OBITUARY
[Helga Groos-Uffenorde) and
Robert F. Lundin]:
In Memoriam: Jean Milton Berdan, 1916-2004
Jean M. Berdan,
born in 1916, received her PhD from Yale
University in 1949. In 1942 she joined the Water Resources
Division of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), working in New York State. Upon completion of her PhD degree, she became
a member of the Paleontology and Stratigraphy Branch of the USGS, where she
spent the rest of her professional career.
Jean Berdan became Scientist Emeritus at the USGS in 1991. In the early 1960’s, Jean Berdan became a
Research Associate of the Department of Paleobiology at the National Museum of
Natural History. Although her primary
research interests dealt with Ordovician, Silurian, and Devonian ostracodes and
stratigraphy, she wrote significant papers on lower Paleozoic brachiopods,
Silurian-Devonian pelecypods, and jaw-like apparatuses of Silurian and Devonian
organisms of uncertain affinity.
Jean Berdan published papers
on virtually every major group of ostracodes and leperditicope arthropods. But she did not simply describe and classify
ostracodes. A hallmark of her papers is
application of the faunas to problems of age determination, correlation,
stratigraphic relationships, paleoenvironmental interpretation, and paleogeography. Indeed, she provided some of the earliest
ostracode evidence for the closure of the Iapetus
Ocean with her discovery, in Maine, of Silurian
ostracodes from the British-Baltic-Podolian province. Her work on Ordovician leperditicopids from Kentucky and adjacent
areas (1984) still stands as a standard on this group of arthropods. A list of Jean Berdan’s publications, that we
believe to be nearly complete, follows this memorial.
Evidence of Jean Berdan’s
extremely wide interests and activities is visible in the archives of the
Smithsonian Institution. She dealt with
materials from Canada and
other foreign countries and almost all of the states of the U.S. She corresponded with virtually all
researchers around the world that had an interest in lower Paleozoic ostracodes
and stratigraphy as well as many who had interest in general paleontology of
the lower Paleozoic. This correspondence
attests to the high esteem in which she was held by her colleagues. She was consulted by many researchers for her
knowledge of lower Paleozoic paleontology and stratigraphy. Jean Berdan made available to
ostracodologists all over the world her catalog with photographs enlarged by
new photos of type material of ostracodes published (e.g., by Ulrich, 1916) and
deposited in the collections of the USGS.
Independently, we can personally attest to Jean’s unselfish willingness
to help her colleagues. She spent many
hours talking with us and writing letters, especially when we were just beginners
in ostracodology. She did not hesitate
in reading long manuscripts of foreign colleagues and brushing up their English
grammar.
Jean Berdan was an
enthusiastic member of the International Research Group on Paleozoic
Ostracodes, the International Commission on Silurian Stratigraphy, and the
Geological Society of America as well as numerous other geological
associations. She attended most of the
International Symposia on Ostracodes where she stimulated and enriched the
discussions on Paleozoic ostracodes and stratigraphy. We will miss her humor, her songs, and her
limericks on the bus during excursions.
Her songs and limericks also played important parts in Paleontology and
Stratigraphy branch parties at which fun was poked at USGS administrators.
Many colleagues will remember
Pedro, the varan living together with Jean Berdan and Betsy Veld in Washington, D.C.
for many years. At least two albums
filled with photographs prove the visits of many colleagues from all over the
world sometimes intimidated) carrying the dangerous looking but patient and
harmless Pedro.
On November 17th, 2004 we lost
an open minded and modest scientist, a reliable, generous colleague and very
good friend.
Publications of Jean Milton Berdan
(Open-file reports of the USGSA, Abstracts NDS
Excursion guides not included)
Berdan, J.M., 1948, Hydrology of limestone terrain in Schoharie County, New
York:
Transactions American Geophysical Union, 29:251-253.
Berdan, J.M., 1949, Brachiopoda and Ostracoda of the
Manlius Group of New York State:
Doctoral thesis, Yale University, New
Haven, CT.
Berdan, J.M., 1959, The
ground-water resources of Schoharie
County, New York: 61.
Berdan, J.M., 1952 in
Sohn, I.G. and Berdan, J.M., Stratigraphic range of the ostracode genus Phanassymetrica Roth: J. Washington Acad. Sci., 42:7-12, 4 figs.
Berdan, J.M., 1953, Devonian
ostracode fauna from Nevada: Geol. Soc. America, Bull., 64:1394.
Berdan, J.M., 1954, The
ground-water resources of Greene
County, New York: 62.
Berdan, J.M., 1959, in Sylvester-Bradley, P.C., Scott, H.W., and Berdan, J.M., Proposed
use of the plenary power to validate the currently accepted emendation Drepanella for the genus introduced
under the name Drepanella Ulrich,
1890 (Class Crustacea, Order Ostracoda):
Z.N., (S), 1112:47-48.
Berdan, J.M., 1960, Revision of the ostracod family
Beecherellidae and redescription of Ulrich’s types of Beecherella: J. Palaeont.,
34:467-478, pl. 66.
Berdan, J.M., 1960, in Sohn, I.G. and Berdan, J.M., The ostracode family Berounellidae,
new: J. Paleont., 34:479-482.
Berdan, J.M., 1963, Eccentricosta, a new Upper Silurian brachiopod genus: J. Paleont., 37:245-256.
Berdan, J.M., 1964, The Helderberg Group and the
position of the Silurian-Devonian boundary in North
America: USGS Bull. 1180-B:
1-19, 2 figs.
Berdan, J.M., 1965, Stratigraphy and faunas of
subsurface lower Paleozoic rocks, Florida
and adjacent states: Geol. Soc. America
Spec. Paper 10.
Berdan, J.M., 1965, in Martinsson, A. and Berdan, J.M., The beyrichacean ostracode
genus Drepanellina: Geol. Foren. Stockholm Forhanl., 86:395-403, 3 figs.
Berdan, J.M., 1965, in Sohn, I.G., Berdan, J.M., and Peck, R.E., Ostracods, in Handbook of paleontological
techniques, p. 75-89.
Berdan, J.M. and Zenger, D.H., 1966, Presence of the
ostracode Drepanellina clarki in the
type Clinton (Middle Silurian) in New
York State: USGS Prof. Paper 525-C: 96-100, 2 figs.
Berdan, J.M. and others, 1969, Siluro-Devonian
boundary in North America: Geol. Soc. America, 80:2165-2174, 1 fig., 1
pl.
Berdan, J.M. and Martinsson, A., 1970, Ostracodes—American
ostracode zonation; correlation with Europe, in Correlation of the North American
Silurian rocks: Geol. Soc. Amer., Spec.
Paper 102:39-44.
Berdan, J.M., 1970, American ostracode zonation, in Correlation of the North American
Silurian rocks: Geol. Soc. Amer., Spec.
Paper 102:39-40.
Berdan, J.M., 1971, Granitsa silura I devona v
Severnoy Amerike (Translated title: The Silurian-Devonian boundary in North America):
Mezhdunarodnyy Simpozium po Granitse Silura I Devona I Stratigrafii
Nizhnego I Srednego Devona, Trudy, 3:49-63.
Berdan, J.M., 1971, Some ostracodes from the Schoharie
Formation (Lower Devonian) of New
York:
Smithsonian Contr. Paleobiol., 3:161-174, 1 pl.
Berdan, J.M., 1972, Brachiopoda and Ostracoda of the
Cobleskill Limestone (Upper Silurian) of central New York:
USGS Prof. Paper 730, 47 p., 7 figs., 1 tab., 6 pls.
Berdan, J.M. and Copeland, M.J., 1973, Ostracodes from
Lower Devonian formations in Alaska and Yukon Territories: USGS Prof. Paper 825, 47 p., 14 pls.
Berdan, J.M. in
Brookins, D.G., Berdan, J.M., and Stewart, D.B., Isotopic and palaeontologic
evidence for correlating three volcanic sequences in the Maine coastal volcanic
belt: Geol. Soc. Amer. Bull.,
84:1619-1628.
Berdan, J.M., 1976, Middle Ordovician leperditicopid
ostracodes from the Ibex area, Millard
County, western Utah:
Brigham Young Univ. Geol. Studies, 23:37-65, 3 figs., 9 pls.
Berdan, J.M., 1976, in Pojeta, J., Kriz, J., and Berdan, J.M., Silurian-Devonian
pelecypods and Palaeozoic stratigraphy of subsurface rocks in Florida and
Georgia and related Silurian pelecypods from Bolivia and Turkey: USGS Prof. Paper 879, 47 p., 8 figs., 1 tab.,
5 pls.
Berdan, J.M., 1977, in Copeland, M.J. and Berdan, J.M., Silurian and early Devonian
beyrichiacean ostracode provincialism in northeastern North America: Geol. Survey Canada, Paper 77-1B:15-24, 1 fig.,
3 pls.
Berdan, J.M., 1977, Early Devonian ostracode
assemblages from Nevada: Univ. California,
Riverside, Campus Museum,
Contr., 4:55-64, 1 tab., 2
pls.
Berdan, J.M. and Copeland, M.J., 1978, Redescription
of the early Devonian beyrichiacean ostracode Arikloedeninia occidentalis (Walcott, 1884): J. Paleont., 52:234-242, 1 fig., 2 pls.
Berdan, J.M., 1981, Ostracode biostratigraphy of the
lower and middle Devonian of New York, in
Oliver, W.A. and Klapper, G., eds., Devonian biostratigraphy of New York, p.
83-96.
Berdan, J.M., 1982, in Warshauer, S.M. and Berdan, J.M., Palaeocopid and podocopid
Ostracoda from the Lexington Limestone and Clays Ferry Formation (Middle and
Upper Ordovician) of central Kentucky: USGS Prof. Paper 1066-H, 40 p., 20 figs., 23
tables, 19 pls.
Berdan, J.M., 1983, Biostratigraphy of upper Silurian
and lower Devonian ostracodes in the United States, in Maddocks, R.F.:
Applications of Ostracoda, Dept. Geosciences, Univ. Houston, p. 313-337,
6 figs., 1 tab.
Berdan, J.M., 1984, Leperditicopid ostracodes from
Ordovician rocks of Kentucky
and nearby states and characteristic features of the Order
Leperditicopida: USGS Prof. Paper
1066-J, 40 p., 2 figs., 8 tabs., 11 pls.
Berdan, J.M., 1984, in Stone, S.M. and Berdan, J.M., Some late Silurian (Pridolian)
ostracodes from the Roberts Mountains, central Nevada:
J. Paleont., 58:977-1009, 10 figs.
Berdan, J.M., 1986, New ostracode genera from the
lower Devonian McMonnigal Limestone of central Nevada:
J. Paleont., 60:361-378, 5 figs.
Berdan, J.M., Boucot, A.J., and Ferrill, B.A., 1986,
The first fossiliferous Pridolian beds from the southern Appalachians in
northern Alabama, and the age of the uppermost
Red Mountain: J. Paleont., 60:180-185.
Berdan, J.M., 1986, Middle Ordovician (Whiterockian)
palaeocopid and podocopid ostracodes from the Ibex area, Millard
County, western Utah:
Mem. New Mexico Bur. Mines Mineral Res., 44:273-301, 3 figs., 15 tables,
4 pls.
Berdan, J.M., 1989, Mechanical extraction of
microfossils, in Feldmann, R.M.,
Chapman, R.E., and Hannibal,
J.T., eds.: Paleotechniques, Paleont.
Soc., Spec. Publ. 4:99-100.
Berdan, J.M., 1990, The Silurian and early Devonian
biogeography of ostracodes in North America: Geol. Soc. Mem., 12:223-
In Memorium: Kenneth Glencoe McKenzie (1928-2003)
[Peter J. Jones, Department of Earth and
Marine Sciences, The Australian
National University.
This obituary was first published in The
Australian Geologist, 130:49-50 and, with kind permission,
is reproduced here specifically for a
wider circulation among the palaeontological fraternity.]
Ken McKenzie passed away
suddenly in the morning of 14 May 2003, after his usual walk on his beloved
property “Yugen“, near Wagga Wagga, New South Wales. His death interrupted sharply a lifetime of
vibrant scientific work and community activities. Ken is survived by his wife, Judith Le
Lievre, two sons, three daughters, and eleven grandchildren.
Ken was born on 18 September 1928 in Poona, India,
where he received his early education at Bishops
High School (1936-1945) and later at Wilsons College,
at the University
of Bombay (1945-47). In 1948 he began military service in the
British Army (Royal Engineers) in Britain,
where he was trained as a surveyor (engineering, topographic, photogrammetric)
and was later posted to Hong Kong and Malaya. During his five years (1948-53) in the army,
he showed his sporting prowess in hockey, cricket, and athletics. Ken’s surveying skills later led to jobs in Australia with seismic and gravity teams prior
to, and during, his study for a B.Sc. in Geology at the University of Western
Australia.
He gained his hockey blue in his first year. After graduating in 1957, Ken was employed as
an oil company exploration geologist (Caltex/Amoco; Filipinas Oil; Exoil), and
gained considerable field experience in Australia
and the Philippines. Ken used his surveying skills again on a
joint expedition of the Western Australian Museum
and the Museum of Paleontology, Berkeley,
California, to document the sites
of vertebrate localities in the Triassic Blina Shale of the Canning Basin,
Western Australia. This was the subject
of his first paper, which was published in 1961. In 1960 Ken returned to the University of Western Australia
to commence study for the Ph.D degree.
The topic for his research, “Oyster
Harbour: a marginal marine environment”, which documented the ecological
association of ostracods and foraminiferids off Albany, Western Australia,
marked the beginning of a distinguished career of research on Ostracoda.
After he gained his Ph.D in
1963, Ken was awarded post-doctoral scholarships at the Stazione Zoologica, Naples; the Department of Geology, University
of Minnesota (1963-64); and the
Department of Zoology, Monash
University
(1965-67). In 1967, he was appointed
Head of the Entomostraca Section at the British
Museum (Natural History), London, and held this
position until 1972. It was here Ken
started to think about the origin of the crustaceans, and learned much from
several of the world’s leading experts on this group, including Sidnie Manton,
who worked in an adjacent office. In the
field, he led the Royal Society’s expedition to the Aldabra Islands, off Madagascar, and made collections for the British Museum
in South Africa and South
America (Argentina, Brazil, and Chile). It was such collections that awakened his
interest in the palaeobiogeographic distribution of Cainozoic ostracods, both
freshwater and marine. He also developed
an interest in the quantitative aspects of taxonomy, and was awarded a Diploma
in Numerical Taxonomy at the Estudos Avancados de Oeiras, Portugal. By the time Ken left England, he had
won a well-earned reputation as one of the world’s leading researchers on
living and Cenozoic marine and freshwater ostracods.
In 1973, Ken returned to Australia, and established the Geology
Department in the School of Applied Science at the Riverina College of Advanced
Education (now the Charles Sturt University),
Wagga Wagga, New South Wales. This department is now closed, but not before
having made a significant contribution to the educational needs in the Riverina
region, and to scientific knowledge well beyond. Despite heavy teaching commitments, Ken produced
a substantial flow of research papers, among which those on Cainozoic
ostracods, formed the basis of his thesis for a D.Sc. (University of Western
Australia), which was awarded in April 1982.
Ken developed an
international network of colleagues, all sharing a mutual passion for
Ostracoda. He established good
friendships with many of them, especially those with whom he shared
co-authorship in joint papers. Some of
the earliest were those in the United States
(Fred Swain,
Richard Benson, Roget Kaesler, and Willem van den Bold), England (Peter Sylvester-Bradley), and Sweden (Richard Reyment). Others were in France (Jean-Pierre Peypouquet), Italy, India,
China, and Japan.
In 1985, he was appointed an
Associate in the Department of Geology, University
of Melbourne, where he supervised the
research of Mark
Warne (Ph.D) and John Neil (M.Sc.) on Cainozoic marine ostracods
of Victoria. After his formal retirement from his teaching
duties at Charles Sturt University
in 1988, he continued many more productive years of ostracod and crustacean
research at the University
of Melbourne. From here and from his home in Wagga Wagga he
maintained a fine record of individual and collaborative research with
colleagues in Australia,
and worldwide. Without teaching
commitments, Ken was also able to spend longer periods consolidating his
research links previously established with colleagues in Italy, India,
Sweden, and China (Pei-ji Chen).
In all, Ken published about
175 papers and edited or co-edited several books. His ostracod research could be broadly divided
into the biology and biogeography of extant species from freshwater, brackish
and marine environments, and the palaeontology of extinct species throughout
the Phanerozoic. From the latter work he
developed his ideas on the phylogeny and classification of the Ostracoda, and
how this was related to the evolution of the Crustacea as a whole. To my knowledge, Ken has still one paper, at
least, in the publication pipeline. I
was recently shown a manuscript, which he co-authored, describing the ostracod
fauna of the Miocene freshwater limestones from the Riversleigh World Heritage
deposits of northern Queensland.
Ken will be remembered for
his ability in organizing many scientific conferences, either as the main
organizer, or part of the organizing committee, beginning with the Origin of Life meeting of the Systematics
Association in London
in 1969. He was a co-founder of the
Shallow Tethys (ST) working group of the International Palaeontological
Association, together with Giuliano Piccoli (University of Padua, Italy). It was typical of Ken to put his hand up at
the First ST
meeting in Padua
in 1982 and volunteer to organize the second meeting in Wagga Wagga in
1986. In 1988, I well remember receiving
his phone call from Wales at
the 10th International Symposium on Ostracoda (ISO) in Aberystwyth,
telling me of a fortuitous opportunity that had arisen for us to host the next
ISO meeting of this group in Australia. During the next three years Ken, together
with Patrick
De Deckker and me, organized the 11th International
Symposium on Ostracoda, which was held at Deakin University
on its Warnambool campus in 1991.
Ken put great emphasis on
original thought in research, and never felt constrained to accept current
orthodoxy, without critical evaluation.
In this spirit, he admired the concepts of such iconoclasts as Sam Carey
and Art Boucot,
who he selected as keynote speakers at the Shallow Tethys 2 meeting, and to
whom he dedicated the volume of the proceedings.
Ken had a distinct,
easy-flowing writing style, which in some papers, especially those dealing with
Tethys, tended to be rather florid.
However, this did not detract from their clarity. He could immediately attract the attention of
the reader with snappy titles like “Homeomorphy:
persistent joker in the taxonomic pack”.
The extent and classical background of his knowledge was exemplified by
his interest and research into Tethys.
In his concluding epilogue on the proceedings of the Second Shallow
Tethys Symposium, he discussed the origin of Tethys from many aspects, starting
from classical mythology and ending with modern scientific thoughts of Suess,
Wegener, and the plate tectonic model.
It is noteworthy that one reviewer (Tony Hallam) of the published proceedings “was
charmed to see that must be the first ever citation of Botticelli’s Birth of Venus in a scientific reference
list”.
Italy was a second home to Ken. He had made about ten visits to the University of Parma
since 12965, each about 2-3 months per year; three visits to the Stazione Zoologica,
Naples; and one visit to the University of Padua. All of these visits involved collaboration in
joint studies, and a simultaneous absorption of local cultural values. In October 2001, Ken traveled to Parma to
receive the ‘Scritture d’Acqua’
Premio Salsomaggiore Internazionale, a prestigious award supported by the
European Commission, several Ministries of the Italian Government, and many
Communes in northern Italy. A persona
profile of Ken in the local newspaper in June 2001 described his typical day
starting, like many other Parma
citizens, with a visit to his favourite café for his usual cup of coffee and a
read of the local events in the Gazzetta
di Parma. The reporter thought that Ken
looked typically Italian; so much so, he compared his physiognomy with that of
Arturo Toscanini. Ken had an excellent
knowledge of the Italian language, literature, art, and history. He published a volume of poetry in Italian
and also translated into English the operatic play “Il diavolo con le zinne” by the Italian (Nobel Prize winning)
playwright, Dario
Fo, to bring back to Australia.
Ken had a discerning taste
for wine and was proactive in the promotion of the wines produced at the Charles Sturt University
(then the Riverina College of Advanced Education). Whenever he visited Canberra, he would bring six of the best
‘College Wines’ for his BMR palaeontological colleagues to taste, and to place
their orders. During his visit to Bordeaux in 1979, as well as working on the Cenozoic
ostracods from the Aquitaine
Basin, he also managed to
spend some time picking grapes in the vineyards of Gascogny. His zest for life and enthusiasm for
activities beyond his chosen field of scientific interest seemed almost
boundless. In his early years at the Riverina College, he edited the literary magazine
Grapeshot (1974-78) and was involved
in several drama and ballet productions (1973-1986). Wherever he visited, he would bring home to
Wagga Wagga something of the cultural values he had learned from the host
country. On his return from France
in 1979 he lost no time in sharing his keen interest in French music with
others on Radio 2WG, Wagga Wagga.
Ken was a man of integrity,
with a strong sense of purpose, which was expressed in his service to the
community, through Local Government. In
1991 he was elected a Councillor on the Wagga Wagga City Council, where his
sharp mind and his analytical skills were greatly valued. He declined an invitation to stand for
re-election at the end of his four-year term of office because he still had
many scientific projects to complete.
Ken was also a man of strong philosophical convictions, and a popular
and well-respected member of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church and Parish of
Wagga Wagga. It was here he actively
participated in church life as Secretary of the management committee (1975-85)
and frequently gave talks on his scientific work to various groups. At last year’s St. Andrew’s Day concert, he
read a number of poems of Robbie Burns, to the delight of the audience, who
also were impressed with his accent.
Ken will be remembered for
both his scientific achievements and his humanity, by so many people, his local
community of Wagga Wagga, and his colleagues in Australia and throughout the world.
In Memorium:
Professor Tadeusz Sywula
Prof. Sywula had a car
accident during his field work in Macedonia and passed away there
suddenly on August 23, 2004. His obituary and results of his studies, his
bibliography, will be prepared for the proceedings of ISO15.