Charles Yahr

Charles Corbin Yahr, retired professor of geography at San Diego State University (SDSU), died on July 22, 2006. He was born June 23, 1925 in Chesterfield, Illinois. Yahr earned a bachelor’s degree from Illinois State University at Normal and a master’s and PhD in geography from the University of Illinois.

Yahr served in the U.S. Army from 1944-46, as a First Lieutenant. From 1952-54 he and his wife lived in Karachi, Pakistan while he worked as an editorial assistant for the Silver-Burdett Publishing Company and did field work for his dissertation on the geography of northwest Pakistan. After returning home, Yahr finished his PhD and in 1955 moved to San Diego for a teaching position at SDSU. He retired after thirty-three years at SDSU but continued to teach in the continuing education department and then as a tutor for the literacy project in San Diego.

Charles Corbin Yahr (Necrology). 2006. AAG Newsletter 41(9): 23.

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Caleb D. Hammond

Caleb D. Hammond, Jr., president of the map-making business C. S. Hammond & Company from 1948 to 1974, died at age ninety.

C. S. Hammond & Company was second only to Rand McNally in producing road maps and atlases pinpointing cities and towns, across the country and around the world. The 1955 edition of Hammond’s Ambassador World Atlas included 326 maps and a 242-page index with more than 100,000 location names.

Hammond made his mark on the family-owned company by selling its maps to book publishers, including Random House and Simon & Schuster. He also played a key role in helping the company as it made the transition to digital production.

In 1999, the company was sold to Langenscheidt Publishers, a German company that produces travel books and maps. Now known as the Hammond World Atlas Company, it is based in Springfield, New Jersey.

Hammond was born on June 24, 1915 and graduated from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, Massachusetts, with a degree in mechanical engineering in 1937. He served in the Coast Guard during World War II.

In April 1948, Hammond was elected president of the company after serving as the company’s vice president and secretary. He retired in 1974, but remained active, working with the staff as it adjusted to using computers. The company produced the first digitally generated world atlas in 1992.

Caleb D. Hammond (Necrology). 2006. AAG Newsletter 41(7): 17.

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Walter W. Ristow

Walter W. Ristow, former Chief of the Geography and Map Division, Library of Congress, Washington, died on April 3, 2006. Ristow, born April 20, 1908, in La Crosse, Wisconsin, devoted his life to the study of cartography, the history of cartography, map librarianship, and map collecting.   He received his formal training in geography from the University of Wisconsin, Madison (BA 1931), a master’s in geography and geology from Oberlin College, Ohio (1933) and a PhD in geography from Clark University (1937).

Upon completion of his graduate work, Ristow began his long career in map librarianship as he served as head and later Chief of the Map Division of the New York Public Library (1937-46). He also served with the Military Intelligence Service as a wartime map analyst from 1941-44. He moved to Washington in 1946 to begin his thirty-two year career in the Geography and Map Division of the Library of Congress (1946-78). He served as Assistant Chief from 1946-68 and Chief from 1968-78. After retirement he was named Honorary Consultant in the History of American Cartography at the Library of Congress (1978-87).

Ristow devoted substantial energies to the scholarly organizations in his field. He served as Secretary of the Association of American Geographers 1949-50 and also held positions as editor, consulting editor, and advisory editor for several scholarly journals, including the Canadian Cartographer, Imago Mundi, Acta Cartographica, and The Map Collector.  He was as member, vice chairman (1954-57), and chairman (1957-59) of the U.S. Board on Geographic Names.

Walter Ristow was a prolific writer with a long list of publications prepared between 1933 and the late 1980s. Among his most noteworthy contributions were The Emergence of Maps in Libraries (1980), the prized American Maps and Mapmakers; Commercial Cartography in the Nineteenth Century (1985), (with R.A. Skelton) Nautical Charts on Vellum in the Library of Congress (1977), the scholarly commentary to the facsimile of A Survey of the Roads of the United States of America in 1789 by Christopher Colles (1960),(editor of) A la Carte; Selected papers on maps and atlases (1972), Marketing Maps of the United States (1951, 1952, and 1958), and Aviation Cartography (1956, 1957, 1960).

During his direction of the Geography and Map Division of the Library of Congress, he oversaw the development of machine readable cataloging for cartographic objects (MARC maps). He was presented the Distinguished Service Award by the Library of Congress in 1978. During his career he received honors from the Special Libraries Association, the ACSM, and the AAG. Since 1994, the AAG Cartography Specialty Group has offered the Dr. Walter W. Ristow Prize in the History of Cartography, in recognition of academic achievement in the history of cartography or map librarianship

Following his retirement, additional honors were named in his honor, including the Walter W. Ristow Endowment Fund of the Library of Congress (for the advancement of understanding of the Geography and Map Division Collections and American Cartography) established in 1998, and the Ristow Prize of the Washington Map Society, presented annually to the most outstanding submission on the history of cartography.

Walter W. Ristow (Necrology). 2006. AAG Newsletter 41(6): 16.

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Gimpel Wajntraub

Dr. Gimpel Wajntraub, retired Head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Shaarae Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, Israel, and active member of the Bible Geography Specialty Group (BGSG), died September 9, 2005 in Jerusalem. He developed an interest in old maps of the Holy Land, co-edited the Israeli Map Collector Society’s Journal, wrote almost one hundred articles and a number of books including Hebrew Maps of the Holy Land, and attended the Annual Meetings of the AAG contributing papers in “Geography of the Bible” sessions. Gimpel amassed a very large “maps of the Holy Land” and “books on the Holy Land” collection.  He co-authored two articles, with his wife Eva, in the BGSG’s new book, Geography of the Holy Land:  Perspectives. The work of Gimpel and his wife Eva was featured in a April 22, 2005, article about geography of the Bible in the Intermountain Jewish News and about their papers presented at the AAG’s Annual Meeting in Denver 2005.

GImpel Wajntraub (Necrology). 2006. AAG Newsletter 41(1): 29.

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David Frost

David Frost, a Concordia University geography professor, died May 25.

Born in England in 1943, he graduated from McGill with BSc and MSc degrees in geography. In the 1960s McGill had major research interests in the Caribbean, and he worked in climatology projects on the islands and Guyana. He went to Birmingham University for his PhD to pursue his interests in the microclimatology of agricultural crops in the tropics.

After working at Queen Mary College, London, and the University of Regina, he joined Sir George Williams University in 1972 as an assistant professor, and within six months he was Chair of the Geography Department (1973-79).

He served in this capacity again from 1991-94, and as chair of the Geology Department from 1995-98. From 1984-85 he was Assistant Dean – Division II of the newly created Faculty of Arts and Science. He also sat on the Board of Governors (1989-92), and was President of Concordia University Faculty Association at the time of his death.

He had a keen sense of the discipline’s relevance to current issues, and his early interest in computer techniques was crucial in spearheading the Geography Department’s development of Geographical Information Systems (GIS).

Frost became an AAG member in 1973 and was also a long-time member of the New England-St Lawrence Valley Geographical Society, having served over the years as its President and Canadian representative.

David Frost (Necrology). 2005. AAG Newsletter 40(10): 54.

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John Garver

John Garver, former Chief Cartographer for National Geographic, died on May 22, 2005. Born July 11, 1928, he earned his BS at the U.S. Military Academy a West Point in 1952. Recognizing his keen geographical intellect and leadership potential in the classroom the Army sent him to Syracuse University in 1963 for training to teach geography at West Point. He completed his MA in 1965 and became and instructor in the Department of Earth, Space and Graphic Sciences at West Point in 1966. In 1969-70, he served as Parachute and Ranger and earned the Combat Infantryman’s Badge while commanding an Infantry Battalion in the Vietnam War and also served as deputy commander of a brigade. He was awarded numerous medals, including four Bronze Stars—two of these for valor. Other assignments took him around the world to various military installations in Germany, the Panama Canal Zone, Saudi Arabia, Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and Fort Benning, Georgia.

Following these assignments, he again returned to West Point as a Professor of Geography and was awarded his PhD from Syracuse in 1981 completing his dissertation topic on the “The Role of the United States Army in the Colonization of the Trans-Missouri West: Kansas, 1804-1861”. Meanwhile, he initiated two academic programs within the Geography Department at West Point that are still active today. The first is degree program in Environmental Engineering that focuses on global environmental concerns and the role of military. The second program, “Military Geography.” was John’s forte and incorporates historical geography at its core. During his time at West Point he hosted geographers, environmentalists, mountaineers, and American icons for on-campus lectures, as well as countless guests and former classmates from a broad spectrum of disciplines.

Garver was the author of several papers on and publications on geographic subjects including Landscape Atlas of the USSR and Selected Aspects of the Geography of Poverty. In 1982 he retired as Colonel from West Point and soon assumed the position of Senior Assistant Editor and Chief Cartographer for the Cartographic Division at the National Geographic Society (NGS). During his career at NGS he led the transition to computer cartography and initiated many projects, including the “Making of America Series” with his former advisor Donald Meinig as chief editorial consultant (seventeen regional maps) and “Making of Canada” series (six maps), with R. Cole Harris and John Warkentin. Garver launched the renowned Historical Atlas of the United States prepared as the principal work in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the NGS. The atlas featured the work of historical geographers such as Donald Meinig, Peirce Lewis, Sam Hilliard, Wilbur Zelinsky, and Fred Kniffen as well as scholars in history, anthropology, folklore, and architecture. As president of the Washington Map Society in 1987–88 he continued to host many lectures and events to bring this community to his new front porch at NGS. He published an article in the Portolan entitled Isaac McCoy: Forgotten Mapper of the Trans-Missouri West. Two other major atlases were produced using state of the art technology and imagery—the Atlas of North America: Space Age Portrait of a Continent (1985) and the Sixth Edition Atlas of the World. Again, through his impressive network of scholars and explorers, he released the acclaimed NGS map of “The World” with Arthur Robinson’s projection in 1988, which spearheaded an iconic look and format for the next seven years in many geographic publications. He also sponsored several cartographers in residence during this period hosting Arthur Robinson, David Woodward, and Judy Olson for staff tutorials and lectures on innovations in cartography. With mountaineer and explorer Brad Washburn, he also produced the highly-awarded “Map of Mt. Everest” included in the December 1988 issue of National Geographic. Garver spearheaded a long-standing relationship with ESRI and paved the way for a viable and sustaining digital mapping process that is reflected in subsequent editions of the Atlas of the World, now in its 8th edition.

After ten years he retired from NGS in 1991. He continued his literary and academic pursuits with lectures and travels to all corners of the world. He was elected to the Cosmos Club in 1993.In 2002 he published an entry on “Military Geography” for the thirty-volume Encyclopedia of the Behavioral and Social Sciences by Elsevier Press, Oxford. He was in the process of writing a book about the role of the U.S. Army in the colonization of the pre-Civil War trans-Missouri West when he died.

 

John B. Garver Jr. (Necrology). 2005. AAG Newsletter 40(9): 23.

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John Robert Dunkle Sr

John Robert Dunkle Sr. died in Tucson, Arizona, on May 22, 2005. He was born on June 30, 1924, in Jacksonville, Florida. Dunkle served as a weather observer in the Army Air Corps in World War II and earned degrees from the University of Florida, the University of California at Los Angeles. In 1953 he earned his PhD at Clark University. Dunkle was a professor of geography at the University of Florida for forty-six years and held the rank of Professor Emeritus after he retired. He and Erwin Raisz authored the first statistical atlas of Florida.

John Robert Dunkle Sr. (Necrology). 2005. AAG Newsletter 40(7): 23.

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Anthony Williamson

Human geography scholar H. Anthony Williamson died December 29, 2004. He was founding Director of the Labrador Institute, a center for northern studies based in Goose Bay and he administered Memorial University’s outreach programs in Labrador.

Williamson was born in New York City, and attended Darmouth College. He earned a master’s degree in geography at McGill University and later became a Canadian citizen.

Know for his support of indigenous communities in Labrador and the Canadian Arctic, he filmed villagers telling their stories, then invited them to view the raw footage and suggest what should be emphasized or changed. The visual documentation of conditions in their villages was then presented to the government. He also gathered environmental, economic and cultural data to create a template for evaluating the land claims of northern aboriginal people.

Anthony Williamson (Necrology). 2005. AAG Newsletter 40(3): 17.

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Daniel Paul Steiling

Daniel Paul Steiling, adjunct professor of geography at Riverside Community College, Moreno Valley Campus,died December 22, 2004.

A San Jose native, he earned a bachelor’s at San Jose State and a master’s in geography at University of California, Berkeley. Before becoming a geography professor, Steiling held jobs in a number of fields, being a road right-of-way agent, bicycle shop owner, computer-disk manufacturing specialist, soil inspector, and railroad conductor. In addition to teaching at Riverside Community College, Steiling also taught at Mira Costa Community College in San Marcos.

Daniel Paul Steiling (Necrology). 2005. AAG Newsletter 40(3): 17.

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Larry Hargrave

Larry Hargrave, 61, of Medford, Oregon died May 15, 2004, at home surrounded by family and friends after a battle with leukemia.

Hargrave completed his undergraduate work at Southern Oregon University and had just received his master’s in Geography from Miami University in Ohio. He returned to school after full careers first in the lumber industry and then as a financial consultant.

Larry Hargrave (Necrology). 2004. AAG Newsletter 39(7): 28.

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