"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."