DSA Awardee 2008

2008 Gerald M. and Susan T. Friedman Distinguished Service Award

Presented to William R. Brice

Citation by Gary D. Rosenberg

In bestowing this year's Gerald M. and Sue T. Friedman History of Geology Distinguished Service Award we honor a man who has a strong emotional attachment to the history of our science, who delights in sharing that pleasure with others, who is generous with his time and knowledge and consequently who has a gift for facilitating others' efforts in the history of geology. William R. Brice, our very deserving honoree, has a long history of bringing out the best in others in his service to the history of our science in our own Division and internationally as well.

Bill, now Emeritus Professor in Geology and Planetary Science at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, has been an active member of the History of Geology Division, Geological Society of America, for more than 20 years, and for many of those he was in fact its primum mobile. He was a member of the Division's nominating committee from 1985-1989, on the Chair's rotation from 1993-1996, and Secretary/Treasurer/Newsletter Editor from 1998 until 2007. Especially the last was a Herculean commitment: dealing with GSA about the Division's finances, communicating Division news and news of the field in a timely way to the members, and coordinating Division activities at GSA's national meeting.

During his tenure as Secretary/Treasurer, the Division went from publishing two or three newsletters a year to four, and changed from a print-only format to electronic and print publication. The program presence of the Division increased from one half-day session that was "guaranteed" to the Division to two or three sessions, including Pardees, topical sessions, and general sessions, sometimes all three in one year. These sessions are now competitive, not guaranteed, and the Division has an admirable track record in this free-for-all that establishes the GSA meeting each year. Furthermore, the Division has greatly increased its presence at regional meetings, commonly running sessions at one or more a year.

The Division has gone from making one award per year to three, including a student award designed to encourage the future generation of historians of geology. Bill made a special effort to attract students to the Division by assisting in the establishment of the annual reception and book raffle at the national GSA convention, which is always well attended.

The Division now co-sponsors a booth in the exhibit hall with the History of Earth Sciences Society. Initially, Bill and Sue Friedman ran it as part of the service to the Division, and gradually Bill gave it a stable place in the panoply of Division activities. It is a center for all sorts of informal meetings and coordination among historians attending the annual meeting.

Bill was a charter member in 1981 of the History of Earth Sciences Society (HESS). He was President-Elect 2001-2003 and President 2003-2005. He continues to actively engage colleagues around the world in Society activities and in publishing on topics of historical interest in the Society's journal, Earth Sciences History (ESH), and he serves as an Associate Editor for the journal. For several years, Bill managed many of the administrative matters of that journal.

Bill was a member of the North American Section of the Hutton-Lyell Bicentenary Committee meetings in London, Edinburgh, and Toronto, 1997-1998. He was a member of the Board of Directors, Drake Well Foundation, Vice President 2001-2003, and President in 2003. He was a founding member and Inaugural President of the Petroleum History Institute and ultimately, as a result of his characteristic commitment, became Editor, Production Manager, Supervisor of Publishing, and Chief Contributor to Oil Industry History, the only peer-reviewed journal devoted to the history of the oil and gas industry. I remember a HOGD/GSA reception when a student who was a raffle winner made a bee- line for and grabbed the issues of Oil Industry History that Bill had donated, took them to a corner of the room and intently studied them while the rest of the room continued socializing. That young man's response exemplifies how meaningful Bill's efforts are.

Bill has published numerous papers, not only on the contributions of some of our science's Brahmins, but also on many of the lesser known figures in the field whose lives he has thereby affirmed. Bill is continuing his scholarly work on a sustained level with the biography of Edwin Drake. Bill has also served as a HOGD award citationist for many deserving colleagues, so it is clear that in both research and service, Bill's mission is to recognize the best in others.

Bill has been an active member in the National Association of Geoscience Teachers (NAGT) since 1971 where he served as an Associate Editor, Journal of Geoscience Education, and he served as Secretary-Treasurer of the Eastern Section/NAGT from 1976-1992. He has also been a member of the Association for Women Geoscientists (AWG), where he served as a member of the Education Committee, 1993-1994.

Certainly, however, Bill's greatest accomplishments have grown from his collaboration with his wife, Heather, namely their daughter, Tania Brice Coffin, and son, Jack Armstrong Brice. When Tania was an undergraduate and Jack was in high school, Bill would joke that he had two children "into hard rock, a daughter in geology and a son in a rock and roll band." Jack shares a love of singing, music, auto racing, and much more with Bill, but not geology. Tania writes that, "It must be that all those years of posing as "scale" in photographs of outcrops warped both Jack and myself – I morphed into a geology teacher and professional geologist and Jack not." Jack pursued a career in business with an MBA and another master's degree in Public and International Affairs, both from Pitt. Jack and his wife, Kate Freed, reside in Pittsburgh, PA.

Tania, Bill, and Heather would periodically sit around the kitchen table stuffing mailings for NAGT while discussing geology. Tania became President of the AWG Foundation and Chair of the Chrysalis Scholarship Fund and, in 2005, was awarded AWG's Distinguished Service Award. Tania lives in Keene, New Hampshire with her husband, Reverend Peter Coffin, and she teaches part-time at Keene State University.

Others have recognized Bill's manifold accomplishments. In 2005, Bill received the Distinguished Service Award of the Petroleum History Institute. He received the President's Award for Excellence in Teaching, University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, in 2004, and the Dr. Edward A. Vizzini Teacher of the Year Award, University of Pittsburgh, in 2003. He was the first recipient of the Eastern Section, NAGT Distinguished Service Award in 1999. And, not least, Bill was named a Fellow of the Geological Society of America in 1993.

I submit to you that the History of Geology Division's recognition of Bill Brice's accomplishments in the service of the history of geology is long overdue and that he is a most deserving recipient of the Gerald M. and Sue T. Friedman History of Geology Distinguished Service Award.


Response by Bill Brice

My dear friends, please accept my regrets at not being with you today when I am being honored with the Friedman Distinguished Service Award for 2008. But on Saturday evening, October 4th, our son and his new bride held their wedding reception, and we had many far-away friends and relatives come to Pittsburgh for the festivities and most stayed through the week-end. As a result, I felt my place was to be with our family and our son and our new daughter-in-law at this very special time. But please know that my absence, in no way, detracts from my deep appreciation of the honor you are bestowing on me today. My only regret is that I am unable to thank you in person.

I am deeply moved by this recognition from my friends and colleagues in the Division. It is an honor made even more meaningful to me as the award is named in recognition of the contributions of two of my dear and long-time friends, Gerry and Sue Friedman, and we all know of the work they have done on behalf of the history of geology. Also I have to acknowledge the contributions of the previous awardees, for they certainly set a high standard and I am proud to be counted among them. However, this award really belongs to all of you, for my accomplishments in the Division would not have been possible without the cooperation and support of the entire Division membership. Also I want to acknowledge the wonderful support I have had from Barb EchoHawk, who is our connection with GSA. Barb also should share this award in partnership with me in my recognition of all of her support and encouragement. A big part of the pleasure of my association with the Division has come because I have been fortunate over the years to work with some wonderful Division officers; in some cases more years than either of us want to count. Many may remember the "Hutton Buttons," and I still have mine. Seldom did any problem or task arise for which I was not able to find a volunteer to step forward. Once when a Division chair resigned in the middle of a term, the person next in line took over and ended up organizing two GSA annual meeting sessions for the Division; which, believe me, is really above-and-beyond the call of duty. Ask Gary Rosenberg about that sometime, but only when you both have a tall glass of wine in your hands, preferably red. When I was teaching on the round-the-world voyage with the Semester-at-Sea program during the fall of 2005, Michele Aldrich and Alan Leviton took over my Secretary-Treasurer-Editor duties for that semester. And those are only two instances in what has been the norm rather than the exception in our Division. So that is what I mean when I say that my accomplishments are really your accomplishments and I share this honor with all of you.

When I first joined the History of Geology Division about 30 or so years ago, it was because of an interest in the history of our subject that had been sparked by Professor John Wells of Cornell University and then brought back to life when I purchased a copy of Lyell's Travels in North America (the first trip) in 1977. As I started reading through it again, I started thinking about his descriptions of Pennsylvania and ended up writing a short paper about that. Then I was fortunate to be part of our symposium at the GSA meeting in Philadelphia in 1980 which led to the formation of HESS and Earth Sciences History. In fact the papers from that meeting were just re-printed in the latest issue of Northeastern Geology … which arrived at my desk in late September. Little did I know then how much joy and fulfillment this association would bring me throughout my career, in fact it became the non-teaching side of my professional career, and still is. Some of my students would swear that it was a major part of my teaching as well, for I felt that if a student did not know from where our geological ideas had come and how they were developed, then he or she could never appreciate where we are today. So the history of my subjects was integrated right into the lessons, even though the students would happily point out - "that's not in the book!" To which I would reply, "How observant you are, but it will be on the exam!!" - and it was.

As I know you have many other items of business before you, I don't want to be too long winded - of course, you know, college teachers are programmed to talk in 50 minute segments, but I will restrain myself today. However, I do want to publicly express my sympathy to the family of Chris Schuberth. I only worked with Chris for a few months, but I know we all have suffered a great loss. Also I want to congratulate our new Secretary-Treasurer-Editor, Jane Davidson, and to say that there is no finer group with whom to work than the members of the History of Geology Division. I also want to thank my family for their support, my wife Heather, our children Tania and Jack (the one with the new bride). Many times they had to be so understanding and accepting of my absences from home as I stayed at work to complete a newsletter or perform other Division business. But before closing my remarks, I must thank Gary for his kind introduction and citation, and if even only part of what he told you is true, I am truly flattered. And I want to thank Michele and Sally for accepting the award in my absence, for they do me great honor by agreeing to stand in for me today. The four of us, Gary, Michele, Sally, and I, have shared so much over the years of our association and I greatly value their friendship. They are, as well as are all of you, fellow travelers in our effort to make the history of geology as meaningful for our students as it is for us.

Again, please accept my apologies for not being able to be with you today, but I am with you in spirit. And thank you, again, for the honor of receiving the Gerald M. and Sue T. Friedman History of Geology Distinguished Service Award for 2008. Please know that I have raised a glass of wine (red, of course) as a toast to the Division this past weekend, and I hope you will do the same for me at the meeting.

Cheers to all - Bill