhD in geography at the University of Oklahoma in 2007. Reynolds specialized in the experiences of people with disabilities in natural disasters. His doctoral dissertation, “Fragmentary Worlds: Sensory/Mobility Impairment, Indistinct Perceptions, and Shadowy Responses to Severe Weather,” explored how people with disabilities prepare for and cope with tornadoes and other severe weather in the Midwest.

Todd Reynolds (Necrology). 2008. AAG Newsletter 43(7): 23.

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David J. M. Hooson

David J.M. Hooson, professor emeritus of geography at the University of California at Berkeley, died recently at the age of 82. Born in the Vale of Clwyd, North Wales, Hooson gained his undergraduate degree at Oxford and his doctorate at the London School of Economics. After four years as a lecturer at the University of Glasgow, he came to North America in 1956, first to the University of Maryland, then to the University of British Columbia, from which he moved to Berkeley in 1964.

Long-time dean of social sciences, chair of geography and of the Center for Slavic and East European Studies, Hooson taught at UC Berkeley for 37 years. He continued to mentor staff and students, led an American Geographical Society Mediterranean tour in the summer of 2007, and at his death was teaching at the Fromm Institute of Lifelong Learning at the University of San Francisco. He chaired the IGU Commission on the History of Geographical Thought from 1980 to 1988 and the International Union of the History and Philosophy of Science.

Hooson was a well-known authority on the former Soviet Union, notably its Central Asian republics, and his work influenced the development of geography within Russia itself. His books included A New Soviet Heartland? (1964) and The Soviet Union: People and Regions (1966). A prolific scholar, Hooson’s essays appeared in scores of books and periodicals within and beyond geography. His edited volume, Geography and National Identity (1994), has been called a path-breaking collection of global breadth. In his own essay, Hooson noted that the disintegration of the Soviet Union required redrawing “mental maps of this enormous slice of the earth’s surface” and rediscovering peoples whose regional attachments were “part of their life blood and their collective soul.” The reemergence of national identity the world over, he concluded, made the geographical dimension “fundamental, ultimately and increasingly inescapable, and to be ignored at our peril.” “The costs of geographical ignorance can be enormous,” he warned at a Berkeley commencement in 2001, “if also combined with arrogance, as many foreigners see the United States now.”

In addition to his contributions as teacher, mentor, administrator, and scholar, Hooson was known for his extraordinary personal warmth and generous spirit. He claimed his exuberant beard led some to see him as Darwin, others as Santa Claus. “If I can achieve such virtual fame simply by not shaving,” he told Berkeley geography graduate students, “think what you can do.”

David J.M. Hooson (Necrology). 2008. AAG Newsletter 43(7): 22.

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