David P. Dethier

The quintessential outdoorsman, you have chosen a career and modes of recreation destined to keep you perpetually unroofed. This has included countless hours spent studying the critical zone in the Front Range of Colorado and the sediment transport, glacial deposits, and groundwater in our Hopkins Memorial Forest. You became expert in the effects of acid rain and global warming, and in the production of renewable energy. The outdoors was not only your laboratory, but also your classroom as you continually took students out in nature to see, touch, and smell for themselves. How painful it must have been for you to come indoors for meetings, of which there must have been many, especially as you chaired the geosciences department, the Science Executive Committee, and, perhaps most notably, the project that produced the spectacular Class of 1966 Environmental Center. All of this work won you The Geological Society of America’s prestigious Distinguished Career Award. Along the way you have demonstrated remarkable generosity, in your mentoring of honors students, volunteering to set down Nordic ski tracks, or making yourself available to everyone in town who faced a challenge on their property regarding water or soil—ever the model scientist-citizen.

I hereby declare you Edward Brust Professor of Geology and Mineralogy, Emeritus, entitled to all the rights, honors, and privileges appertaining thereto.

June 3, 2018