>
>
>-------- Original Message --------
>Subject: Doug Nelson
>Date: Tue, 20 Aug 2002 09:21:22 -0400
>From: "Alan G. Jones" <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
>To: Ron Clowes <[log in to unmask]>, Fred Cook
><[log in to unmask]>,Chris Beaumont <[log in to unmask]>, Karl
>Karlstrom <[log in to unmask]>
>
>
>Ron, Fred, Chris, Karl,
>
>Sadly, Doug Nelson died unexpectedly on Sunday morning. Below is the
>official communication from the Dean to the other members of the
>University.
>
>I spoke with Nan Nelson yesterday afternoon, and am planning to go down
>to Syracuse on Friday, both to see Nan and to make arrangements for the
>supervision of Doug's and my grad student, Jessica Spratt. In accord
>with Doug's wishes, there will not be a funeral ceremony. Nan is
>thinking of some sort of remembrance event in a few weeks time.
>
>Ron - given Doug's support for, and involvement in, Lithoprobe, you may
>want to send this information to others in the Lithoprobe community.
>
>Alan
>
>
>Message from Cathryn Newton, Dean of Arts and Sciences, Syracuse
>Unviersity.
>Dated Monday 19 August.
>
> >Colleagues,
> >
> >I write this morning in great sadness. Yesterday, quite unexpectedly
>and
> >after a year of fine stability, Doug Nelson died at home at age 50 of
> >undetermined medical causes. You will recall that a year an a half ago
> >Doug went in for routine mitral valve repair that culminated in three
> >open-heart surgeries, the latest and most successful of which (at
> >Debbie's urging) was completed a year ago at the Cleveland Clinic.
>Doug
> >has seemed in superb health since then, and spent a long field day
>with
> >Paul Fitzgerald and John Prucha in the Adirondacks last week. Doug's
> >sudden loss comes as a tremendous shock to his wife Nan, who was out
>of
> >town in Albany with her ill parents and was scheduled to return this
> >evening.
> >
> >Our colleagues in the Earth Sciences department are reeling from the
> >loss of this consummately diplomatic, talented, and caring chair.
>One
> >of the world's leading researchers in crustal evolution, Doug
>pioneered
> >multi-investigator seismic studies of the growth of the North American
> >continent. More recently, he led a highly visible and well-funded
>joint
> >Sino-U.S. team in seismic profiling across the Himalaya and Tibetan
> >Plateau, in order to understand the dynamics of the India-Eurasia
> >collision and Cenozoic uplift of the Plateau. Doug had the intellect
> >and skillful leadership to organize a team that included colleagues
>from
> >Germany, U.K., Canada, and China, and that somehow obtained permission
> >for access, with explosives, into contested territories of Tibet.
> >Neither China-Tibet politics nor cantankerous field yaks fazed him.
> >
> >I ask that you please send cards or electronic words of support and
> >caring to Nan Nelson, and to the Department, via:
> >
> >Pat Bickford ([log in to unmask]) and/or
> >Geoff Seltzer ([log in to unmask])
> >
> >They will see to it that Nan Nelson and the Department of Earth
>Sciences
> >receive your words. Almost certainly, Earth Sciences will also
>identify
> >that gifts in Doug's name will be reserved for the Faculty Research
>Fund
> >of the Departmental Endowment. Doug's strongest commitment was to the
> >active and energetic scholarly life of the Department. Word on this
>will
> >come later.
> >
> >I will not appoint an acting chair in the next two weeks, but have
> >already arranged, via Stan More, Helen Michaels, and Stewart Thau,
>that
> >any beginning-of-semester business that cannot be handled in Heroy
>will
> >be covered in the Dean's Office. That includes curricular, space,
> >budgetary, and personnel matters. Following this initial interval, I
> >will consult the Departmental faculty in the usual process for
> >identifying potential chair candidates. Doug was, in fact, the ideal
> >person to have been chair at this point in time.
> >
> >Cathryn Newton
> >Dean
________________________________
Rebecca A. Jamieson
Department of Earth Sciences,
Dalhousie University,
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Canada B3H 3J5
tel (902) 494-3771
fax (902) 494-6889
[log in to unmask]
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