Memorial to John Warfield Huddle1907-1975

FRANK C. W H ITM O R E, JR .JO H N E. REPETSKI

U.S. Geological Survey, National Museum o f Natural History, Washington, D C 20560John W arfield Huddle died in W ashington, D .C ., on November 21, 1975, after a long and uncomplaining struggle with H odgkin’s disease. Through months o f chemotherapy and interm ittent hospitalization, he continued to lead as norm al a life as he could with his family and with his friends at the National M u­seum o f N atural History. As he had been throughout his life, he was at the end an example o f unselfishness and consideration for others.

John was born on August 14, 1907, in Eugene, Oregon, the son o f H arriet W arfield and Wiley Jerom e Huddle. A t the time o f his b irth , his father was pro­fessor o f chemistry at the University o f Oregon. When John was a year old, the family moved to Madison, W isconsin, where his father joined the faculty of the

University o f W isconsin. When John was eight, his father gave up teaching and became a consulting engineer in Chicago. The Huddles settled in W innetka, Illinois, and this is where John, the oldest o f four children, grew up. He attended New Trier Township High School, one o f the most noted secondary schools in the M iddle W est. We know little about his academic record there; however, from his accounts, he had a lively and happy social life. In later years, it seemed that John was always running into girls he had known in high school and college, who were always happy to see him again.

A fter high school, John entered Indiana University, which had been his father’s and uncle’s school, where he joined Phi Gam m a Delta. The summer after his freshman year, John worked in a coal mine in Colorado. Shortly after returning to college that fall he became ill and had to return home. His illness was neither long nor serious, but when he recovered, John decided to remain at home and finish his education at N orth­western University, where he received a scholarship. There he m ajored in geology, graduating in 1929. He then spent a year on an oil rig in M ichigan before entering graduate school at Indiana University with the aim o f teaching paleontology.

At Indiana, John worked under E. R. Cumings and J . J . Galloway. He had an especially close relationship with Cumings, working under his supervision in the sum­mers o f 1931 through 1934 as a field geologist for the Indiana Geological Survey. This experience heightened Jo h n ’s interest in Paleozoic stratigraphy and paleoecology. His first paper (1931) described newly discovered Silurian outcrops in an area in southeastern Indiana tha t he had visited with Cumings. They kept in touch through the rest o f Cum ings’s life, and in the 1960s, when Cumings was retired and living in W ashington, John visited him weekly.

As a graduate assistant at Indiana, John was the curator o f the paleontology col­lections, which included conodonts from the New Albany Shale. This fauna was the subject o f his dissertation. John received his P h .D . in 1934, and that same year he pub­

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lished his paper, which became a classic in the study of conodonts. In it, John estab­lished the m ajor research interest o f his life.

John spent the summer of 1934 doing fieldwork in Virginia, in the course of which he met W. F. Prouty, head of the geology departm ent at the University o f North Carolina. Prouty offered John a job, and wasting no time, John hightailed it back to W innetka to ask Ella Free to marry him. Parenthetically, this speed was typical o f John. To the casual observer he was a slow-moving, deliberate person. This, plus his modesty, led him to be underrated by some who did not know him well. In his own quiet way, John accomplished an amazing am ount o f work.

Ella Lillian Free, a M ontana girl and daughter o f a college president, had come to W innetka to teach in New Trier Township High School. She roomed with Jo h n ’s parents. With his new job, John whisked her from Illinois to Chapel Hill, where they entered joyfully into the life o f a junior faculty couple. Both o f them loved it. John was a superb teacher, and Ella mothered the students who came to their apartm ent. One o f her early entertainm ents was based on eggs: John had forgotten to tell her that he had invited a group o f students for Sunday supper. Eggs were all she had, so she looked in her cook book and decided to make a soufflé, which she had never done. It worked, to the amazement o f a neighbor, who the next day told her o f all the disasters that can befall a soufflé cook.

Jo hn ’s students remember him with fond adm iration, and he had a crucial influ­ence on many careers. The students called him “ Skipper.” According to Wallace deW itt, a student and later a colleague of Jo hn ’s, the nickname came from Jo hn ’s ability to get lost leading field trips in the featureless N orth Carolina Coastal Plain. Another student, C. E. Prouty, writes:

1 was in H u d d le ’s first class (S t ra t ig rap hy) w h e n he cam e to Univers i ty o f N o r th Carolina to teach (c irca 1 9 3 5 -3 6 ) . T he first day o f class he p ro c ee d ed to b reak all the rules k n o w n for p resen ting a g o o d lec tu re . T h ese inc luded leaning on the ro s t ru m w ith his e lbow s an d his chin in his hands , m ak in g it d i f f icu l t to talk; o p e n in g a w in d o w an d sp i t t ing o u t ; chew ing g u m ; p lacing on e fo o t o n the rad ia to r whi le ta lk ing; a n d scribbling on the b o a rd such t h a t his w ri t ing cou ld n o t be dec iphered . It w as a mess. A f te r a b o u t 20 m in u te s o f this he to ld us this is how we s h o u ld n o t deliver o u t s t ra t ig raph y rep o r ts we were to p re sen t b e fo re the class.He to ld us t h a t he was em ula t ing J. J. G a l low ay , his o ld m e n t o r at Ind iana U niver­si ty , w h o was well k n o w n for th is t r ick . It m u s t have t ak e n a lot o f nerve to pull this o ff . I am sure no o n e in the class ever fo rgo t this . I have reca lled this to Jo h n at t im es we have m e t over the years. Inc iden ta l ly , he was a m arve l lous teacher .

John ’s influence on his students and their regard for him are expressed by GroverE. M urray in the dedication o f his book Geology o f the Atlantic and G ulf Coastal Province o f North Am erica : “ To John W. Huddle and H. W. Straley III who, in particular, molded and guided my early efforts as a student at the University o f North Carolina, who aroused in me a lasting love o f geology, and who showed me that it could be both a vocation and an avocation.”

Financed by tiny research grants, John took his students to the field in a 1924 Pierce Arrow touring car with wooden-spoked wheels. They lived cheaply—as many as possible in a room —and collected tons of black shales from the Chattanooga and New Albany Shales in Tennessee, Kentucky, and Indiana.

From 1934 to 1943, first as assistant professor and later as associate professor at N orth Carolina, John taught introductory geology, general and historical geology, graduate and undergraduate courses in stratigraphy and paleontology, and field geology.

M EM ORIAL TO JO H N W A R FIEL D HUDDLE 3

He also helped to set up a general science course consisting o f one quarter each o f botany, chemistry, and geology.

In 1943, John took leave from the university and joined the Fuels Branch of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to work in the western United States. His first assign­ment was in northwestern Colorado, structure mapping in the Cretaceous o f the Range- ley anticline. His party worked through the winter, and he did not get home for Christ­mas that year. Then, in February 1944, he moved to Arizona, where, with Ernest Dobrovolny, he worked on upper Paleozoic stratigraphy. The aim o f this project was to establish a stratigraphic section, based upon exposed rocks in central Arizona, that could be correlated with rocks in cores from the northeastern part o f the state. Huddle identified the Mississippian fossils collected during this work. Besides the stratigraphic reports, this project resulted in a paper (Huddle and Dobrovolny, 1946) on Upper Devonian bioherms in central Arizona—another instance o f the effect o f E. R. Cumings on John’s geologic interests.

In the fall o f 1945, John returned to Chapel Hill as a full professor, to resume his research on conodonts as well as his teaching. He retained ties with the USGS, holding a WAE (when actually employed—i.e., part-time) appointment. During the next 4 years, in the summers, he mapped Paleozoic and Mesozoic rocks on the south flank of the Uinta Mountains in Utah. This work, which was undertaken because o f increasing interest in the oil and gas possibilities o f the Uinta Basin to the south, involved study o f a Paleozoic section of nearly 40,000 feet from Cambrian through Permian, includ­ing probably the most complete sequence o f Carboniferous and Permian rocks in the Rocky Mountain region. As his part o f the project, John mapped the geology o f a large area on the south flank of the Uinta Mountains, v/est of the Uinta River. A major re­sult o f this work was a paper published with A. A. Baker and D. M. Kinney (1949). John’s work in the Uintas was recognized by the American Association o f Petroleum Geologists in 1947, when he was appointed an AAPG Distinguished Lecturer, speaking to AAPG groups throughout the country.

During this period also, John began his important association with the coal re­search o f the USGS. He collaborated with D. A. Andrews and T. A. Hendricks (1947) in preparing a summary of western coal fields.

In 1949, John resigned his teaching position and accepted a permanent position with the USGS, with headquarters at Lexington, Kentucky. The Huddles lived in Lexingston from 1949 to 1961, during which time John was a mainstay o f the large USGS program in Kentucky. The aim o f John’s project was the appraisal o f the coal resources of eastern Kentucky by means of reconnaissance mapping, quadrangle map­ping, subsurface studies, and collection o f data from coal companies. He made a sub­surface stratigraphic study of Mississippian rocks in Kentucky, southwestern Virginia, and southern West Virginia, mapped two quadrangles himself, and, at various times, supervised two to six mapping parties. He also supervised sampling for uranium in coals o f the eastern United States.

In addition to his work on coal, John organized the compilation o f records o f oil and gas wells drilled in southwestern Virginia (Huddle and others, 1956), which included a summary o f the stratigraphy of the area.

The culmination of the eastern Kentucky coal project was USGS Bulletin 1120 (Huddle and others, 1963). This extremely thorough study, introduced by a lucid exposi­tion o f methods o f estimation and coal classification, includes a description o f the geology of the area and o f the coal beds and reserves o f each o f six reserve districts. It deals with the complicated nomenclautre o f coal beds. Although much information

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was compiled from company records and published sources, 68 percent o f the data, by the authors’ estimate, was based upon geologic mapping or reconnaissance by the USGS.

John was an analyzer—a seeker for causes—in addition to being a superb observer and organizer o f data. An im portant contribution that resulted from his coal work was a paper with Sam Patterson, “ Origin of Pennsylvanian underclay and related seat rocks” (1961). It was a very thorough mineralogic and paleoecologic treatm ent o f the soils underlying coal beds. Huddle and Patterson (p. 1658) pointed out that “ most seat rocks formed in a waterlogged environment and acquired peculiar character from plant roots, and continued leaching by acid swamp w ater.” Some such rocks were eroded, transported, and redeposited, but most formed in place in a swamp.

W. H. Hass, conodont specialist o f the USGS died in 1959. John Huddle was asked to transfer to the Paleontology and Stratigraphy Branch and to carry on H ass’s work, with headquarters at the National Museum o f Natural History in W ashington,D.C. John made the transfer in October 1961 and, the long hiatus notwithstanding, plunged back into conodont research. His earlier work on the Devonian and Mississip- pian black-shale faunas served him well now. Hass had concentrated on this same interval and had left several m ajor studies only partly completed; John undertook the successful completion o f all these investigations. Also, other m ajor Survey efforts were underway during the 1960s and 1970s on the eastern United States black-shale sequence, and John ’s expertise was sought continuously in support o f these studies.

In addition to the several biostratigraphic studies in the eastern black-shale se­quence, Huddle was able to make m ajor taxonomic contributions because these rocks, especially in the Devonian o f New York State, were the source o f many of the earliest named conodonts from N orth America. Jo h n ’s skills in the painstaking job of preparing conodonts on black-shale bedding surfaces, using fine-tipped needles, and his per­fectionist observational skills permitted him to complete the work begun by his Survey predecessor, W. H. Hass, o f describing, redescribing, and illustrating many im portant species that previously had been known only imperfectly. Nor was Jo h n ’s research re­stricted to the eastern United States. His published biostratigraphic contributions also involve Paleozoic and Triassic sequences in Oklahom a, Nevada, U tah, Idaho, Alaska, and Israel. Perhaps as significant as his published research was Jo h n ’s contribution to other geologists’ work by means o f reports on samples sent to him for age determ ina­tion on the basis of conodonts. This service work was chiefly in support o f other USGS geologists, but Jo h n ’s “ clients” also included geologists from state geological surveys, colleges, and universities. During his time with the Paleontology and Stratigraphy Branch, John wrote more than 500 o f these internal reports, each concerning one to several dozen samples. Because he was the sole source of these service reports for most o f this time, he had to maintain his expertise for the entire Cam brian through Triassic range of conodonts.

His remarkable breadth of research in a field that some would call a narrow specialty made Jo h n ’s life as a full-time paleontologist more cosmopolitan than it might otherwise have been. His foreign research contacts, for example, led to several trips to Europe, where he and Ella made many warm friendships. O f necessity, but also by choice, he maintained correspondence with nearly all active conodont workers worldwide. As a result o f this, the Paleontology and Stratigraphy Branch conodont reprint library is one of the most complete anywhere. A nother result o f John ’s prom i­nence among conodont workers was his election as the head (facetiously known as the Solicitor General or Chief Panderer) o f the Pander Society, an international organiza­

M EM OR IAL TO JOHN W A R FIEL D HUDDLE 5

tion of conodont workers named for the first scientist to describe these organisms. John was instrumental in establishing the idea o f this group and chaired the organiza­tional meeting in Calgary in 1967. Until 1975, he compiled and edited the Pander So­ciety newsletter and served as the Society’s only officer (chief office-boy as John put it). John’s contributions and achievements were publicly recognized by his colleagues and peers when he was awarded the first Pander Society Medal in 1975.

Though quiet, John was gregarious and had a broad streak of ham in him— probably one reason why he was such a good teacher. In the USGS, the annual Pick and Hammer Show was a perfect outlet for his talents, and he was an enthusiastic participant in many hilarious scenes.

He was a Fellow o f the Geological Society o f America and the American Asso­ciation for the Advancement o f Science and a member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Society of Economic Geologists, Paleontological Society, Palaeontological Association o f London, Palaontologisches Gesellschaft, Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists, Society o f Systematic Zoology, Geological Society of Washington, Paleontological Society of Washington, the Cosmos Club, and the Thornton Society.

In 1967, John was made a research associate of the Smithsonian Institution, and in 1972 he received the Meritorious Service Award of the Department o f the Interior.

John was distinguished by a wide range of talents and interests: his research was meticulous but not narrow, and the depth o f his knowledge o f stratigraphy and paleon­tology led to significant contributions in both pure and applied science. He had re­markable self-control, was always objective in viewing problems, and was always sym­pathetic and understanding in his dealings with others.

One o f his greatest satisfactions must have been his part in ensuring an increasingly active program o f conodont research in the U.S. Geological Survey. Several years be­fore his death he was instrumental in the appointment o f Anita Harris and John Repetski to work with him. Today they are carrying on and expanding USGS investigations on conodonts.

John is survived by his devoted wife Ella, by two children, John Free Huddle and Eugenia Huddle, and by two grandchildren.

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF J. W. HUDDLE1931 Notes on outcrops o f Silurian near Sunman, Ripley County, Indiana: Indiana

Academy o f Sciences, Proceedings, v. 40, p. 213-215.1932 (and Whitlatch, G. I.) The stratigraphy and structure o f a Devonian limestone

area in Clark County, Indiana: Indiana Academy o f Sciences, Proceedings,v. 41, p. 363-390.

1933 Marine fossils from the top o f the New Albany shale o f Indiana: American Journal o f Science, 5th ser., v. 25, no. 148, p. 303-314.

1934 Conodonts from the New Albany shale of Indiana: Bulletins o f American Paleon­tology, v. 21, no. 72, p. 1-138.

1945 (and Dobrovolny, Ernest) Late Paleozoic stratigraphy o f central and northeastern Arizona: U.S. Geological Survey Oil and Gas Investigations Preliminary Chart 10 (revised 1952).

1946 (and Dobrovolny, Ernest) Devonian and Mississippian rocks o f central Arizona [abs.]: Geological Society o f America Bulletin, v. 57, no. 12, pt. 2, p. 1205-1206.

6 T il l , GKOLOGICAL SOCTKTY 01 ' A M IR IC A

1947 (and Andrews, D. A ., and Hendricks, T. A.) The coal fields o f Arizona, Cali­fornia, Idaho, Nevada, and Oregon: U.S. Bureau o f Mines Technical Paper 696, p. 1-12.

------ (and M cCann, F. T.) Late Paleozoic rocks exposed in the Duchesne River area,Duchesne County, Utah: U.S. Geological Survey Circular 16, p. 1-21.

—— (and M cCann, F. T.) Geologic map of Duchesne River area, W asatch and Duchesne Counties, Utah: U.S. Geological Survey Oil and Gas Investigations Preliminary Map 75.

1948 (and Andrews, D. A.) The coal fields of Michigan, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Texas: U.S. Bureau of Mines Technical Paper 700, p. 1-7.

1949 (and Baker, A. A., and Kinney, D. M.) Paleozoic geology of north and west sides of Uinta Basin, Utah: American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin,v. 33, no. 7, p. 1161-1197.

1951 (and Mapel, W. J ., and M cCann, F. T.) Geology of the Moon Lake area, Duchesne County, Utah: U.S. Geological Survey Oil and Gas Investigations Map OM-115.

1952 (and Dobrovolny, Ernest) Devonian and Mississippian rocks o f central Arizona: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 233-D, p. 67-112.

1956 (and Jacobsen, E. T ., and Williamson, A. D.) Oil and gas wells drilled in south­western Virginia before 1950: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1027-L, p. 501-573.

1961 (and Patterson, S. H.) Origin of Pennsylvanian underclay and related seat rocks: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 72, no. 11, p. 1643-1660.

1963 (and Lyons, E. J ., Smith, H. L., Ferm, J. C ., Harris, L. D., and Englund, K. J.) Coal reserves o f eastern Kentucky: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1120, 247 p.

------ Conodonts from the Flynn Creek cryptoexplosive structure, Tennessee: U.S.Geological Survey Professional Paper 475-C, p. C55-C57.

1964 Cavusgnathus, Idiognathoides, and Polygnathodella: A conodont nomenclatural and biologic problem: Journal o f Paleontology, v. 38, no. 2, p. 400-401.

1965 (and Hass, W. H.) Late Devonian and Early Mississippian age of the W oodford Shale in Oklahoma, as determined from conodonts: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 525-D, p. D125-D132.

1966 (and Englund, K. J.) Geology and coal reserves o f the Kermit and Varney area, Kentucky: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 507, 83 p.

1968 Redescription o f Upper Devonian conodont genera and species proposed byUlrich and Bassler in 1926: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 578, 55 p.

------ (and Ziegler, Willi) Die Palmatolepis glabra-Gruppe (Conodonta) nach derRevision der Typen von Ulrich & Bassler durch J. W. Huddle: Fortschritte in der Geologie von Rheinland und W estfalen, v. 16, p. 377-386.

------Conodonts from the McCann Hill chert, in Churkin, Michael, J r ., and Brabb,E. E., Devonian rocks in the Yukon-Porcupine Rivers area and their tectonic relations to other Devonian sequences in Alaska, in Proceedings, International Symposium on the Devonian System, Calgary, Alberta, 1967, Volume 2: Calgary, Alberta, Alberta Society of Petroleum Geologists, p. 250-255.

— (and Oliver, W. A. Jr ., deW itt, Wallace, J r ., Dennison, J. M ., and Hoskins,D. M.) Devonian of the Appalachian Basin, United States, in Proceedings, International Symposium on the Devonian System, Calgary, Alberta, 1967, Vol­ume 1: Calgary, Alberta, Alberta Society o f Petroleum Geologists, p. 1001-1040.

M EM OR IAL TO JOHN W A R FIEL D HUDDLE 7

1969 (and Oliver, W. A ., Jr., deWitt, Wallace, Jr., Dennison, J. M ., and Hoskins,D. M.) Correlation o f Devonian rock units in the Appalachian Basin: U.S. Geo­logical Survey Oil and Gas Investigations Chart OC-64.

1970 Triassic conodonts from Israel: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 700-B, p. B124-B130.

------ Revised descriptions of some Late Devonian polygnathid conodonts: Journal ofPaleontology, v. 44, no. 6, p. 1029-1040.

1971 (and Oliver, William A ., Jr., deWitt, Wallace, Jr., Dennison, J. M ., and Hoskins,D. M.) Isopach and lithosfacies maps o f the Devonian in the Appalachian Basin: Pennsylvania Geological Survey, 4th ser., Progress Report 182, 7 sheets.

------ (and Klapper, Gilbert, Sandberg, C. A ., and Collinson, C. W.) North AmericanDevonian conodont biostratigraphy, in Sweet, W. C., and Bergstrom, S. ML, eds., Symposium on conodont biostratigraphy: Geological Society o f America Memoir 127, p. 285-316.

1972 Historical introduction to the problem o f conodont taxonomy, in Lindstrom, Maurits, and Ziegler, Willi, eds., Symposium on conodont taxonomy: Geologica et Paleontologica, Sonderband 1, p. 3-16.

1979 (and Dutro, J. T., Jr., and Gordon, Mackenzie, Jr.) Paleontological zonation of the Mississippian System, in Craig, L. C., Connor, C. W ., and others, coordi­nators, Paleotectonic investigations o f the Mississippian System in the United States, Part II. Interpretive summary and special features o f the Mississippian System: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1010-S, p. 407-429.

1981 (assisted by John E. Repetski) Conodonts from the Genesee Formation in western New York: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1032-B, 66 p.

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