PROFILE: Professor Emeritus Robert Merrill, Geologist
Dr. Merrill, formerly chair of the Earth and Environmental Sciences Department, was a prominent member of the faculty (1970 to 2004). He was very active in “Shared Governance” of the university as a member of the Academic Senate and the General Education Committee, which he chaired. He also served on various task forces of the Senate and the Administration. His most visible role in the campus community was as the twice elected President of the C.F.A. union, charged with defending faculty rights of professors and lecturers under the collective bargaining agreement with the CSU system.
Robert is a 3rd generation Californian. He spent his first few years living in Death Valley, where his father was a Captain in the CCC constructing roads during the 1930s and 40s. Both parents were raised on farms and shared a love of the outdoors. This early upbringing stimulated Robert’s attraction to geology and the field work and fostered a deep appreciation of and concern for the environment.
He earned his B.A. at UC Riverside, his M.S. at U. Mass., and his Ph.D. at the University of Texas, where his dissertation focused on Wyoming’s Big Horn basin --- examining how tectonic uplift and climate change affected the course of the Greybull river over two million years. Previously, Robert was hired during summers by energy and mineral companies to do field work in Alaska and North Carolina.
As a professor of geology at CSU,Fresno Dr. Merrill did research on lava flows at Table Mountain, transitional formations from the western side of the Sierras to the San Joaquin Valley, sediment deposits at the Kettlerman Hills area, and glacial remains around Lake Tahoe --- all involving graduate students. He also consulted on water and land use in the valley and advised archeologists on soils and sediments in evaluating pre-historic and historic Native American sites in the Sierra foothills. He was a co-leader of Fresno State’s ‘Semester Abroad’ program in New Zealand, where he taught geology and led field trips.
As a retiree three main themes are professional interests, personal avocations, and civic activism. Regarding the first, he has combined a fascination with geology with a love of international travel. In January 2013 he joined 100 geologists from around the world on a specialized tour of the Falkland Islands and St. George’s Isle in the South Atlantic and of Antarctica on a Russian icebreaker that was organized by the Geological Society of America. And in August of 2014 Robert will be on a geological tour of Scotland with fellow scientists. He has inspected famous geological sites abroad such as: the Atacama Desert, the Andes Mountains, Patagonia, and Terra del Fuego in Chile and Argentina; Mt. Etna in Sicily; and the great African Rift in Tanzania and Kenya.
Robert’s second passion integrates his love of history and interest in anthropology with his professional knowledge of geology. He is drawn to primitive art and crafts of Native America, Africa, and the South Pacific. His hobby is collecting authentic Native American wood carvings (especially masks), sculptures, pottery, paintings, textiles, and jewelry.
A third driving force in Robert’s retirement is civic activism. He points to the geology program at the University of Texas, where the professors stressed the ethic of “using knowledge of geology to protect the public interest” --- especially regarding environmental matters such as water sources, land use, energy production, and now climate change as they relate to population, agriculture, and the environment. Consequently, Dr. Merrill has orchestrated film series on water and energy at the Fresno Unitarian Church as part of its community outreach effort. In addition, Robert co-chairs the church’s Town Hall series of guest speakers on matters of social and environmental justice. He also utilizes his expertise for the common good through prepared testimony on community issues that come before the Fresno City Council and its Planning Commission, as well as before the Fresno County Board of Supervisors. He writes occasional commentaries that appear on the opinion page of the Fresno Bee. Particularly noteworthy was his successful effort to prevent commercial encroachment upon the urban Sugar Pine Trail. He has made numerous power point presentations to civic, educational, and environmental organizations such as the League of Women Voters, Community Colleges, and the Sierra Club --- the local chapter of which recently honored him with the 2014 Community Service Award!
