Print

Print


By permission from Susanne Buiter, I hereby cross-post this splendid tribute
to Peter:

 

From: Tectonics & structural geology discussion list
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Buiter Susanne
Sent: March 31, 2019 10:05 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Passing of Peter Robinson

 

 

Dear Gregory,

 

Thank you for posting these warm words on the passing of Peter Robinson.
Peter worked as a consultant at the Geological Survey of Norway (NGU) since
1999 and came as good as daily to work up to last Christmas. We are going to
miss Peters constructive opinions, his good mood and jokes. I would like to
share with the list the text we wrote on Peters passing for our colleagues
at the Survey. It is a translation from Norwegian:

 

"Our longtime colleague Peter Robinson has passed away. Peter died in the
evening on Monday 25 March. He was 86 years old.

 

Peter was a geologist with his whole heart, who never hid his great
enthusiasm for new geological discoveries, be it in the field, in the city,
or just on his way to NGU along new construction sites.

 

Peter's knowledge and memory was impressive. It was much easier to ask Peter
about Norwegian geology (or any geology worldwide for that matter), than to
search literature. He had a full overview. Peter could have strong, but
constructive opinions on theories, driven by a sincere desire to understand
how the geology of an area came into being. It was most often he who asked
the first question after a lecture or seminar.

 

Peter first came to Norway for a sabbatical at the Norwegian Technical
University with support from the Norwegian Research Council. In the summers
of 1991-1994, he mapped in the Western Gneiss Region, with partial support
from NGU.

 

From 1999, Peter was a consultant at NGU. He had by then already been a
professor at the University of Massachusetts from 1963 to 1999, following a
PhD in Geology from Harvard University. He organized several field trips,
including a ten-day excursion for the 33rd International Geological Congress
in 2008, for which he prepared a guide that is still in use. He also
participated in many NGU projects, including in Møre og Romsdal, and in
Rogaland.

 

Peter's publication list must now have reached over 100 articles in addition
to many book chapters, thematic maps and reports. Peter published more
articles after he came to Norway as retiree, than he did as a professor at
UMass.

 

It was rock climbing that aroused Peter's interest in bedrock geology as a
young student, while on a scholarship in New Zealand. He had several first
ascents, including the route called "North Buttress" up Mt Aspiring in
January 1956 and "Upper Buttress" up Mt Cook just a month later, in February
1956.

 

We will miss Peter's feedback, his good spirits and jokes, and not least his
Christmas party song "Seven Drunken Nights". He came almost daily to NGU
until last Christmas, and always had a smile and a joke for his colleagues.
His professional rule of life hangs in several offices at NGU:

 

Buy yourselves shoes,

Get away to the mountains,

Search the valleys, the deserts,

the shores of the sea,

and the deepest recesses of the earth,

In this way, and no other,

Will you arrive at a knowledge of things…

 

Peter Severinus, 1571

 

Our thoughts now go to his wife Suzanne, daughter Sandra, sons Christopher
and Harold, family and friends."

 

 

-----

Dr Susanne Buiter

Team leader Solid Earth Geology

Geological Survey of Norway

Also at Centre of Excellence CEED, University of Oslo

EGU Programme Committee Chair GA2019

www.geodynamics.no/buiter <http://www.geodynamics.no/buiter> 

www.ngu.no/en/team/solid-earth-geology
<http://www.ngu.no/en/team/solid-earth-geology> 

twitter @susannebuiter

 

  _____  

From: Tectonics & structural geology discussion list
<[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> > on
behalf of Gregory Dumond <[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> >
Sent: 30 March 2019 19:54
To: [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> 
Subject: [GEO-TECTONICS] Passing of Peter Robinson 

 

Hello All,

It is with profound sorrow that we acknowledge the passing of Peter
Robinson. The University of Massachusetts Department of Geosciences' note
follows: "We are deeply grieved to bid farewell to Emeritus Professor Peter
Robinson, who passed away earlier this week in Trondheim, Norway, his home
for the past 2 decades. Over his 50+ year career, Pete advised dozens of
students, compiled, and personally performed bedrock geologic mapping of
over a 3rd of the state of Massachusetts. He was an influential force in the
study of the tectonics and metamorphism of the Northern Appalachians and
Caledonides, and a beloved character both in the department and New England
geological community. His legacy is one of impeccable and detailed field
observation combined with nuanced structural, stratigraphic, mineralogical,
and petrological analysis, innumerable alumni spread across several
continents, and a library of data on the bedrock geology of New England. He
was also a former president of the Mineralogical Society of America."

On a personal note, when I first met Pete (and Oystein Nordgulen) at the
Norwegian survey after my first field season in the Uppermost Allocthon, his
encouragement and enthusiasm were infectious! He was truly a
"Trans-Atlantic" geologist with a passion for the New England Appalachians
and Norwegian Caledonides. He will be sorely missed!

With sincerest regards,
Gregory Dumond

########################################################################

To unsubscribe from the GEO-TECTONICS list, click the following link:
https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=GEO-TECTONICS
<https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=GEO-TECTONICS&A=1> &A=1

 

  _____  

To unsubscribe from the GEO-TECTONICS list, click the following link:
https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=GEO-TECTONICS
<https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=GEO-TECTONICS&A=1> &A=1 


########################################################################

To unsubscribe from the GEO-METAMORPHISM list, click the following link:
https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=GEO-METAMORPHISM&A=1