Memorial to John H. Feth 1913-1995

A. S. VAN D EN B U R G H U.S. Geological Survey, Carson City, Nevada 89706

An unusually broad range of scientific interests character­ized the professional career o f John H. (Jack) Feth, who died January 23, 1995, at the age of 81. Structure and stratigraphy, ancient lake deposits, the chemistry o f precip­itation, nitrogen compounds and chloride in natural water, geochemical evolution of water associated with granitic rocks, water facts and figures for planners and managers, geochemistry of a highly alkaline, silica-rich spring, and other topics were the challenges that piqued Feth’s scien­tific curiosity during nearly four decades with the U.S.Geological Survey.

Jack was bom in Bronxville, New York, on June 1,1913. He graduated with honors in sociology from Dart­mouth College, and received an M.A. in education from Columbia University in 1935. While teaching at the Uni­versity o f New Mexico in the early 1940s, he succum bed to the lure o f earth science and u ltim ate ly earned a Ph.D. in geology at the U niversity o f A rizona in 1947. H is thesis described the geology and ground-water resources of the northern Canelo Hills in Santa Cruz County, Arizona.

F e th ’s career w ith the U.S. G eological Survey (USGS) began in 1946, as a summer employee with the Ground Water Branch in Tucson while instructing in geology at the Univer­sity of Arizona. In 1949, his appointment was converted to full-time. Among assignments in Arizona during the next four years, a reconnaissance of headwater springs in the Salt and Gila River Basins, in collaboration with John D. Hem, may have whetted Jack’s appetite for hydro­geochemistry. During 1953-1956, while on loan to the Bureau of Reclamation at Ogden, Utah, he directed a multidisciplinary study of the availability of ground water as a supplement to sur­face-water supplies in the 400-square-mile Weber Delta district adjacent to the Great Salt Lake.

The decade 1956-1965 was Jack’s most productive from the standpoint of hydrogeologic science. In Menlo Park, California, he led a research group that studied the chemistry of precipi­tation and the geochemical sequence from snow to snowmelt, runoff, and the emergent ground water of seeps and springs in granitic terrane of the Sierra Nevada. Because sampling trips asso­ciated with this work incorporated careful on-site chemical analyses and sample processing, he and his colleagues designed a mobile water-quality laboratory in 1957 that was the first of its kind in the USGS Water Resources Division and may have been among the earliest such conve­niences in the world. In connection with his work on precipitation chemistry, in 1961, Jack coined the term “bulk precipitation,” which now is used commonly to denote the geochemically active mixture of rainfall (or snowfall) and dry fallout.

In the late 1950s, Jack also found time to study the geochemistry o f Aqua de Ney, a remarkable saline, highly alkaline, 12 °C spring near Mount Shasta, California (the measured pH and silica concentration— 11.6 and almost 4000 ppm as S i0 2—were, at the time, the highest reported in a natural water). During 1963-1965, Feth compiled information on saline ground water in the United States that treated it, in his words, “as a resource, not a liability.” During the

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same period, he prepared review articles on nitrogen compounds in natural water and on ancient lake deposits. (Later, he did the same for chloride and, with Ivan Barnes, for spring-deposited travertine.)

In 1965, at age 52, Jack was appointed to the staff of the IJSGS area hydrologist for the seven westernmost states. Because of his flair for writing and teaching, Jack assumed the posi­tion of Reports Improvement Advisor for the Pacific Coast area. This assignment, which he accepted w ith enthusiasm , dealt with im proving the technical and ed itorial quality of manuscripts written by the 200 hydroscientists in the area; it involved evaluation of each manuscript, as well as “training in project and report planning, review, and execution” (Jack’s words). To my knowledge, he never resorted to execution as a means of countering the repeti­tively poor writing that plagued even some of the area’s most noted hydroscientists. Instead, he encouraged, guided (and sometimes browbeat: “youse guys is sloppy”) the authors toward clearer, more focused scientific writing, by means of his manuscript reviews and, on occasion, by the use o f “group therapy.” In this regard, he built upon the excellent work of his predecessor, Willis L. Burnham, and his Washington, D.C., colleague, Donald E. Hillier, both of whom also were scientists and gifted “editorial motivators.”

Good writing w asn’t Jack’s only concern during this period. He also provided, during 1969-1975, overview for all water-related USGS activities pertaining to the landmark San Fran­cisco Bay Region Environment and Resources Planning Study, as well as for similar studies in the Puget Sound region of Washington and the Tucson-Phoenix area in Arizona. During 1975-1978, he was responsible for liaison and support for the USGS hydrologic and environmental investiga­tions at controversial Redwood National Park in northwestern California. Concurrently, he served as USGS member on the interagency Geothermal Environmental Advisory Panel.

Jack officially retired from the USGS in early 1979, but he continued to work part-time as an emeritus scientist. In December 1980, his successor as Reports Improvement Advisor also retired, and Jack resumed those responsibilities until late 1984, in his 72nd year and the 39th year of his USGS career. By today’s corporate standards, Jack was of the old school: he had a deeply held pride in, and unwavering dedication to, the USGS throughout his long career—truly a “one-company man.”

Most of the foregoing deals with John Henry Feth the earth scientist. What about Jack Feth the person? He was the son of Emma Seiker and John Henry Frederick Feth (the family name is of Danish origin). Jack’s father was long-time president of Concordia College in Bronxville, an upscale community just north of New York City. Jack’s childhood was at least relatively normal, except that he was fortunate enough to visit Europe, with his mother and an aunt and uncle, when he was 12. In public high school, he became a medal-winning tennis player. After com­pleting his college education at Columbia, Jack returned to Dartmouth for two years as a staff member. Then, the call of the West lured him to New Mexico and a faculty position at the uni­versity, but not before he spent a year in Hollywood in search of a script-writing career.

In late 1942, while on leave from the University of New Mexico as assistant director of civil defense, Jack met (by letter of introduction, no less) the young state nutritionist for the New Mexico Health Department, Mary Frances Standefer; two months later, on February 6, 1943, they were m arried in Santa Fe. From the day they met, M ary Fran provided the encouragement and support that nurtured Jack throughout their 53-year partnership. The Feths had two children, John Rusk (1947) and Jan Mary (1949), and four grandchildren.

Just as Jack’s scientific career was multifaceted, so was his personal life. He was a talented amateur guitarist and singer, using both to good effect during his brief courtship of Mary Fran and, later, with his children and grandchildren. He also participated in several of the renowned USGS Pick and Hammer musicals in Menlo Park. While doing fieldwork in southern Arizona for his Ph.D. thesis, Jack took up oil painting to till the lonely evenings, and for the next four

MEMORIAL TO JOHN H. FETH 61

decades continued to create images, characterized by rich colors and a clearly geologic perspective, that captured the stark beauty of the western United States. Later in life, Jack also developed skills in landscaping and woodcarving. Other favorite things included good books in profusion, bright colors in clothing, gin martinis in moderation, and gourmet meals in company with wife and friends.

Jack also had a love of humor, which occasionally manifested itself in his scientific writ­ing. In the nitrogen article o f 1966, for example, he reiterates a 1954 statement by the famous limnologist G. Evelyn Hutchinson that large ungulates (elephants, rhinoceroses, and the like) produce, in aggregate, an estimated 45 trillion grams of methane per year by enteric fermenta­tion, and that ammonia is the most widespread nitrogenous product of their metabolism. Feth then concludes, “No estimate follows as to the production of gaseous or fixed ammonia by ele­phants and their kin, probably because of the truly formidable technical problems involved in direct sampling, especially in the wild.” And, in his last article, a reminiscence in the USGS internal publication WRD Bulletin (1992), Jack describes an official trip, by car, from Tucson to Baton Rouge in 1952: “When we piled in to proceed, it was raining, and I turned on the wind­shield wiper. POW! Explosion, cloud of black smoke. Our friends in the Phoenix office had bor­rowed the car a few days earlier, and this was their work—a smoke bomb. Days into the trip, we had a flat tire. In that era, spare tires were carried under the back seat in a sedan. So out came the seat and with it a choking cloud of the vilest, strongest, cheapest perfume ever man inflicted on unwary noses. Unfortunately, that trick stayed with us for most of the trip. But we survived!”

The highlights o f Jack Feth’s earth-science career include his work on precipitation chem­istry and the landmark study of water associated with granitic rocks. Regarding the latter effort, Robert M. Garrels, who was a leader in the field of aqueous mineral equilibria, said,1 “The excellent paper by Feth, Roberson, and Polzer (1964) on the sources of the mineral constituents of the spring waters of the Sierra Nevada has shown that the reactions necessary to produce a given water can be demonstrated in detail.” One of Jack’s key traits as a scientist was well sum­marized by John Nielsen, a consulting geotechnical engineer and Los Altos, California, neigh­bor of the Feths, at a memorial service in February 1995: “Jack ... was a keen observer ... If I were to describe [him], I would find one word, and it would be ‘precise.’ ... I remember one time ... I had to go out to a bridge site.... Jack got out of the vehicle, walked across ... the exist­ing bridge, looked down at the proposed bridge site, and at once, in technical terms that were as precise as they could possibly be, described the geomorphology of the land and of the stream bottom to me, and told me what the bedrock materials were and what could be expected. And that kind of precision came across time after time in our technical conversations.... [N]obody ever contradicted the technical advice I got from Jack.”

Jack gave generously of his time in helping others, was liked and appreciated by his coworkers, and used his humor to lighten the often formidable tasks of hydrogeologic science. His writing ability earned him a Communications Award from the USGS in 1978. The breadth of his scientific interests and the high quality of his research resulted in election to Fellowship in the Geological Society of America (in 1955) and a Meritorious Service Award from the U.S. Department of the Interior (in 1979).

In retrospect, his scientific legacy is dominated by the quality of his own work and the accomplishments of coworkers and others who profited from his guidance, mentorship( inspira­tion, and friendship.

Travel well, compadre.

'Genesis of some ground waters from igneous rocks, in Researches in geochemistry, Volume 2, John Wiley, New York, p. 405-420.

62 THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF J. H. FETH1948 Permian stratigraphy and structure, northern Canelo Hills, Ariz.: American Association of

Petroleum Geologists Bulletin, v. 32, p. 82-108.1949 (and Anthony, J. W.) Spheroidal structures in Arizona volcanics: American Journal of

Science, v. 247, p. 791-801.1953 (and Yost, C. B., Jr.) A geologic and geophysical reconnaissance of the Doney Park-Black

Bill Park area, Arizona, with reference to ground water: U.S. Geological Survey Circular 233, 11 p.

1959 Re-evaluation of the salt chronology of several Great Basin lakes: A discussion: Geologi­cal Society of America Bulletin, v. 70, p. 637-640.

1961 (with Whitehead, H. C.) Recent chemical analyses of waters from several closed-basin lakes and their tributaries in the western United States: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 72, p. 1421-1426.

------(and Rogers, S. M., and Roberson, C. E.) Aqua de Ney, California, a spring of uniquechemical character: Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, v. 22, p. 75-86.

------(with Whitehead, H. C.) Chemical character of precipitation at Menlo Park, California:U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 424-D, p. 29-30.

1962 (and Roberson, C. E., Rogers, S. M., Whitehead, H.C., and Van Denburgh, A. S.) Westerlies, dust storms, and runoff—A geochemical glimpse, in Abstracts for 1961: Geological Society of America Special Paper 68, p. 25-26.

1963 (and Hem, J. D.) Reconnaissance of headwater springs in the Gila River drainage basin, Arizona: U.S. Geological Survey Water-Supply Paper 1619-H, 54 p.

----- Tertiary lake deposits in western conterminous United States: Science, v. 139, p. 107-110.1964 Review and annotated bibliography of ancient lake deposits (Precambrian to Pleistocene)

in the western United States: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1080, 119 p.------(with Whitehead, H. C.) Chemical composition of rain, dry fallout, and bulk precipita­

tion at Menlo Park, California, 1957-1959: Journal of Geophysical Research, v. 69, p. 3319-3333.

------(and Rogers, S. M., and Roberson, C. E.) Chemical composition of snow in the northernSierra Nevada and other areas: U.S. Geological Survey Water-Supply Paper 1535-J, 39 p.

------(and Roberson, C. E., and Polzer, W. L.) Sources of mineral constituents in water fromgranitic rocks, Sierra Nevada, California and Nevada: U.S. Geological Survey Water- Supply Paper 1535-1, 70 p.

1965 Selected references on saline ground-water resources of the United States: U.S. Geologi­cal Survey Circular 499, 30 p.

----- Calcium, sodium, sulfate and chloride in stream water of the western conterminous UnitedStates to 1957: U.S. Geological Survey Hydrologic Investigations Atlas HA-189, four sheets.

------(with Van Denburgh, A. S.) Solute erosion and chloride balance in selected river basinsof the western conterminous United States: Water Resources Research, v. 1, p. 537-541.

------(and others) Preliminary map of the conterminous United States showing depth to andquality of shallowest ground water containing more than 1,000 parts per million dissolved solids: U.S. Geological Survey Hydrologic Investigations Atlas HA-199, 31 p. and two sheets. [For hydropolitical reasons, the final version of this title was devised by the Asso­ciate Director of the Geological Survey; at 25 words, it may have been a leading candidate for longest USGS report title of 1965.]

1966 Nitrogen compounds in natural water—A review: Water Resources Research, v. 2, p. 41-58.

MEMORIAL TO JOHN H. FETH 63

------(and others) Lake Bonneville: Geology and hydrology of the Weber Delta district, includ­ing Ogden, Utah: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 518, 76 p.

1967 (with Dawdy, D. R.) Applications of factor analysis in study of chemistry of groundwater quality, Mojave River valley, California: Water Resources Research, v. 3, p. 505-510.

------Natural contamination hazards, in Higgins, Donna, ed., Groundwater development in aridbasins—Proceedings of a symposium: Logan, Utah State University, p. 21-36.

1970 Saline groundwater resources of the conterminous United States: Water Resources Research, v. 6, p. 1454-1457.

1973 Water facts and figures for planners and managers: U.S. Geological Survey Circular 601-1, 30 p.

1979 (and Barnes, Ivan) Spring-deposited travertine in eleven Western States: U.S. Geological Survey Water-Resources Investigations 79-35, one sheet.

1981 Chloride in natural continental water—A review: U.S. Geological Survey Water-Supply Paper 2176, 30 p.

1984 (and Newcomb, L. E., and Jones, B. L.) An interview with John H. Feth, [Palo Alto and] Menlo Park, California, March 28, 1984: U.S. Geological Survey Audio-Visual History Project, videorecording, 1 hr 40 min. [Available on loan from USGS Reston, Virginia, Library by interlibrary loan, or from USGS Menlo Park, California, Library directly.]

AcknowledgmentsI am grateful to Mary Frances Feth, Dee Molenaar, Larry E. Newcomb, and Andrew M.

Spieker for information and encouragement that facilitated this pleasant task, and to RosaGerow for the photographic portrait.

3 3 0 0 Penrose Piace • P.O. Box 9140 • Boulder, Colorado 80301 Printed in U.S.A. on Recycled Paper 12/96