Memorial to William D. Thornbury 1900-1986

HAYDN H. MURRAYDepartment o f Geology, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47405

William David Thornbury, a Fellow of the Geological Society of America and best known for his outstanding book Principles o f Geomorphology, passed away at his home in Bloomington,Indiana, on November 12, 1986, after an extended period of failing health.

Bill Thornbury was bom in English, Indiana, on April 23,1900, the son of Frank and Belle Thornbury. After attending primary and secondary schools in English, he enrolled at Central Normal College in 1918 in Danville, Indiana, in order to become a high school teacher. After one year of college, he taught history, Latin, and algebra at Alton High School in southern Indiana; the following year, 1920, he moved to Marengo High School where he was assistant principal and taught history and Latin. He taught at Marengo until the fall of 1922 when he decided to enroll at Indiana University to study geology. He received an A.B. degree in geology in 1925, was elected to membership in Phi Beta Kappa, and was a member of Sigma Gamma Epsilon, the geology honorary society.

After graduation, he went west to Colorado. In the fall of 1925, he taught history in the Cripple Creek, Colorado, high school for one year. In the fall of 1926, he enrolled in the graduate school at the University of Colorado in Boulder and was a graduate assistant teaching geomorphology and climatology. It was in graduate school that he developed his lifelong interest in glaciation and Pleistocene geology. The year 1928 was a milestone for Bill: that year he received the A.M. degree from the University of Colorado and married Doris Groan from Richmond, Indiana, a girl he had courted at Indiana University as an undergraduate.

In the fall of 1928, Bill and Doris moved back to Bloomington, Indiana, where Bill took a job as instructor in the Geology and Geography Department; at the same time he decided to take graduate work toward the Ph.D. degree. His research advisor at Indiana University was Professor Clyde A. Malott, an outstanding geomorphologist and physiographer. In the course of completing his dissertation research on the glacial deposits in central and southern Indiana, he defined the boundaries of the stages of glaciation in Indiana and reconstructed the geomorphic history of the Wabash River Valley. Bill said many times in his later life that he had walked over most of the central third of Indiana, measuring thicknesses and describing outcrops of glacial deposits. This detailed field work for his Ph.D. thesis was invaluable to Bill’s later research and teaching activities. All the time he was working on the Ph.D., he was an instructor teaching a full load of courses. He received his Ph.D. in 1936 and remained on the faculty at Indiana University, progressing through the ranks as assistant, associate, and full professor. His teaching career spanned the years from 1928 until 1970, when he retired.

Bill Thornbury loved Indiana University and he never refused an assignment from the department or the university administration. He was assistant Dean of Men from 1942 through 1945 and served on the University Athletics committee from 1939 to 1952. He also sat on many other university committees, including University Housing, Promotions, and Parking, various search committees, and others.

William D. Thornbury was one of the leading geomorphologists and glacial geologists in the country and he gained international recognition for his outstanding textbook on geomorphology,

43

44 THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA

which was published in 1954. This text was adopted by more than 300 colleges and universities; by 1970, when he retired, sales had exceeded 75,000 copies. It is rare for geology texts, other than those for the beginning courses, to be so successful and to maintain such a long tenure. The Thombury textbook on geomorphology is still being used today in many geology departments. He wrote a second textbook, published in 1965, entitled Regional Geomorphology o f the United States, which was also well received and was adopted by many universities, particularly for graduate courses.

In addition to his textbooks, Bill published articles on Pleistocene glaciation, particularly of Indiana and the upper Midwest. He worked for the U.S. Geological Survey in the summer of 1946 in northern Indiana where he studied ground-water supply and potential. During the summers from 1947 through 1951, he worked for the Indiana Geological Survey mapping and describing the geology of Miami and Wabash counties in north-central Indiana.

Bill made his greatest contributions at Indiana University as an excellent teacher. He profited immensely from his high school teaching experience as a young man because it emphasized to him the necessity to be well organized and to give clear and concise explanations in his lectures. Bill had a droll southern Indiana sense of humor and accent, and his lectures were spiced with homilies from his boyhood experience in Crawford County, Indiana. He was a conservative, bom-and-bred Hoosier who always had time to listen to and advise students and faculty members. He developed a special course, funded by the National Science Foundation, for earth science teachers in secondary schools, which was very successful.

Bill was chairman of the Glacial Geology Division of the Geological Society of America in 1967-1968. He and his wife, Doris, always looked forward to attending the annual meetings of GSA where he met former students, old friends, and acquaintances. Bill and Doris always took the train or drove to the meetings because he refused to fly. However, his only son, David William Thornbury, became an airline pilot, and Bill finally consented to fly with him in 1972. From then on, he and Doris flew to many places, including Europe.

In April 1986, Bill recieved the Richard Owen Award, given by the Indiana University Department of Geology to a distinguished alumnus in recognition of outstanding contributions to the geological sciences and meritorious service to the profession. He was particularly pleased to receive this award because he had devoted his life to Indiana University and the Department of Geology.

Bill is survived by his wife Doris, who lives in Bloomington; a son, David William Thornbury, a pilot based in Salt Lake City, Utah; and a grandson who was Bill’s pride and joy, William David Thornbury II.

In addition to the Geological Society of America, Bill was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Meteorological Society, and Sigma Xi, and he was an active participant in the Indiana Academy of Science. During his retirement years, Bill kept in touch with his friends and continued to enjoy Indiana University football and basketball. When his students and friends came to Bloomington in his later years, they always had time to go see Bill; he appreciated these visits very much.

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF W. D. THORNBURY1931 Two subterranean cut-offs in central Crawford County, Indiana: Indiana Academy of

Sciences Proceedings, v. 40, p. 237-242.1937 Glacial geology of southern and south-central Indiana: Indiana Department of

Conservation, Division of Geology, 146 p.1938 Mineral wool industry of the United States: Economic Geology, v. 14, p. 398-408.1940 Weathered zones and glacial chronology in southern Indiana: Journal of Geology, v. 48,

p. 449-475.

MEMORIAL TO WILLIAM D. THORNBURY 45

1950 Glacial sluiceways and lacustrine plains of southern Indiana: Indiana Department of Conservation, Division of Geology Bulletin 4, 21 p.

1954 Principles of geomorphology: New York, John Wiley & Sons, 1st ed., 618 p. (2nd edition, 1968).

1958 The geomorphic history of the upper Wabash Valley: American Journal of Science, v. 256, p. 449-469.

1965 Regional geomorphology of the United States: New York, John Wiley & Sons, 609 p.

Printed in U.S.A. 4 /88