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September 1, 2000 Dear Alumni and Friends: I am pleased to introduce the Fourteenth Annual Report from the Department of Geology at The College of Wooster. We had an unusually eventful year in the department and in our extended community, so you will read here plenty of news from the alumni, students, faculty, staff, and friends of geology at Wooster. Our successful year is due in part to the leadership of Dr. Lori Bettison-Varga, who served as chair of the department for the past two years. Under her direction we completed our departmental review and began to take the program in new and exciting directions. At the same time Lori has been a leader in the College and with national organizations. Lori is now on a year-long research leave. We wish her well and thank her for her service. You will read about many honors our faculty, staff, alumni, and friends have received in the past year, but I want to highlight two. Dr. Robert Varga has been named the new Shoolroy Professor of Natural Resources at the College, which you can read more about on pages 27 and 28. We are very proud of Bob's accomplishments in both teaching and research, and we are again grateful to our friends for establishing this endowed chair. Dr. Molly Miller ('69) was presented with the Distinguished Alumni Award at Wooster this summer (pages 29 and 30). Molly has not only been a superb scientist and teacher at Vanderbilt University, she has also been a strong friend of Wooster and its geology program. We are pleased to see her recognized by the larger community. We welcome this year two new members to our staff. Dr. Allen Dodson has already fit in well as our visiting petrologist, and Karrie McAllister ('99) is our new departmental intern. We say goodbye and best wishes to Liz Myers ('99) who served well as our departmental intern last year (see pages 8 and 9). Liz is now working as an interpreter-naturalist in Canyonlands National Park. Much of our departmental success is due to the extraordinary skills of our secretary, Amy White. Her talents, good humor, and tolerance are evident in these annual reports, which she starts writing a year in advance. How Amy manages to keep us in such good shape and do the same for the Department of Philosophy and for the burgeoning Pre-Law Advising Program is a miracle - a miracle we will not question, only enjoy in gratitude. Esther Parsons and Bob Mairs, our custodians, continue to keep Scovel Hall a model for cleanliness and maintenance. Geology departments are by their nature cluttered and dusty places, so Esther and Bob have never had it easy. They clearly take pride in their work, for which we thank them. We hope that this report finds you well and at least occasionally thinking about geology and your friends at Wooster. Please remember to send us the Alumni Information Sheet found at the end of this report. You are important to us. Sincerely, Mark A. Wilson |