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.

See All Memorials
    Share

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.

See All Memorials
    Share

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.

See All Memorials
    Share

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.

See All Memorials
    Share

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.

See All Memorials
    Share

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.

See All Memorials
    Share

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.

See All Memorials
    Share

LeRoy Myers

LeRoy Myers, a former professor of geography and city planner, died Feb. 17, 2013. A native of Pennsylvania, Myers studied at Penn State where he earned his bachelor’s degree. He later graduated from the University of Michigan with a master’s in geography. As a professor of geography, he taught at Slippery Rock University and WVU. Myers also worked in city planning for the cities of Williamsport, Meadville, and Lima in Ohio.

LeRoy also served in the army during World War II. His love of travel took him to all of Europe and much of East Asia, Africa, and Australia. Myers had a talent for photography and served as a member of the Masonic Lodge.

He is survived by two step children (Susan Miller and David Swanson) and relatives in the Clintonville, Pa., area.

See All Memorials
    Share

John B. Rehder

John B. Rehder of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK) has died at the age of 68. He was a cherished teacher and colleague in the UTK geography department and a well-known figure on the UTK campus, where he had taught since 1967. Rehder earned both a master’s degree (1965) and a Ph.D. from Louisiana State University (1971) and a bachelor’s degree from East Carolina University (1964).

A historical and cultural geographer, Rehder’s research focused on material folk culture as reflected in traditional architecture in the American South. A distinguished author, two of his books received prestigious awards. Delta Sugar: Louisiana’s Vanishing Plantation Landscape (1999) received the Vernacular Architecture Forum’s Abbott Lowell Cummings Award in 2000. Rehder was later presented with the Pioneer America Society’s Fred B. Kniffen Book Award for Appalachian Folkways (2004), a detailed account of southern Appalachia and its cultural milieu. Both books were published by Johns Hopkins University Press. Tennessee Log Buildings: A Folk Tradition is due to be published by the University of Tennessee Press in November of 2012.

John B. Rehder (Necrology). 2012. AAG Newsletter 47(7): 30.

See All Memorials
    Share

Louis C. DeVorsey

Louis C. DeVorsey, professor emeritus of geography at the University of Georgia, has died at the age of 83.

DeVorsey received a B.A. from Montclair State University in New Jersey and an M.A. in geography from Indiana University. He earned a Ph.D. in geography in 1965 from the University of London. DeVorsey entered the U.S. Navy Officer Candidate School in Newport News, Rhode Island, in 1954, where he was commissioned as an Ensign. At his death he held the rank of Commander, USNR-Retired.

DeVorsey worked at East Carolina University from 1962 to 1965 and at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill from 1965 to 1967. He then spent the following 21 years at University of Georgia, where he was promoted to professor in 1973. He retired in 1988.

DeVorsey produced an extensive list of impressive publications in the fields of exploration and discovery and the history of cartography. Some of the better known works he authored or edited include The Georgia-South Carolina Boundary: A Problem in Historical Geography (1982, reprinted 2008), The Indian Boundary in the Southern Colonies, 1763-1775 (1966), The Atlantic Pilot (1974), De Brahm’s Report of the General Survey in the Southern District of North America (1971), In the Wake of Columbus: Islands and Controversy (1985), and the award-winning Keys to the Encounter: A Library of Congress Resource Guide for the Study of the Age of Discovery (1992).

As an expert witness, DeVorsey appeared in at least five original actions before the U.S. Supreme Court in regard to litigation concerning sea and land boundaries. He conducted research for the U.S. Department of State in connection with the U.S.-Canada seaward boundary dispute in the Gulf of Maine. This case was adjudicated by the International Court of Justice at The Hague in the Netherlands, where he was one of three geographers who served as consultants to the U.S. Litigation Team.

The Association of American Geographers (AAG) presented DeVorsey with the AAG Award for Meritorious Contributions to the Field of Geography in 1975. In 1980, the University of Georgia Research Foundation presented him its Medal for Research Creativity in the Social Sciences. DeVorsey served the Society for the History of Discoveries as Vice President/President from 1979 to 1982, and he was named a fellow of the society in 2005.

Louis C. DeVorsey (Necrology). 2012. AAG Newsletter 47(6): 28.

See All Memorials
    Share