Department of Geology and Environmental Sciences
News from the Department Head
Stan Ulanski
ALUMNI
It has been quite a year for the geology program at James Madison University. Permit me to bring you up to date
with regard to the year’s events. First off, it is my sad duty to report the deaths of three members of the JMU Geology
family this year. On Nov. 19, 2004 Phoebe Sherwood, wife of Dr. Cullen Sherwood suffered a massive stroke and died
instantly. Only 11 days later Dr. Will Frangos lost his valiant battle with cancer on Nov 30. Just recently Alison
McDonald Doherty succumbed to organ failure on March 20, 2005. We are deeply saddened by the loss of these valued
friends and colleagues.
As many of you are aware, the Geology Department celebrated its 40th anniversary last spring, which culminated
with a research symposium and festive social gathering. During the daylong symposium, attended by current students,
alumni, faculty, and friends of the Department, presentations were made that looked at the Department from historical,
present day, and future perspectives. Dr. Steve Kite and Ms. Jen Ayers gave nostalgic and humorous presentations with
regard to their experiences in the geology program at JMU as former students. These talks were coupled with an excellent
presentation by Ms. Cindy Kearns, which looked at how the Department has changed over the 40-year period. However,
the main emphasis of the symposium was centered on the current student research, which over the last few years has
become a requirement for graduation. During the year our senior majors work on a particular geologic project, under the
guidance of a faculty member, which culminates in these presentations. As many of you who attended the symposium can
attest, these presentations exhibited a high degree of professionalism. In the future, the department hopes to present an
award, supported by your generous contributions to the Geology Student Research Scholarship Fund, for the best student
research project.
Within the next year there will be other significant changes in the University, which will impact the Department.
In particular, Miller Hall will be renovated for the psychology program, and that will entail all the sciences moving out of
their current space. Geology is scheduled to move across the interstate to the eastern part of the campus. While the
facilities there are not new, architects have been contracted to help refurbish the building to meet the Department’s
teaching and laboratory needs. On the plus side, our space will significantly increase allowing us to accommodate new
faculty and initiatives within the program. We are scheduled to be in our new “home” by January 2006. Of course, we
will keep you up to date with the progress of the move.
As many of you are aware, there is a severe lack of certified earth science teachers in the Virginia public school
systems, and many other states throughout the country. This has obviously translated into a lack of quality earth science
education at the primary and secondary school levels. Students are simply not being exposed to the science of geology
and this has repercussions down the road with regard to the vitality of geology programs at our colleges and universities.
In order to address this situation we will be undertaking a major initiative to increase the number and quality of earth
science teachers educated at JMU. Our goal is to make JMU and the Geology Department the center of earth science
education in Virginia-the place you want to come to become a competent teacher. Our first step toward this goal was to
hire two new faculty members who arrived in January. Dr. Eric Pyle, from West Virginia University, has both training as
a geologist and earth science educator. He brings with him many years of experience in developing and implementing
new programs that mesh the disciplines of geology and education. Dr. Kristen St. John, from Appalachian State
University, is a paleoceanographer with extensive field experience in deep-sea coring. But recently, in her academic
career, she has actively become involved in teacher training and certification. Another new faculty member within the
department is Dr. Michael Harris who, as our new instructor, replaces Mark Reinhold. Michael comes to the department
from the great white northern regions of Canada.
Finally, I would like to thank all of you for supporting the geology program through your financial contributions to the
various geology foundation funds and so many other ways. Stop by and see us.
A special thanks to the following alumni, faculty, friends and parents for your generous gifts to the department and the
Geology Foundation accounts in the last year!
Robert Bass
Tom Rice
Paula Nystrom
Elizabeth Tandy
Roddy Amenta
John Spaid
Susie Shomo
Will Frangos
Martha Norman
Stan Ulanski
Becky Rodgers
Timothy Felker
Paul Krop
John Steffe
Matthew Scott
Michael Lawrence
Anthony Meyer
Mark Flanders
John Stump
Community Construction Co
Shenandoah Valley Gem & Mineral Society
Janet Emry
Judith Dilts
Stephen Maher
David Brakke
Scott & Lisa Myers
John Chamberlain
Allison Amram
Lance Kearns
Tom Hall
Cynthia Kearns
David Bull
Mike Coffey
Kelly Durst
Cullen Sherwood
Garland Davis
Kenneth Boesner
James Wulff
Steven Mondziel
Karen Rice
Frank Cocina Sr
Barry Miller
Jim Hedrick
Mrs. Dale Weaver
Engineering Consulting Services
Dr. Lisa Schoenbrodt-Myers
Courtney Clamons
Thanks to all you generous folks, our new Geology Student Research Endowment fund has reached over $9,000 and is
growing.
If you would like to keep abreast or our fundraising efforts, you can go to the following website.
http://www.jmu.edu/geology/fundraising.html
Michael Doherty, husband of Alison McDonald Doherty is planning on establishing a $25,000 endowed scholarship in
Allie’s name (see in memoriam).
FACULTY UPDATES
RODDY AMENTA: received a grant in the amount of $49,600 from the Petroleum Research Fund to investigate
the kinetics of crystallization that produce textures in polycrystalline solids. Roddy’s research students are plugging along
and doing great things. Amy Jensen, Michelle Summa, & Mark Bascopé worked this past summer an on igneous
petrology research problem funded by the Petroleum Research Fund and the National Science Foundation. Their work
combined all aspects of modern geological inquiry: field work, microscope study, differential equations, and computer
modeling. They presented their results at a research conference in the College of Science & Mathematics in August and at
the AGU in San Francisco in December 2004. Former research students Ann Ewing (2004) and Krista Stevens (2004)
presented a poster in the petrology section of GSA meeting at Tysons Corner, Virginia. Former research students
Rebecca Rodgers (2002) finished her Masters Degree in petrology at Rutgers, and Crystal Cammarano (2003) is
pursuing graduate work at Ohio State. Former structural geology student Brian Sherrod has his Ph.D. and is studying
active faulting in the Seattle area with the U.S.G.S. Former research student Caleb Holyoke is finishing his Ph.D. in
petrology at Brown University
STEVE BAEDKE:
is swamped right now with academic, administrative, and faculty duties, but promises to
include a full account of his activities in the next newsletter, scheduled for late next fall. According to an item on the
JMU homepage he will assist in the administration of the IDLS (Interdisciplinary Liberal Studies) program by chairing a
steering committee and serving as Area Director of Math/Science/Technology. The program welcomes his leadership at
this important time in the development of the program.
SCOTT EATON: James Madison University continues to be a great place to teach and conduct research because of
our dedicated faculty, student enthusiasm, and the diverse geology that resides in our backyard. Here’s a quick update
since the summer of 2003.
The U.S. Geological Survey continues to be a good friend of our department. In the past two years they have
provided technical and financial support for six of our seniors conducting research. Five of these students presented their
work at the spring 2004 Southeastern Geological Society of America meeting in Tysons Corner, Virginia. Kristin Felker,
Meredith Benedict, and Melissa Orndorff gave posters on the sedimentology and geomorphic processes of block fields
in the Shenandoah National Park, Virginia. Their work suggests that these landforms are relict features of late Pleistocene
climates. Eric Turner and Erin Peebles presented their work on Meadow Run, a gravel bed stream in the western Blue
Ridge that continues to avulse and undermine alluvial bluffs, creating headaches for landowners downstream of the
destruction. This spring semester Jackie Hess will finish her research on a similar project at Meadow Run, and Bob Sas
will complete his work on recent debris flow activity near Buena Vista. This summer we will have at least two Dukes
conducting surficial and bedrock mapping in the Shenandoah National Park as part of a larger USGS project under the
direction of JMU alumnus Scott Southworth. The Virginia Division of Mineral Resources is also supporting field work
in surficial processes for a senior research student, thanks to the help of alumnus Matt Heller, who was instrumental in
securing the funding. For more details, please visit our website to see what our Dukes are accomplishing in their research.
Last summer Lynn Fichter and I each spent a rotation at the North Carolina-Virginia field camp held in northern
New Mexico. A number of our students attend this camp, which draws together faculty and resources from nearly a dozen
institutions in our region. I enjoyed working with the Dukes in a new geologic environment where there are more rock
outcrops than vegetation, and carbonates are ridge makers! I plan on another two week stint with the field camp this May.
Personally, life has been great for me. This past year I spent a number of weekends visiting northern California
conducting research……..and trying to convince this young lady that she should marry me. Christine and I were married
on March 5 in southern Oregon on the Applegate River. Being that we are both geomorphologists, the wedding location
could not have been better. When you have the potential threat of landslides, floods, fire, earthquake, and volcanic
eruptions lurking in the environment, it makes for some pretty interesting wedding vows! This summer Christine will
return to northern California for two months to finish her work on debris flows in the Klamath River basin. I work cheap,
and plan on serving as a field assistant for a couple of those weeks, as well as starting a comparative study of West Coast
vs. East Coast debris flows.
There is much more to tell, but I’ll save it for another day. I hope to see many of you at Homecoming this fall.
Otherwise, drop us an email or please stop in and pay us a visit when you’re in the area.
LYNN FICHTER: well folks, this is my 60th semester at JMU, end of my 30th year—although I am not the person
with the longest tenure in the department (you can guess who that is :-). I am not a person who looks backward
nostalgically, especially when there are so many interesting things to look forward to, but I suppose 30 years is a
milestone to pause at for a moment. What I reflect on is how absolutely wonderful these 30 years have been, in no small
measure because of all of you. Although I have always loved studying the Earth, it has been the pleasure of seeing other
people enjoying the study of the Earth that has made it so much fun for me. So, a deep bow of appreciation and thanks to
all of you who have worked with me over the years; I have enjoyed you, and the learning, and challenges. I walk on
smiling about the good times, and if there were bad times I can’t remember them.
And, while I am at it . . . You might be aware that over the past two years the faculty in the Department have had
innumerable long, deep, and sometime difficult conversations about the future of the Department. The result has been the
formulation of a Vision of ourselves, who we are and what we are about. It has been a very rewarding journey and I feel
more cohesion, camaraderie, and common purpose among us that at any time in the past. Not that we all agree on
everything, and I would not want that anyway; it is the ferment of ideas and disagreements that stimulate new ways to
think about things. But, we can now have a meeting, talk openly and frankly, disagree, compromise, and still leave the
room laughing together. It is marvelous and I am as thankful and grateful to my colleagues for their friendship, honesty,
and camaraderie as I am to all you students who have passed through here over the years. But, for the record, our work
on a Vision for the department is ongoing. With Kristen St. John and Eric Pyle arriving as new faculty this semester, and
Steve Whitmeyer arriving next fall as a new structural geologist, and a potential new geophysicist coming there will be
lots of new ideas to throw into the mix. The Department is getting stronger, more flexible, and more influential with
every step.
One of the things the Vision discussions did was force me to think hard about what it is that geology is, and what
its role is in a liberal arts university, and in the world. Two summers ago Steve Baedke and I, challenged by Dean
Brakke, talked for hours over many days with a pad in front of us, trying to state clearly and concisely why we believe
that a knowledge of geology and the Earth are so essential for the world—and we would leave each conversation with a
few scribbled words, but not much else. Not that we did not understand ourselves what is so essential about geology, but
it was devilishly difficult to put it into words a non-geologist would understand. In the end it all came together for me in
the “Declaration of Geology”, a manifesto if you will of the importance of a solid understanding for everyone on this
planet that is our home. A copy of the Declaration is available at this web site; read it and feel proud for having studied
geology:
http://csmres.jmu.edu/geollab/Fichter/Fichter/Declaration.html
But, now looking forward; lots of things are evolving. This semester I have taken Geology 230 - Evolution of the
Earth apart and put it back together again. Many things have not changed dramatically, but I have rethought and
rejustified what everything in the course does, sometimes completely rewriting a section. One big change; I finally
decided to remove the philosophy portion. You know, “What is the Truth, and When Do We Know When We Have Found
It?” And, “What is it? What is it!? What IS IT!?” (It is not gone for good, though, since those ideas are transferring to a
new course.) I have replaced them with theoretical and philosophical explorations of what it means for something to be a
complex system, and how we recognize systems as systems, particularly Earth systems, when we see them. The Earth
sciences are becoming more interdiscipliinary, but we are a long way from having an integrated and universally accepted
concept of the system. I am hoping to help clarify that.
There has also been a lot of ferment with Kristen St. John and Eric Pyle arriving as new faculty members to
spearhead teacher preparation. They have brought a host of ideas and opportunities and I am eagerly absorbing what they
are bringing and trying to get on board that train. Because of them I am involved in two teacher workshops this summer
(more systems dispersal), and a workshop on complex systems at the Earth Systems Processes II meeting in Calgary,
Canada in August.
The Department is also working hard to become a leader in the education of Earth Science teachers with a new
BA degree. I am up to my neck in these developments, and am having a blast with a couple of new courses planned. One
course Eric Pyle and I are working on will explore the history of science, the origins and history of geologic thought and
theory, and how to understand and apply complex systems to the study of the Earth. The other course will be about the
geologic evolution of Virginia and the surrounding states.
Retirement? Naw! There are still too many important and fun things to do :-) Now I just have to figure out how
to rotate eleven courses instead of nine.
LANCE KEARNS: had a very busy 2004.
He sponsored the monthly meeting of the combined Roanoke Gem and
Mineral Club, and the Lynchburg Gem and Mineral Club in February. He also held a heavily attended workshop for the
Micromineralogists of the National Capitol Area (MNCA) at JMU in February. In April 2004 he and Cindy attended the
four-day International Rochester Mineralogical Symposium in Rochester, New York. They took 15 geology majors with
them and led the students on a Glacial Geology Field Trip into Canada (Niagara Falls area) and along the Lake Erie
escarpment. In May Lance was the invited guest lecturer for the May meeting of the Richmond Mineralogical Society.
He presented a talk on the Mineralogy and Mineral Chemistry of the Buck Hill Syenite Intrusion in Augusta Co., VA.
During the summer of 2004 Lance was involved with the Chemistry/Physics R.E.U. program working at the Scanning
Electron Microscope Lab. He and Cindy were also involved with the Earth Science Academy held at JMU, which was
sponsored by The Virginia State Department of Education. In September Lance, Cindy and Mike Harris led a three- day
field trip for 11 geology majors to the world’s most unique mineral deposit at Franklin & Sterling Hill, NJ, the FranklinOgdensburg Mineral Show, and the Sterling Hill mine. There they collected rare fluorescent minerals at night with
ultraviolet lights as reported in the JMUniverse, a faculty and staff newspaper. Lance was also invited as guest lecturer on
“An Unusual Na=Ti-Zr-REE mineral assemblage at Buck Hill, Augusta County, Virginia” for the Shenandoah Valley
Gem and Mineral Society meeting in Waynesboro, VA in Oct.
ERIC PYLE:
I am pleased to have the opportunity to join the Geology faculty at JMU, and it is clear that there are
some interesting challenges ahead. For the last ten years I have been on the faculty of the College of Human Resources &
Education at West Virginia University, where I worked with prospective and current teachers of science. It became clear
to me that most teachers, particularly at the middle and secondary levels, have an impoverished education in the earth
sciences, unless that is what they studied these prior to becoming a teacher. My work has been providing professional
development to these teachers, developing and evaluating the instructional materials that they use, and working to support
students with special needs in science classes. At JMU, this work has become even more targeted on the earth sciences,
with the award of a major subcontract as a part of the Virginia Earth Science Collaborative
(http://virginiaearthscience.info), a statewide math-science partnership funded through the Virginia Department of
Education. We have also begun a close examination of the curriculum faced by prospective earth science teachers at
JMU, including both earth science content and science teaching curricula. Through information provided by current
students and alumni, as well as an examination of current Virginia and JMU program expectations, we are currently
drafting a curriculum framework that will allow JMU to provide not only a substantial number of geologists each year, but
to increase the numbers of students that wish to teach Earth Science in middle and high schools. These efforts will serve
a complementary function to work that I have begun with two colleagues at the Queen’s University – Belfast. The
research involves examining the function and design of science visualizations, in both public media as well as school
instructional materials, with a particular emphasis on the earth sciences. As these efforts develop and begin to bear fruit, I
look forward to sharing more with you in the future.
GENE ROBINSON: has acquired a “new hobby”.
He restores old computers to the way they ran when new. He
has 86 computers and 50 monitors dating back to 1977 showing the PC’s development over time. His hobby started out
as a business but the customers starting asking for indefinite service. Since this wasn’t possible he turned his business
into a hobby. He likes to roam second hand stores and has found some real gems for a small price. All the computers
work, some taking longer than others, and are usable. He even has games and programs for his museum pieces. Now that
Gene has retired he is also concentrating on his writing.
W. CULLEN SHERWOOD: as many of you know I lost my wife Phoebe after 46 years of marriage on Nov.
19, 2004. Phoebe led a very active life until the very end, having played tennis that morning. While exiting the courts
near noon, she suffered a massive stroke and died instantly. Son Stuart has been living with me and helping out while he
completes his masters thesis in Architecture, so the two of us have kept the home fires burning. It is difficult to tell you
how much the support of so many of you alumni and members of the Department here has meant to me and the family
during this period. My heartfelt thanks to you all! The added work required to “keep up” both here in the Department
and at home has left little time for one to feel sorry for oneself, so each day the sun seems to shine a little brighter than the
last.
On the research front, my interests in archaeological geology have continued to expand and I felt honored to be
invited to make presentations at Monticello and Montpelier. In addition to working with Dr. Clarence Geier at the
Fredericksburg National Battlefield Park, we have increased our efforts at Montpelier, home of James Madison, where
we are cooperating with Dr. Mathew Reeves, Head of Archaeology. Over the past two years Ian Sullivan ’04, Scott
Ikard ’05 and Ray Decker ’05 completed senior research projects in which soils investigations have been utilized to help
interpret archaeological sites at Mt. Pleasant, home of James Madison’s grandparents, the Brick-Clamp slave quarters, and
at the Montpelier mansion now undergoing major renovations. Additional studies are underway on the composition, grain
morphology, and sources of the sand contained in the mortar used in the various stages of construction of the mansion
itself. The Department received a $500 equipment grant from Montpelier to aid in this work.
In other developments, the new Virginia State Geologist has invited me to serve on the Geologic Mapping
Advisory Committee at the Division of the Mineral Resources. This committee reports directly to the State Geologist,
which gives our Department a pipeline to the Division’s plans and activities and even some input into policy. One of the
Division’s high priority programs will be revising and digitizing a large number of 7.5 min. geologic map quads in the
Shenandoah Valley and Richmond areas. This effort has led to the employment of Harry Hibbits ’03 and Julia Reis ’04
by DMR and promises to create additional opportunities for our majors and graduates in the future.
Over the past year I was pleased that two of my research students secured internships, Scott Ikard at Montpelier
and Cathy Wright at the Valley Conservation Council.
KRISTEN ST. JOHN: is very excited and honored to join the Department of Geology as a geoscience education
specialist and a geologist.
Here is a brief summary of my background and also how I see myself contributing to the fine programs at JMU.
I grew up in a rural area of New Jersey and went to Furman for my BS geology degree. I received my MS and Ph.D.
(1998) in geology (sedimentology) from Ohio State. I relocated to JMU from Appalachian State, where I was an
Associate Professor in the Geology Department. While at Appstate, I became very involved with teacher education. I
advised our geology majors in the teaching track and served as a liaison to the College of Education. I’ve also taught
several earth science workshops for teachers, including field-based oceanography short courses. I plan to continue to
facilitate professional development opportunities in earth science for teachers at JMU. In fact, if all goes well with a VA
DOE grant proposal that Eric Pyle and I are contributing to, several earth science courses for teachers will be taught at
JMU over the next two summers, with the goal of increasing the number of highly qualified earth science teachers in NW
VA. Building stronger undergraduate programs for future earth science teachers at JMU is also a main goal of mine. I
will begin building bridges with the College of Education next semester as I teach two earth science courses in the IDLS
program. Some of the issues I see that will need to be addressed are (1) assuring that future elementary teachers leave
JMU with sufficient and appropriate content background in earth science, and (2) streamlining the secondary education
degree track so that geology majors who want to become teachers can take the professional education courses they need
and gain field experience in public schools while graduating in a reasonable timeframe.
In addition to my geoscience education interests, my main areas of basic research are the interdisciplinary and
related fields of marine sedimentology and paleooceanography. I’ve participated on two international ODP legs (SE
Greenland and the Iberian Margin) as a sedimentologist. Most recently I served as an onshore sedimentologist in
Germany for the IODP Artic Coring Expedition. My participation in the Artic expedition will continue at JMU where I
will be responsible for developing the first long-term (Holocene-late Eocene!) ice-rafted debris record from the Artic
Ocean. I’m pleased to have three JMU students, Kristen Mullen, Brendan Quirk, and Michelle Summa, assisting me
on this project, as well as conducting their senior research projects on the Artic sediments.
On the personal side, I come to Harrisonburg with my husband, Larry, and our two children, Helen and Will.
Larry is an electronics technician and a Chief in the Navy reserves, in addition to being a very supporting husband. Helen
is our charming, independent and bright little girl-and she was a mouse in the Nutcracker ballet during December. Will is
so sweet. He has just learned how to crawl, and has the proudest grin when he pulls himself up to a wobbly stand.
In closing, I hope to meet many of you at future departmental gatherings of alumni and friends.
STAN ULANSKI: had his book The Science of Fly-Fishing published by University of Virginia Press.
Stan’s book
was mentioned in the Roanoke Times by “Book Page” reviewer Bill Mashbum who says he has several books on flyfishing, but none as comprehensive as Stan’s. The book developed from a science and fly-fishing class that Stan teaches.
You can visit the Spring 2004 issue of the Montpelier to see a review of the book on page 15.
Other Faculty News
Greg Springer is doing well as a faculty member at Ohio University. He and Tisha have added another little one to the
family. He says Silas is a pleasant baby and that Cass and Sara are avid readers and best friends. They are living on a
farm and Tisha is a busy stay at home Mom taking care of the three kids. Gregs beginning to attract more of our students
for graduate school every year. He reports Tim Clinton ‘03 and Frank Cocina ’04 are doing very well in their programs
at Ohio U.
Mark Reinhold is now in the Science Dept at Northern Essex Community College in Haverhill, MA. He and Karen
have added another member to their family, a son born this spring, and are living in Manchester, NH.
Mark Reinhold, Roddy Amenta and Scott Eaton were co-researchers with a total of seven JMU students on five subjects
at the Geological Society of America joint meeting of the Northeastern and Southeastern sections at Tysons Corner, VA
on March 25-27. The students’ posters are listed with the Student Research below.
We are proud to announce the
awards and
rships
for 2003-04
as follows:
2003-04
&schola//
2004-05
Honor
Recipients
Geology Department Award
Philip R. Cosminski Award
Wilbur R. Harnsberger Field Scholarship
Catherine King-Frazier Scholarship
Will Frangos Award
W. A. Tarr Award
2003-04
2004-05
Kristin Felker
Christine Meyer
Jacquelyn Hess
Kimberly Stark
Anna Mendez Keiter
Amy Jensen & Jackie Hess
Michelle Summa
Lisa DeGrazia
Mark Bascopé & Scott Ikard
Amy Jensen
2004 & 2005 Graduates
We are proud to announce the names of our 2004 & 2005 Departmental Graduates. BEST OF LUCK TO ALL!
2004
Meredith Benedict
Anna Ewing
Jason Keener
Lawrence Moller
Erin Raiter
Ian Sullivan
Joanie Clark
Kristin Felker
James Mackie
Steven Mondziel
Julia Reis
Eric Turner
Frank Cocina
Jacob Hodges
Christine Meyer
Melissa Orndorff
Emilie Scheels
Erin Webber
Ben Draper
Gary Horton
Andrew McNown
Erin Peebles
Krista Stevens
2005
Mark Bascopé
Ray Decker
Scott Ikard
Audrey Loth
Cathy Wright
Ernest “Bubba” Beasley
Ashley Flanders
Amy Jensen
Isiah Smith
Jonathan Burkett
Jackie Hess
Matthew Keener
Katie Stone
Sarah Burton
Tazzie Howard
Anna Keiter
Langston Turner
Present Majors
David Arnette
Portsmouth, VA
Sara Bannister
Port Republic, VA
Ernest Beasley
Atlanta, GA
Joseph Bell
McGaheysville, VA
Daniel Boesner
Boonton Township, NJ
Colleen Buzby
Hampton, VA
Jennifer Carter
Jeffersonton, VA
Cheryn Clark
Newark, DE
Matthew Crawford
Richmond, VA
Lisa DeGrazia
Gainesville, VA
Natalia Denda
Springfield, VA
Jesse Drummond
Charlottesville, VA
Daniel Dunlap
Herndon, VA
Jessica Errico
Vienna, VA
Ashley Flanders
pringfield, VA
Grace Hill
Williamsburg, VA
Chris Holland
Alexandria, VA
Rahni Jenkins
Bealeton, VA
Wade Johnston
Fairfax Station, VA
Joshua Kirby
Wytheville, VA
Lauren LaCroix
Fairfax, VA
Chris Langgood
Richmond, VA
Callyn Lepine
Springfield, VA
Christina Lubert
Harrisonburg, VA
John Malutinok
Lexington, MA
Samantha Morris
Harrisonburg, VA
Kristen Mullen
Fairfax, VA
Christopher Myers
Bridgton, NJ
Scott Nash
Montross, VA
Anne Nere
Fredericksburg, VA
Timothy O’Brien
Lovettsville, VA
Sean Porse
Lancaster, PA
Rachel Posner
Glen Allen, VA
Marie Pulley
Virginia Beach, VA
Brendan Quirk
Gordonsville, VA
Sarah Roberts
Yorktown, VA
Kaitlyn Ruvel
Jericho, NY
Robert Sas
Falls Church, VA
Jason Schulze
Montross, VA
Jennifer Shelburne
Norfolk, VA
Owen Shufeldt
Woodstock, VA
Tanner Simensen
Harrisonburg, VA
Kimberly Stark
Haymarket, VA
David Stiefel
Stafford, VA
Michelle Summa
Alexandria, VA
Katelyn Vieten
Ashburn, VA
Joshua Watson
Jonesville, VA
Luke Watson
Glen Allen, VA
John Weigel
Hopewell, VA
Paxton Wertz
Roanoke, VA
Jessica Yakob
Kennett Square, PA
Michael Yasek
Greenwich, CT
2004 Student Research Presentations
Please visit our website, http://www.jmu.edu/geology, to view the abstracts.
Joan Clark and L. Scott Eaton
Jason Keener and William
– ASSESSING THE
DEVELOPMENT OF TOWER
KARST IN HA LONG BAY,
VIET NAM
Frank Cocina and L. E.
Kearns, T. Tucker, E. Raiter and
A. St. John – THE
MINERALIZING
ENVIRONMENT OF THE
BUCK HILL SYENITE,
AUGUSTA COUNTY,
VIRGINIA
Benjamin Draper and Lynn
Fichter – PARASEQUENCES
OF DIVERGENT
CONTINENTAL MARGINS
VERSUS THOSE FOUND ON
CONTINENTAL CRATONS
Jacob Hodges and William
Frangos – RESISTIVITY AND
IP SURVEY OF MINES
SURROUNDING THE
CHANCELLORSVILLE
BATTLEFIELD IRON
FURNACE
Gary Horton and William
Frangos – ELECTRICAL
PROPERTIES OF LEACH
ORE, CRIPPLE CREEK MINE,
COLORADO
Frangos – MEASURING THE
GEOMETRY OF CURRENT
FROM A WIRE USED AS A
LINE SOURCE
TRANSMITTER
Jamie Mackie and William
Frangos – MAGNETIC
SURVEY OF CATHERINE’S
FURNACE SLAG PILE
CHANCELLORSVILLE, VA
Lawrence Moller and
William Frangos – EFFECTS
OF PRECIPITATION IN THE
NEAR SURFACE
RESISTIVITY OF SOIL
Curt Smith and Stanley
Ulanski – AN ANALYSIS OF
THE USEFULNESS AND
EFFECTIVENESS OF
MAPPING THE AVERAGE
HIGH TIDE LINE OF A
BARRIER ISLAND FOR
LONG TERM RESEARCH BY
WALKING AND USING GPS
AND GIS TECHNIQUES ON
HOG ISLAND, VIRGINIA
CREATION OF A NEW
MICRO-MINERAL SECTION
FOR THE JAMES MADISON
UNIVERSITY’S MINERAL
MUSEUM WEBSITE
Ian Sullivan and W. C.
Sherwood – AN
INVESTIGATION OF
SELECTED DAVIDSON SOIL
PROFILES AT THE MOUNT
PLEASANT SITE AT
MONTPELIER AS
INDICATORS OF LAND USE
DURING THE COLONIAL
PERIOD
Erin Webber and Stanley
Ulanski – VIRGINIA
PRECIPITATION AND ITS
REGIONS: EMPHASIS ON
THE SHENANDOAH
VALLEY
Emilie Scheels Stup and
Lance Kearns and Steve Baedke
– PHOTOGRAPHIC
2004 Poster Session
Meredith Benedict, Kristin
Felker and L. Scott Eaton –
SEDIMENTOLOGY AND
GEOMORPHOLOGY OF
BLACKROCK BLOCK
STREAM, SHENANDOAH
NATIONAL PARK, VIRGINIA
Anna Ewing and R. V.
Amenta – MEASURED
VERSUS PREDICTED
CRYSTAL SIZE
DISTRIBUTION IN
COMPUTER SIMULATED
IGNEOUS TEXTURES WITH
RANDOMLY ORIENTED
CRYSTALS
Christine Meyer and Mark
Reinhold – THE
CLASSIFICATION OF
DINOSAUR EGGS BASED
ON LITHOLOGICAL AND
SHELL STRUCTURE
ANALYSIS
Melissa Orndorff and L Scott
Eaton – AN INVENTORY
AND GEOMORPHIC
PROCESSES OF BLOCK
STREAMS OF
PAINE RUN, SHENANDOAH
NATIONAL
PARK, VIRGINIA
Erin Peebles and L. Scott
Eaton – THE PAST, PRESENT,
AND FUTURE LOCATIONS
OF THE STREAM OF
MEADOW RUN, BLUE
RIDGE MOUNTAINS,
VIRGINIA
Krista Stevens and R.V.
Amenta – MEASURED
VERSUS PREDICTED
CRYSTAL SIZE
DISTRIBUTION IN
COMPUTER SIMULATED
IGNEOUS TEXTURES WITH
PREFERRED
ORIENTATIONS OF
CRYSTALS
Eric Turner and L. Scott
Eaton – REACTIVATION OF
SLOPE FAILURES ALONG
MEADOW RUN,
SHENANDOAH VALLEY,
VIRGINIA
2005 Student Presentations
Raymond Decker and Cullen
Sherwood-COMPOSITION AND
GRAIN MORPHOLOGY OF SAND
FRACTION IN SOILS
UNDERLYING MONTPELIER
Jackie Hess and Scott EatonPALEOFLOOD DISCHARGES AND
ORIGINS OF SURFICIAL
DEPOSITS OF MEADOW RUN,
AUGUSTA COUNTY, VA
Matt Keener and Steve BaedkeSHALLOW GROUNDWATER
RECONSTRUCTION OF A
SECTION OF LAKE HURON’S
SHORELINE NEAR ALCONA
MICHIGAN AND IMPLICATIONS
FOR PALEO-GROUND
CONDITIONS
FROM DEBIS FLOWS IN
ROCKBRIDGE COUNTY, VA
Mark Bascopé, Amy Jensen,
Michelle Summa and Roddy
Amenta-FORWARD AND INVERSE
MODELING OF
CRYSTALLIZATION TO OBTAIN
KINETIC INFORMATION FROM
IGNEOUS ROCKS
Tazzie Howard and Eric PyleMODELING AN IDEAL
MAGNETOSPHERE IN MATLAB
ENVIRONMENTS THROUGH
STRATIGRAPHIC
PARASEQUENCES IN THE
DEVONIAN CATSKILL CLASTIC
WEDGE OF EASTERN WEST
VIRGINIA
Cathy Wright and Cullen
Sherwood-ADDRESSING
ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES IN
THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY-AN
INTERNSHIP WITH THE VALLEY
CONSERVATION COUNCIL
Audrey Loth and Lynn FichterScott Ikard and Cullen SherwoodSTUDY OF TRUNCATED SOIL
PROFILES AS INDICATORS OF
ANTHROPOGENIC LANDSCAPE
ALTERATIONS AT MONTPELIER
PALEOBIOLOGY AND
PALEOECOLOGY OF THE
PENNSYNVANIAN SYSTEM OF
THE MID-ATLANTIC STATES
Katherine Stone, Ernest Beasley
Anna Mendez Keiter and Will
Jonathan Burkett and Lynn
Frangos and Lynn Fichter-GAMMARAY ANALYSIS OF DEVONIAN
CATSKILL CLASTIC WEDGE IN
EASTERN WEST VIRGINIA
Fichter-A
TECTONIC/STRUCTURAL CROSS
SECTION THROUGH CENTRAL
VIRGINIA
Sarah Burton and Lance Kearns-A
Isiah Smith and Will Frangos and
CRYSTALLOGRAPHIC AND
CHEMICAL STUDY OF SPINEL
GROUP MINERALS FROM THE
JAMES MADISON UNIVERSITY
MINERAL MUSEUM
and Steve Baedke-ANALYSIS OF
VALLEY CARBONATE SPRING
WATER CHEMISTRIES IN
RELATIONS TO COLD WATER
TRAVERTINE DEPOSITION
Steve Baedke-250MHZ AND
800MHZ GROUND PENETRATING
RADAR SURVEYS FOR LOVER
HILL, VIRGINIA
Steve Mondziel and Will Frangos
Bob Sas and Scott Eaton-GEOLOGIC
CONTROLS OF BASIN DENUDATION
and Lynn Fichter-TRACING
PALEODEPOSITIONAL
ALUMNI UPDATE
1970’s
Marvin Gwin ’74 is the owner of
GwnMar Geology and Soil
Services located in Stuarts Draft,
VA.
education for Suffolk Public
Schools. He had previously served
Kevin Alston ’75 is now
coordinator of middle school
as principal of Forest Glen Middle
School.
Pamela Kempton ’77 has recently
changed jobs. She is now Science
& Innovation Manager at the
Natural Environmental Research
Council, Head of Terrestrial &
Freshwater Sciences. She is
responsible for research in
hydrology, hydrogeology, ecology,
biodiversity, environment and
health, environmental genomics
and proteomics, sustainable water
management, etc. She says this is
a big change from her personal
research area of igneous petrology.
Janet Snyder Douglas ’78 a
conservation scientist with the
Smithsonian Institution,
contributed a chapter to the book
Scientific Research in the Field of
Asian Art, Proceedings of the First
Forbes Symposium at the Freer
Gallery of Art. Her chapter is
titled “Exploring issues of
geological source for jade worked
by ancient Chinese cultures with
the aid of x-ray fluorescence
spectroscopy.”
John Spaid ’78 and his wife Katy
celebrated their 25th wedding
anniversary in 2003. Their son
John, Jr. graduated from Coppell
HS and went to St. Paul, MN to
train for one year of ministry work
with the Catholic Church. Matt is
now 15 and a sophomore at
Coppell HS and learning to drive a
car (“he already knows how to
drive us crazy”). John has been at
Petro-Hunt for 5 ½ years and has
just finished shooting and
interpreting a 3D survey on
Spindletop Dome, where the first
oil in Texas was found in 1901.
They have plans to drill several
wells in the hopes of establishing
new production in this old giant
field.
Donald Kirkland ’79 is a science
teacher with the Marion School
District in Marion SC. He says
that following 14 years of teaching
8th grade Earth Science at Johnakin
Middle School in Marion he
requested and was granted a
transfer to Marion HS. He is now
teaching 3 classes of Physical
Science (9th graders), 1 class of
Tech Prep Biology 1 (10th graders),
and 1 class of Tech Prep Biology 2
(11th and 12th graders). He is
finding it difficult to manage 3
“preps”, but is thoroughly enjoying
the switch to Marion HS.
Edwin “Randy” McFarland ’81
continues his work with USGS on
the impact crater at the mouth of
the Chesapeake Bay. He wrote a
letter to the Montpelier that was
printed in the Fall 2003 issue. You
can access this by going to the
Montpelier homepage, Fall ’03
issue and reading the letter on page
4.
Lenny Rexrode ’79 is the
president/owner of Aquifer
Drilling & Testing, Inc. (ADT).
He says his company is 15 years
old now with 85 employees in
NYC, Albany, Hartford CT and
Tampa FL. They specialize in
environmental, geotechnical and
geothermal drilling. Most of their
work is for geologists conducting
geotechnical investigations.
Paula Brentlinger Nystrom ’81
says that not much has changed in
her life. Her oldest child Chris is
in 6th grade and her daughter
Heather is in 2nd. When we heard
from her last she and her husband
were waiting for orders telling
where the Coast Guard would send
them next. She has become a dog
walker in her neighborhood, which
she loves.
Jeff Rinker ’79 said to tell all his
fellow alumni that he still works at
Coors where he is facing some
challenging opportunities. He is
still living in, and loving doing so,
the Shenandoah Valley.
Dineen Lenz Fender ’82 is the
Virginia representative on a project
put on by NASA and a consortium
called NSBRI. This stands for
National Space Biomedical
Research Institute. They are
studying the effects of
microgravity on the human body.
Very fascinating subject! The
project started with two weeks of
workshops last summer in
Houston, a follow up this past
November, and finally a
presentation at the NSTA
conference in Atlanta this spring.
She said it was quite an experience
being the Virginia representative
and she will have her completed
final project for her fellowship by
the middle of May. She has had
fun and met people from all over
the country. More than 70 people
from the USA and Puerto Rico
have been involved and she feels
privileged to be one of them. The
program is in need of funds and
although she and her fellow
representatives did a super sales
talk in November she is not sure if
they will get them, but she says the
science going on is fantastic and so
much will be learned.
Scott Southworth ’79 is a
geologist with the U.S.G.S. He
was quoted in the May 9th issue of
the Washington Post Style section
in an article “The River View?
Frequently Gorges.” The article is
about the Potomac Gorge.
1980’s
Wade Pence ’80 continues in his
position with VDOT in the Salem
District as an Engineering
Geologist.
Andrew Gardner ’81 and fellow
classmates Robert Stetekluh, Jack
Graf, Mike High, Kevin O’Hare,
Tom Robinson, Tom Taschler, and
James White, of the former band
Debris which they formed in
Spotswood Hall in 1979,
performed last May for a 25 year
reunion concert in Vienna.
Shereen Sullivan Hughes ’83 is a
homemaker, retired hydrogeologist
and semi-retired landscape
designer. She and her husband
Terry have 2 boys ages 11 and 5.
With both boys in school now she
is looking forward to exploring all
her interests that have been
sidelined for the past several years.
They moved to Williamsburg, VA,
2 years ago and love it! “Life is
good”.
Craig Moore ’83 was mentioned
in the summer ’03 edition of “The
Montpelier”. It referred to his
restaurant, Calhoun’s, of the 80’s
era and how he closed that
restaurant to open another, Joshua
Wilton House. Calhoun’s is once
again open on Court Square. The
Food Network filmed a segment
on Bed and Breakfast Inns in the
Valley area and Joshua Wilton
House was one of the selections.
The segment is called “FoodNation with Bobby Flay” and
focused on inns of Virginia.
Joshua Wilton is included as 1 of 3
in a show that also features the
Jordan Hollow Farm and the
Jefferson Hotel. According to an
article featured in the Daily News
Record, Craig is delighted the inn
was chosen by Food Network
producers but feels the credit goes
to the staff in attracting the Food
Network’s attention. He says that
being chosen as one of the inns in
Virginia is indicative of the quality
of the staff at Joshua Wilton
House. Although Craig has now
sold the Joshua Wilton House to a
trio of current employees (two of
whom are JMU graduates) there is
no plan to change anything. Craig
and his wife Roberta, who live on
a farm in Singers Glen, VA, own
and operate Valley View
Hospitality-a corporate meeting
and retreat center about 15 minutes
north of Harrisonburg. He has also
started a new information-security
company called Servare. The
name is a Latin verb which means
“save, keep, and protect” which
describes his new business.
Servare will provide remote
backup and recovery services for
home and business computers. His
business is small but he is working
on a deal with a national firm with
1,000 offices in the Mid-Atlantic
region. He says he is a fiveperson company that is highly
automated and will never have a
large workforce. The company
makes no cold calls, relying on
marketing its services through
mailers, a Web site and referrals
throughout the Winchester,
Roanoke and Charlottesville areas.
He says, “People are beginning to
understand the importance of
protecting the information on their
computers. This is an insurance
policy and gives peace of mind.”
Gil Dunn ’85 is living in Boulder,
CO.
Keith Ryan ’85 says that his
daughter Casey is in 4th grade and
in her last year of elementary
school. She is a busy young lady
involved in cheerleading, piano
and Girl Scouts. She is in braces
now and enjoys doing the girl
things like getting her hair and
nails done with her Mom. His son
Liam is in 1st grade and playing
soccer and taking piano lessons.
His artistic bent has progressed
from animals to spacemen, Power
Rangers and Bionicles. His wife
Julie had a busy year with her “low
stress” position in marketing
research morphing into an account
management position in
competitive intelligence, which has
required her to travel to the West
Coast three times this past year.
When not traveling and working
she coaches cheerleading and
works on the church education
ministry team. Keith says he has
been with M & E for 12 years and
continues to work on
environmental projects in the NY
metro area. He is in his second
year with the church band and
serves as commissioner with the
local utility authority. He hasn’t
done much technical climbing in
2003 but planned a trip to Mt.
Washington in Jan. He and Julie
took a week to climb, hike and
play geology above 10,000 feet in
the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of
northern New Mexico. He
mentions that the family hiked and
skated in the Adirondacks during
the Christmas-New Year holiday
season.
Bob Lamon ’85 is a Cartographer
with the National Imagery &
Mapping Agency in Bethesda,
MD. He and his family just
returned from a 4-year post in
Germany. He is now back to the
traffic of good old NOVA. He and
his wife have 3 children ages 13,
10 and 5. “What a work load!”
He says that 20 years go by quicksometimes.
Maureen Tabasko Ruhlman ‘86
married and moved to her
husband’s native Kansas. They
have a 6 year old daughter named
Elise. She says she misses VA and
would like to be back. She is
working for the Kansas Dept of
Health & Environment, Bureau of
Environmental Remediation,
Voluntary Cleanup & Property
Redevelopment.
Scott Myers ’83 is District Sales
Manager for Industrial Scientific
Corp. He says he has no “earth
shattering” news at this time.
Ellen Andrievich Quirk ’83 says
she is a stay-at-home Mom.
James Wulff ’83 has been
working for the same
environmental firm, Tetra Tech Inc
(TtEMI) for most of the last 15
years. They provide a full range of
environmental services on national
and local contracts and are actively
pushing into other areas as well
(homeland security, energy
management).
Brian Sherrod ’86 a research
geologist with the USGS’s
department of Earth and Space
Sciences was featured in the
Seattle Times last fall for his work
and research of the Seattle Fault
zone. He and other researchers
have studied 10 trenches along the
Seattle Fault zone and found
evidence of four earthquake events
from 10,000 years ago to about
1,000 years ago. Researchers hope
their work will lead to a better
understanding of the Seattle
Fault’s workings and to improve
building codes and other measures
to protect fault-zone residents and
infrastructures.
Jon Pruess ’88 is a Science
Teacher with the Loudoun County
Public Schools. After teaching
Physics for 2 years at UCSDPruess School in San Diego, he
decided to move back to VA to be
near his family. It was a fortuitous
move as his father died in March
of 2003. In 2001 he adopted a
school in southern Philippines, he
gathered a series of texts (600) and
delivered them to the school in the
winter of 2002. He met a nice
teacher there, they got married, she
moved to the USA and now works
at his school.
Melanie Schales Roberti ’89 and
Steven ’89 bought an old lakefront
home in Keystone Heights, FL.
Steven is a water resource engineer
with CH2M Hill and Melanie is a
stay at home Mom to Maria, 10,
Sam, 7, and Lily, 4.
1990’s
Melanie Richards Copeland ’90
and her husband Ron are included
in an article in the summer 2003
issue of the Montpelier on
Madison’s Watering Holes in “the
burg”. Melanie and her husband
have been one of JMU’s alumni
owners of The Little Grill on North
Main Street in Harrisonburg. It
has been around for about 70 years
but not really discovered until the
’80 by students. There were
poetry readings, social outreach,
velvet Bob Dylan and veggie
dishes. It was alumni owned since
1985 but is now an employee
owned cooperative.
Christie Wright ’90 says she is a
stay-at-home Mom.
Matt Heller ’92 has been hired to
head the Geologic Mapping
Section of the Virginia Division of
Mineral Resources. This position
is second in importance to the
State Geologist.
Terri Horton ’92 says that work is
going very well for her, almost too
well, as very busy. She started her
own consulting business six years
ago and finds it hard to believe it
has been that long, but has no
regrets. She says that most of her
work comes from networking
referrals so she has not had to
market except to make sure she
gets the referred jobs. She says
that Arizona has made some
changes in legislation due to take
effect in 2006 and 2011, which
might make things tight. She has
started back to school to get her
teacher certificate for secondary
science in case the legislation dries
up the consulting jobs.
Amy Waddell Mathie ’92 is with
the USGS-Western Geographic
Science Center in California.
Roger Decker ’93 moved to
Florida. He says that the geology
in Sarasota Florida is really
boring-all sand!!!!! He was
surprised to learn the average soil
PH of undisturbed natural soil
ranges, between 4 to 5.5; really
low. He says that actually there
are some neat limestone
formations toward the interior and
a lot of phosphate mines in the
central part of the state. He is now
part owner of a Re/Max real estate
firm. He figured that if he couldn’t
make money studying the earth,
he’d sell it (HA!). News Flash!
Roger has recently moved back to
Virginia, just ahead of the
hurricanes!
Aaron Sherwood ’93 is working
for the VA Dept of Health in the
Staunton office along with JMU
geology grads, Becky Wood and
Bobby Marshall. Sons Jack 4 and
Nate 1 keep him hopping in his off
hours.
Jennifer Ayers ’94 was invited to
speak at the Geology Department’s
40th anniversary celebration. She is
now a stratigrapher on the
Stratigraphy & Geostatistics Team
with ChevronTexaco based in San
Ramon, CA. The team is part of
the ChevronTexaco Exploration
and Production Technology
Company.
Jennifer Eigenbrode ’94
completed her Ph.D. at Penn State
University. She is continuing her
studies of Precambrian microbial
ecology & organic geochemistry.
She is also participating in a few
collaborative projects focused on
understanding carbon cycling in
the mantle, testing life-detection
techniques for the next two NASA
Mars Landers, & differentiating
carbon signatures of modern life,
ancient life, & non-biological
processes in sedimentary &
crystalline rocks. She is enjoying
her post-doc at the Carnegie
Institute in Washington. The
people & research are great.
Science is fun!
Kathy Kieffer Forbes ’95 says
that she has lived in several states
since graduation but is now back in
the area. She remarried in August
of 2003.
Jennifer Kucinskis Marts ’95 is a
hydrogeologist with the New
Hampshire Dept of Environmental
Services. She is living in NH and
married to geologist, Jeff Marts,
June 21, 2003. She says all is
great up in the Granite State!
Pete Nichols ’95 is a distributor of
Environmentally Friendly Flooring
Materials. He says that after 5
years of working in the
Environmentally-Friendly
Building Industry he started his
own company Sustainable
Flooring
(www.sustainableflooring.com) in
2003. Things are progressing well
and he is in the final stages of coauthoring a book on “Green
Building/Remodeling” with one of
the nation’s most prominent
“Green” consultants. He got
married about 1½ years ago and
enjoys the mountain living in the
foothills of Boulder, CO.
James Baldini ’96 says that he
and his wife Lisa Miller Baldini
’95 are both doing well and very
busy. Lisa is one year into her
Ph.D. project involving tracing the
North Atlantic Oscillation back
through time using stable isotopes
within stalagmites. She’s enjoying
it but the shear amount of literature
research involved in such a broad
topic is mind-boggling. James is
working on a postdoc researching
microbiological involvement in
creating geochemical cyclicities in
stalagmites, and the learning curve
is quite steep since he has to
essentially teach himself
microbiology. He says that Dublin
is still a good place to be, though
the introduction of the Euro has
literally doubled the price of
everything, including Guinness,
which is more expensive in Dublin
than in Geneva!
Mike Coffey ’96 is Head of the
Fredericksburg office of ECS
Limited.
Sandra Talarovich Mueller ’96
and Frank “Aric” ’97 are the
proud parents of a daughter Afton
Elizabeth born July 2, 2003. They
live in Richmond, VA.
Brian Rusk ’96 has co-authored
an article called “Compositions of
magmatic volatiles trapped in fluid
inclusions in the Butte, Montana
porphyry copper deposit”.
Mike Censurato ’97 is a Senior
Consultant with Enterprism
Solutions. He is working with a
group doing software design
instead of just installing software.
He says design is much more fun.
Brent Bauman ’98 is ready to
write and defend for his Master’s
degree. He has moved to PA and
is now working at Marshall Miller
& Assoc in Camp Hill, Harrisburg,
PA. He says his email address has
not changed.
Karen Doran ’98 received her
Master’s degree and is with the
DEQ in South Carolina.
David Fitt ’98 is a Senior
Hydrogeologist with the Valley
Regional Office of the Virginia
DEQ in Harrisonburg.
Brent Johnson ’98 is a Senior
Environmental Geologist with
Townes Site Engineering.
Chris Lyles ’98 has been stationed
in Iraq. He says his job has been
to locate the weapons that Iraq
supposedly has. According to him
the job has been tedious and
frustrating. He has gotten to work
with various detection equipment
including mass spectrometry and
laser devices. He credits Dr.
Kearns and Dr. Amenta’s classes
for preparing him for this. He says
that Dr. Kearns introduced him to
scientific equipment. He reads
Spectral Peaks daily and that
although it is not identical to
XRAY Defraction it is similar in
theory. Dr. Amenta’s Materials
Science class sparked an interest
that led to an advanced lab
equipment course that has been
very beneficial. He did his senior
research project with Dr. Amenta
in Computer Modeling and
discovered that although it is great
to know equipment, it is even
better to know the theory behind it.
Since equipment changes
constantly, knowing the theory
insures that you know which
results to trust.
Eric Meyn ’98 is an
Environmental Geologist/Project
Manager at American
Environmental Assessment Corp
(AEAC). He just finished up his
5th year with AEAC and currently
conducts QMRS, and oversees
tank removal, MW installations,
drywell and cesspool remediation,
and subsurface investigations by
Geoprobe. Additionally he
performs the occasional Phase I
ESA, and coordinates all Phase II
work, and develops Phase III
strategies. He runs these projects
from soup to nuts (i.e. client
contact, through sampling, report
generation, and follow-up with
regulatory agency). “And I’m
loving it!”
Mark Tinsley ’98 says that he has
just returned from an overseas tour
in support of the war on terrorism.
He and his family are currently
living in Lynchburg, VA.
Jay Dickerson ’99 taught high
school Earth Science for several
years after graduating. Since 2003
he has been attending Virginia
Tech for graduate work and has
just found out he can bypass the
M.S. and is now officially a Ph.D.
student, which he says should
speed up his time in Blacksburg.
He is in the Dept of Crop & Soils
Environmental Sciences (CSES)
but is actually studying
environmental microbiology. He
works in a newer field of
microbiology called source
tracking (Bruce Wiggins at JMU
does the same thing and works
closely with Dr. Hagedorn, Jay’s
advisor). Jay says he analyzes
enteric bacteria found in natural
waters to determine their animal
origins (cause of pollution). He
has been working all summer with
the Virginia Health Dept analyzing
samples of water from Virginia’s
beaches, particularly those that
have been closed due to high
bacterial levels. He also tells us
that he got married in April 2003
to a UVA History grad. She is
attending Tech working on her
Masters in Communication. He is
trying to finish his degree the same
time as she does. They bought a
small house in Montgomery
County and are trying to survive
on their graduate stipends.
Kelly Durst ’99 recently received
her Master’s degree.
Jennifer Nottonson ’99 is the
Donor Development Manager at
the Brooklyn Children’s Museum
in Brooklyn, NY. She says that
she has only been in this position a
short time. She fell into
fundraising after college and has
been in the field for about 4 years
now. This is her second sciencerelated fundraising job. She has
also worked at Columbia
Nanotechnology Center, Brooklyn
Center for Urban Environment,
and the American Museum of
Natural History. She says that
although she has not stayed
officially in the hard science she
has stayed very close to it.
Josh Sneideman ’99 is a math
teacher in Boston.
Mike Willinger ’99 is now a
Project Geologist with Resource
International, Ltd in Ashland, VA.
2000’s
Michele Butcynski ’00 is
currently living in SC in a little
town called Tega Cay and is
working at the Crestdale Middle
School in Matthews, NC. She is
teaching 8th grade earth science
and loves it. She says the kids are
fun and make her laugh every day.
She is having a lot of fun trying to
turn them into little geologists. In
order to teach she is taking
education classes online and
during the summer. Only 4 more
to go in order to be fully licensed.
Not only is she getting paid but is
also reimbursed for the education
classes she is taking.
Jason Ericson ’00 hasearned his
MS degree in Hydrology with
Charlie Vorosmarty at the
University of New Hampshire. He
studied the global impact of
sediment retention by reservoirs on
sediment flux to coastal areas. He
presented a poster in November
2003 at the Global Water System
Project conference in Portsmouth
NH. He says the topic was a bit of
a departure for him but his has
enjoyed the work and has certainly
learned interesting skills. He does
miss fieldwork though. He says
that New Hampshire is a great
state and he especially loves skiing
but his friends and family are
drawing him back south. He is
also eager to get back into the
working world (although he says
he never thought he would say
that). During the Fall ’03 semester
he was a TA for the
geomorphology course again and
took the class to Cape Cod for a
coastal trip. He’s not sure that
UNH is the place for an undergrad
but it suits masters’ students well.
He highly recommends the UNH
program to any interested JMU
students as there is a wealth of
varied research going on there.
Matt Neuner ’00 has decided to
attend grad school at the
University of British Columbia in
Vancouver. He will be studying
hydrogeology and will get
involved in a project dealing with
hydrogeology associated with
waste rock piles at a large diamond
mine in Northwest Territories,
Canada. He says he is excited to
get back into the classroom again
and to learn what has been done,
explore the unknowns, and test the
ideas in the real world.
Jon Olin ’00 is married and living
in North Carolina. He is currently
taking classes toward an MBA at
UNC-Charlotte.
Todd Waldrop ’00 received his
Master’s degree in environmental
engineering from Northwestern
University. He is an engineer in
Reston.
Stephanie Brightwell ’01 finished
her M.S. in geology at Northern
Arizona University in July and
started a Ph.D. program in
Geology at the University of
Kentucky (Lexington) in the fall.
She finished up her work with the
south polar cap on mars to start a
new exciting geologic life in
isotope and trace element
geochemistry in Kentucky. She is
very excited about that. On the
home front, or as she puts it “the
zoo”, all critters are well. Kitty,
Asia, has her own pet, a little
Siberian dwarf hamster called
Ham. Stephanie says Asia watches
Ham like TV. Her ferrets (Sierra
and Mocha) are doing well as is
her newest pet, Molly, a cocker
spaniel mutt. She is looking
forward to moving back east but
will miss the temperate Flagstaff
and wonderful dry west.
Jason Carty ’01 got married in
June 2002 and resides in
Harrisonburg.
Amy Edwards ’01 is now a bona
fide Water Laboratory Analyst in
Georgia. She even has a state
license and a certificate to put on
her wall. She says “It aint bragg’n
if it’s true”! She says the early
spring weather was too cold to do
much outside. She has joined the
Rome Gem and Mineral Society.
She says they are the most serious
rockhounds she has ever
encountered. Although they go on
plenty of field trips, she hasn’t
been on one yet. She says they
don’t take a field trip for a few
hours, they go for weeks at a time
and to places like Arizona or
Canada, stopping along the way to
look for outcrops they had heard
about. They took a fifteen-hour
trip to Florida to dig up oyster
shells that had some kind of crystal
growing in them. She vacationed
in Arizona last summer and visited
the Kartchner Caverns, Colossal
Cave, hiked in the Chiricahua, saw
dirt devils and got sunburned.
Before leaving Arizona she visited
the Desert Museum in Tucson.
Amy has just informed us that she
has been accepted to graduate
school at Western Kentucky
University. She has registered for
two GIS classes and a graduate
research class. She hopes to do her
thesis on karst hydrology. She
says it is exciting and nerveracking because she’ll be moving
for the billionth time and she needs
to find a job in Bowling Green.
She is 20 minutes from Mammoth
Cave National Park and not too far
from Tennessee where she’s done
most of her caving lately. Bonus,
Stephanie Brightwell is only 3
hours away in Lexington!
Steve Flora ’01 is looking for a
job in Kentucky as a consultant in
the hydro/geology field. He
defended his theses at the
University of Northern Arizona in
hydrogeology during the spring
semester after which he made the
final edits to print out. He
graduated at the end of the spring
session.
Becky Rodgers ’01 is a ’04
graduate student at Rutgers State
University in New Jersey. She
successfully defended her thesis in
mid April, submitted her written
thesis to the grad school in late
April and graduated the first of
May. She says that graduate
school went so fast! She has a job
working for the aggregate/asphalt
company where she interned in the
summer. She is the Assistant
Manager of Quality Control in NJ.
She says she is in a position with a
great opportunity for growth and
advancement and even better will
be using her degrees every day.
Nikki West ’01 is living and
working in the DC area. She is in
a band called “The Carlsonics”
who traveled to New York City in
the fall of ’03 to participate in
CMJ Music Marathon, a festival
that showcases nearly 1,000 bands,
as well as play at some smaller
venues. The band toured during
the spring of ’04 and has produced
a disc of their music. The
Washington Post Style section did
a feature article on the band last
Oct. telling about the festival and
talking with the members.
Rodney Whittaker ’01 and his
wife Stephanie are the proud
parents of a little girl named
Sydney Marie born the middle of
May ‘04.
Kevin Hagie ’02 is now living in
Charlottesville and working as an
Exploration Geophysicist with
NEAVA Geophysics, Inc. After
graduation he moved to Portland,
OR in search of new experiences
filled with learning and adventure.
His luck at finding a job within the
Geology field didn’t work out and
after working a number of odd jobs
to make ends meet and sending out
numerous resumes he answered a
random email asking if he was still
looking for work. Turned out the
job was in Charlottesville, less
than an hour from Harrisonburg.
He interviewed with NEAVA
Geophysics while he was in
Harrisonburg attending a wedding
in June and within two weeks was
offered the a job with NEAVA
Geophysics. He moved back to
VA in July and immediately began
working. He says the job keeps
him outdoors and in the field a lot,
sending him all over the country,
wherever the work is needed. He
has been able to see a lot that he
hadn’t seen before and is
constantly learning with each new
day.
Lindsay Majer ’02 is an
Environmental Planning Assistant
with Equinox Environmental
Consultation & Design Inc in
Asheville, NC. She says when she
made the decision to move to NC
she landed in a job in a mineral
museum doing hands on work
“teaching” aspects related to
minerals.
Russ Pace ’02 is a Staff Geologist
with Environmental Resolutions,
Inc in Lake Forest, CA. He says
he actually got a real job in Orange
County. ERI does a lot of work
doing site characterization and
remediation of gas stations. So far
he has done some groundwater
sampling from monitoring wells
but mainly he has been in charge
of borehole clearance procedures.
ERI subcontracts out to several
drilling companies and some have
a tool called an airknife which is
simply a high pressure hose that
removes soil between 5’-8’ bgs.
He has been accompanying his
project manager to drillings for
well installations and has collected
some soil samples. He says it is
pretty cool to see all of the drilling
equipment in action. There is a
whole bunch of work involved in
contacting various state agencies to
obtain the correct permits as well
as having them perform utility
mark-outs.
He says it is nice living in Newport
Beach, CA but it is definitely
pricey. He says his job pays well
for a starting salary though. He
says he has actually directly
applied a whole bunch of Geology
knowledge to his work.
Colin Deschamps ’03 started
working in PA over the summer
after graduation. He then traveled
through Egypt, Jordan, and Syria
after which he headed for
Lebanon, Turkey and Iran. He
says there is soooo much SS and
Carbonate and that he crossed a
big basalt plain (the Havran,
southern Syria) that is about 80km
x 60 km. He has become
fascinated with the humanitarian
water crisis that looms ahead in the
region. He and Megan will be
making plans when he returns. He
is now a graduate student at VPI.
Jonathan LaRiviere ’03 was
working for the Friends of the
Rappahannock in Fredericksburg.
He started his Master’s at Southern
Illinois University in August ‘04.
He says that school is paid for and
he gets a stipend to be a TA. He
and his advisor at SIU went to
Chile is August in collect marine
seds from the southern hemisphere
to compliment the research that he
started as an undergraduate.
Joe Meiburger ’03 is a Field
Geologist with ECS Ltd in
Chantilly, VA.
Cheryl Pruiett ’03 is an
Environmental Scientist/Geologist
with Applied Environmental in
Reston, VA
Matt Stump ’03 took some time
after graduation to travel to East
Africa and then drive out west to
all the national parks. He says “It
was unbelieveable!” He is now in
Roanoke working with ECS
Limited.
Mary Sutherland ’03 is attending
graduate school at Montana U.
She says she has been really busy
and the time has really flown by.
She took two Geochemistry classes
and Mineralogy has been a hot
topic. She wowed them with her
knowledge of minerals, etc. She is
fascinated by the beauty of
Montana and loved watching the
first snowfall. She says she has
been on some field trips to canyons
that put the Grand Canyon to
shame and seen fantastic
waterfalls. She even had a threeday trip to Yellowstone to look at
the geysers. She reports she has
done really well so far in her grad
program.
Jason Keener ’04 was accepted to
the University of Connecticut for
graduate school starting in the fall
of 2004. He has an internship with
MACTEC Engineering and
Consulting, Inc over the summer.
He says he has been playing in the
dirt (SOIL!!!!) all day. Most of his
time is in the lab weighing
samples. He says his older coworkers are beginning to realize
that he is capable of doing more
than weighing stuff all summer.
Jason is settled in at UConn taking
15 hours, mostly refresher courses.
“Lotsa math” he says.
Jamie Mackie ’04 has his own
company called MacTec. He has
been hiring some of our students to
work part time for him doing
coring, concrete screening and
sampling soil.
Larry Moller ’04 says that he has
found a job and that apparently it
is not impossible to get a job in the
environmental science field. He is
living in sunny Florida and has
landed a job in an environmental
engineering company in Port Saint
Lucie. He is starting out as a field
technician and the company has
equipped him with a fully stocked
office space, including a laptop, a
Nextel walkie talkie so he can keep
in touch with the office when he is
in the field, and a truck. He will
be doing many different things
such as soil/water sampling,
geologic mapping, site
reconnaissance, bridge stability
tests and a lot of other things. He
says to pass the word that there is
definitely potential and that if he
can do it you can to.
Erin Peebles ’04 is an Earth
Science teacher at Clover Hill
HS in Chesterfield, Co, VA.
She is also the JV Volleyball
coach.
Erin Raiter ’04 is teaching
earth science in Prince William
at a new environmental high
school. She is really excited
and will be helping write the
physical geology curriculum for
next year, which she will also
be teaching.
Ian Sullivan ’04 had his
grandfather Robert Thomas
Sullivan, a World War II veteran;
administer the second-lieutenant
commissioning oath at the ROTC
commissioning ceremony after
graduation last spring. Ian has
chosen the engineering branch of
the army and wants to try combat
engineering.
Ben Draper ’04 is working at
Joyce Engineering.
In Memoriam
Cullen Sherwood’s wife Phoebe passed away suddenly on Nov. 19, 2004. She and Cullen were married on
June 8, 1958, in Strasburg, VA., and were parents to three children, Sarah Catherine, Stuart Cullen and Aaron
Maxwell. All graduated from JMU with Aaron receiving a BS in Geology in 1993. Phoebe served as President
of the JMU Faculty Wives in 1976-77 and was active in many JMU activities over the years
Dr. Will Frangos died on Nov 30, 2004. In 2000 he came to Harrisonburg to take a position as professor of
Geology & Environmental Science at JMU and to begin an undergraduate program in geophysics and
quantitative geology. His family has asked that donations in his name be made to Rockingham Memorial
Hospital, 235 Cantrell Ave, Harrisonburg, VA 22801 to support education opportunities for oncology nurses or
to the W. Frangos Scholarship Fund of the Environmental and Engineering Geophysics Society, 1720 S.
Bellaire, Ste 110, Denver, CO 80222-4303.
We recently received word that Alison McDonald Doherty, class of ’80, has passed away. Lance spoke with
her husband Michael who said she died on Sunday, March 20. The cause was liver and kidney failure. She had
gone through a liver transplant in Feb of 2003 and the anti-rejection drugs that she was given brought her life to
almost a standstill. Numerous broken bones (side effects of the drugs), continuing kidney failure, and liver
problems restricted her to the hospital for quite a while. In her husband’s words “…… it was a blessing that she
is now at peace.” Alison was a true friend to JMU and our Department. She gave freely of her time and effort
to improve the Geology program here. Many of us still remember the weekend of hard work Alison and Jim
Patterson, class of ’80, put in installing the monitoring well at the College Farm in the late 1980s.