Memorial to J. Fred Smith, Jr. 1911-1982

IRVING J. W ITK IN DU.S. Geological Survey, Box 25046, Denver Federal Center, Denver, Colorado 80225

J. Fred Smith, Jr., died in Denver, Colorado , on February 22, 1982, at age 70. Fred was a gentle, soft- spoken, even-tempered Texan of unfailing courtesy, grace, and consideration for others. He could not be discourteous, and his inherent warm th brought him many friends wherever he lived and worked. He never spoke disparagingly of anyone; he had no enemies.

F red ’s quiet m anner masked a tau t self-discipline. Unwavering self-control was expressed in his personal life as a quiet reserve, and in his work by a painstaking attention to detail that assures the enduring value of hisgeologic maps and reports. Self-discipline was an es­sential com ponent in his life; his friends recognized it, and as a result he seemed to stand a little taller than the rest of us.

Fred was a dedicated scientist, and he believed fervently that basic field work was the life blood of geology. He rarely missed a field season.

F red ’s career as a civil servant and teacher spanned almost 45 years, during which he worked on diverse geologic problems throughout the Western States. He addressed such disparate subjects as the structural relations between a stable platform and a mobile beltin the Trans-Pecos region of West Texas; the mineral potential of various districts inCalifornia, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah; the localization of uranium deposits on the Colorado Plateau; the distr ibution of continental glacial deposits in M ontana; and the general geology of northeastern Nevada. In the Nevada work he maintained close relations with Keith B. Ketner, Keith A. Howard, James Gilluly, and T hom as B. Nolan. Their work was mutually beneficial, and all became firm friends. Fred will be remembered best as a general geologist who, regardless of the problem, was capable of completing an outstanding geologic m ap or report. All aspects of geology intrigued him, and his manifold publications reflect his varied interests. During his career he au thored or co­authored more than 60 professional articles and geologic maps.

F red’s professional affiliations included Fellowship in the Geological Society of America, which he served through several committees, as well as being a C ouncilor from1965 to 1967. He was president of the Colorado Scientific Society in 1958. He was also a member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, the Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists, the Geological Society of Washington, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Fred was born on October 17, 1911, in Celina, Texas, near Dallas. He was the younger of two sons of J. Fred Smith, Sr., a realtor, and I.ula (Miller) Smith. While Fred was still young, his family moved to Dallas, and he received his elementary education there. He graduated from Dallas Highland Park High School in 1929 and remained in Dallas to enroll at Southern Methodist University. At S.M.U. one of F red’s close friends, and a fraternity brother, was Claude C. Albritton, Jr. , who was majoring in geology.

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Albrit ton’s keen interest in geology was infectious, and encouraged by Prof. Ellis Shuler (then the chairman of S .M .U .’s Geology Department), Fred turned to geology. It was the beginning of a life-long interest.

Fred graduated from S.M.U. in 1933 at the depth of the depression. Unable to continue his studies because of inadequate funds, he worked as a laboratory assistant in the Geology Department of S.M.U. for two years before he accumulated sufficient resources to attend graduate school at Harvard University. He earned his master’s degree in 1936 and his doctorate in 1939. His doctoral thesis, under the direction of Marland Billings, dealt with the Devil Ridge area of West Texas and was published in the Bulletin of the Geological Society of America in 1940.

Fred returned to Texas in 1938 to teach geology at Texas A&M in College Station, where he stayed until the onset of World War II. In 1941 and 1942 he and Louis L. Ray studied the Cimarron Range in New Mexico, integrating the geologic history of that range into the broader story of the Southern Rocky Mountains.

Fred joined the U.S. Geological Survey in 1942 and remained with the Survey for the rest of his life even though, when the war was over, Texas A&M asked him to return.

Fred’s first work for the Geological Survey involved strategic mineral investigations in California, Nevada, and Utah, the results of which are summarized in a series of succinct administrative reports and open-file maps. In 1943 Fred’s broad ability as a general geologist was utilized by the Military Geology Unit of the Geological Survey, where he remained until the end of the war. He then joined the burgeoning new Missouri River Basin program. He and the young war veterans whom he supervised were assigned an area in central M ontana where a proposed earth-fill dam was to impound the Marias River. Fred switched smoothly and rapidly from military-terrain intelligence to a study of glacial deposits. The result was a Geological Survey Bulletin that established the geologic framework of the area centered on Marias Dam and its reservoir.

In 1947 Fred and Claude Albritton carried through to completion the work they had started in the mid-1930s within the Sierra Blanca region of West Texas. This was a particularly pleasant time for Fred, as he was working with one of his closest friends in the very area of their doctoral dissertations. The work culminated in a Geological Survey Professional Paper which revealed for the first time the extent of thrusting and repetitions of deformation in the Sierra Madre Province of the Trans-Pecos region.

In the early 1950s the Geological Survey undertook a broad program of uranium investigations on the Colorado Plateau. Again, F red’s geologic talent and leadership ability were called upon to supervise a group of geologic mapping projects in M onum ent Valley. Arizona and Utah, and in White Canyon, Utah. Fred preferred field work to supervisory duties, which he considered onerous, and so, even as he conducted his supervisory tasks, he spearheaded the mapping of the Capitol Reef area in southern Utah. This work resulted in 15 detailed geologic maps, several administrative reports, an evaluation of the Triassic rocks of the area, and a definitive Professional Paper.

When the uranium program came to an end, it was F red’s fortune to turn to Nevada geology, and in 1955 he and Keith B. Ketner began a study of the Carlin-Pinon Range area of northeastern Nevada. From that time on, Fred concentrated on Nevada geology and worked elsewhere only once—to map the structurally complex Black Pine Mountains in Idaho, where he demonstrated the profusion of allochthons of younger rocks on older, in a sequence that had been inadequately understood. The team of Smith and Ketner

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produced a series o f Geological Survey publications bearing on the geology and ore deposits o f the Pinon Range and adjacent areas, most notably, three interrelated Professional Papers dealing with the Paleozoic strata, the post-Paleozoic rocks, and the structure of the Carlin-Pinon Range area. Fred gradually became engrossed in the Tertiary rocks of the region, and in typical fashion, studied them carefully and intensively. The units and stratigraphic sequence he established are now used by petroleum geologists in exploring the intermontane basins of that area.

The age of the Roberts (M ountains) thrust fault in the Pinon Range, where crucial relations are exposed, was one o f the fundamental problems addressed by Fred and Keith. Both men concluded that they could, at last, demonstrate that the fault had been emplaced in m id-Paleozoic time, which had become the conventional but incompletely documented wisdom. Almost two decades later new field evidence suggested to them that the Roberts thrust may be much younger or may have moved more than once, in mid- Paleozoic time and later, and that the greater part of the movement may have been post-Paleozoic. Much can be learned about Fred’s integrity and scientific stature from his subsequent actions. As soon as he realized that a possible misconception for which he bore primary responsibility was in the literature, he co-authored a paper with Keith in which they cited the new evidence and offered alternative interpretations.

From 1957 through 1960 Fred was Chief of the General Geology Branch of the Geological Survey, and from 1965 through 1969 he served as Chief of the Southern Rocky Mountains Branch. These management responsibilities, however, did not prevent his doing field work, and in the period from 1964 to 1971, he and Keith A. Howard mapped the Lee quadrangle in Nevada, which contained the northeastward extension of the Tertiary rocks that so intrigued him.

Fred retired from the Geological Survey in 1980, but even in retirement he continued his studies in the southern part of the Snake Mountains, north of Wells, Nevada. He had almost completed the geologic mapping when his fatal illness struck.

Fred was an avid fisherman, but o f sedentary bent. He considered a day well spent contemplating nature from the bank of a river, or from the prow o f a boat, patiently waiting for a bite. He was not partial to sophisticated flies or lures; whatever the fish preferred, including a lowly night crawler, suited him.

Fred was devoted to his family and tried to have them with him when he was in the field. He and Mabel-Clare Wrenn o f College Station, Texas, were married on July 27, 1940. They had three children, Mabel-Clare (Clare) Springer o f San Jose, California; Elizabeth Rhea (Rhea) Smith of Denver, Colorado; and J. Fred (J) Smith III, of Lakewood, Colorado. His wife, Mabel-Clare, died in 1971. On October 21, 1977, Fred married a long-time close friend, Marjorie A. Mullens, in Denver, Colorado, and'he considered himself fortunate in that his family increased with the addition of her two grown daughters, Barbara and Nancy. Marjorie survives him in Denver. His children remember him as a warm and affectionate father, always ready to help with any of their problems. Fred had five grandchildren, and he delighted in them all, and they in him.

Fred’s older brother, Rhea Marsh Smith, survives in Winter Park, Florida.Fred’s compassion, his good humor, wit, his readiness to help, and his wise counsel

are sorely missed. The nurse who cared for him during the final difficult days, and who observed his composure and dignity as his life ebbed away, best summed up what Fred meant to us: “He is such a fine southern gentleman.”

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SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF J. FRED SM ITH, JR.1938 (with Stetson, H. C.) Behavior o f suspension currents and mud slides on the

continental slope: American Journal o f Science, 5th ser., v. 35, no. 205, p. 597-637.1940 Stratigraphy and structure of the Devil Ridge area, Texas: Geological Society of

America Bulletin, v. 51, no. 4, p. 597-637.1941 Geology of the Eagle Spring area, Eagle Mountain, Hudspeth County, Texas: Field

and Laboratory, v. 9, no. 2, p. 70-79.------(and Albritton, C. C., Jr.) Solution effects on limestone as a function o f slope:

Geological Society o f America Bulletin, v. 52, no. 1, p. 61-78.------(with Ray, L. L.) Geology o f the Moreno Valley, New Mexico: Geological Society

o f America Bulletin, v. 52, no. 2, p. 177-210.1943 (and Ray, L. L.) Geology of the Cimarron Range, New Mexico: Geological Society

of America Bulletin, v. 54, no. 7, p. 891-924.1944 (with Nelson, V. E.) Surface geology of the Pine Creek area, Shoshone County,

Idaho: U.S. Geological Survey Strategic Mineral Investigations Preliminary Map.1945 (and Wadsworth, A. H., Cooper, J. R., Farwell, F. W., and Weissenborn, A. E.)

San Pedro and Carnahan mines, New Placers mining district, Santa Fe County, New Mexico: U.S. Geological Survey open-file report.

1949 (and Albritton, C. C., Jr.) Sierra Blanca field trip [Texas], in West Texas Geological Society Guidebook, Field Trip No. 1, p. 94-108.

1951 (and Hinrichs, E. N., and Luedke, R. G.) Preliminary report on geologic studies in the Capitol Reef area, Wayne County, Utah: U.S. Geological Survey Trace Elements Memorandum Report 247.

1952 Progress report on geologic studies in the Capitol Reef area, Wayne County, Utah: U.S. Geological Survey Trace Elements Memorandum Report 203.

1953 (and Hinrichs, E. N., Huff, L. C., and Luedke, R. G.) Preliminary report on geologic studies in the Capitol Reef area, Wayne County, Utah: U.S. Geological Survey Trace Elements Memorandum Report 538.

1954 (and Huff, L. C., Hinrichs, E. N., and Luedke, R. G.) Progress on geologic studies in the Capitol Reef area, Wayne and Garfield Counties, Utah: U.S. Geological Survey Trace Elements Memorandum Report 787.

------(with Stewart, J. H.) Triassic rocks in the San Rafael Swell, Capitol Reef, andadjoining parts of southeastern Utah, in Intermountain Association o f Petroleum Geologists Guidebook, 5th Annual Field Conference, p. 25-53.

------(and Wadsworth, A. H.) Silver Queen deposit, Tooele County, in Thurston, W. R.,and others. Fluorspar deposits of Utah: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1005, p. 45-48.

1956 Geology of the Cartersville and Hathaway quadrangles. Rosebud and Custer Counties, Montana: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Investigations Map 1-155.

1957 (with Albritton, C. C., Jr.) The Texas Lineament, in Tomo 2 o f Relaciones entre la tectónica y la sedimentación: Guidebook, International Geological Congress, 20th, M exico, D.F., 1956, sec. 5, p. 501-518.

1959 (and Witkind, I. J., and Trimble, D. E.) Geology of the Lower Marias River area, Choteau, Hill, and Liberty Counties, Montana: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 107I-E, p. EI21-EI55.

1963 (with Ketner, K. B.) Composition and origin of siliceous mudstones o f the Carlin and Pine Valley quadrangles, Nevada, in Geological Survey Research, 1963: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 475-B, p. B45-B47.

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------(with Ketner, K. B.) Geology of the Railroad mining district, Elko County. Nevada:U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1162-B, p. B1-B27.

------(and Huff, L. C., Hinrichs, E. N., and Luedke, R. G.) Geology of the Capitol Reefarea, Wayne and Garfield Counties, Utah: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 363, 102 p.

1965 (with Albritton, C. C., Jr.) Geology of the Sierra Blanca area, Hudspeth County, Texas: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 479, 131 p.

1968 (and Ketner, K. B.) Devonian and Mississippian rocks and the date of the Roberts Mountains thrust in the Carlin-Pinon Range area, Nevada: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1251-1, p. 11-118.

1972 (and Ketner. K. B.) Generalized geologic map of the Carlin, Dixie Flats, PineValley, and Robinson Mountain quadrangles, Elko and Eureka Counties, Nevada: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies M ap MF-481.

1974 (with Ketner, K. B.) Folds and overthrusts of Late Jurassic or Early Cretaceous age in northern Nevada: U.S. Geological Survey Journal of Research, v. 2. no. 4,p. 417-419.

1975 (and Ketner, K. B.) Stratigraphy of Paleozoic rocks in the Carlin-Pinon Range area, Nevada: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 867-A, 87 p.

1976 (and Ketner. K. B.) Stratigraphy of post-Paleozoic rocks and summary of resources in the Carlin-Pinon Range area, Nevada: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 867-B, 48 p.

1977 (and Ketner, K. B.) Tectonic events since early Paleozoic in the Carlin-Pinon Range area, Nevada: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 867-C, 18 p.

------ (and Howard, K. A.) Geologic map of the Lee 15-minute quadrangle, Elko County,Nevada: U.S. Geological Survey Geologic Quadrangle M ap GQ-1393.

1978 (and Ketner, K. B.) Geologic map of the Carlin-Pinon Range area, Elko and Eureka Counties, Nevada: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Investigations M ap 1-1028.

1982 (with Ketner, K. B.) Mid-Paleozoic age of the Roberts thrust unsettled by new data from northern Nevada: Geological Society of America, Geology, v. 10, p. 298-303.

----- Memorial to James Gilluly: Geological Society of America, Memorials, v. XII.------Paleozoic rocks in the Black Pine Mountains, Cassia County, Idaho: U.S.

Geological Survey Bulletin 1536 (in press).------Geologic map of the Strevell quadrangle. Cassia County, Idaho: U.S. Geological

Survey Miscellaneous Investigations Map 1-1403 (in press).

Printed in U.S.A. 1/83