I have had an interest in rocks, fossils, and landscapes since childhood, but the first concept I had that one could study geology toward a career was in during fall term of 1968, my freshman year at the University of Akron, when I visited the Geology Department, then located in a house on the west side of South Union Street, not far north of Buchtel Avenue. I think only Jim Teeter and Jim Jackson were in the department then, but Roger would join them a couple years later.
I persevered as an engineering major for more than three years until the summer term of 1971. I could not visualize a career in engineering and had failed structural engineering. One day after getting into an argument with my advisor, I ran into two friends, Fred Dillick and Paivi Pentilla, who were in Roger Bain’s summer class—They were raving about this “cool young professor” and urged me to go talk with Roger. The Geology Department had moved to Kolbe Hall, and I shortly found Roger in his office. After an enjoyable ten-minute chat about geology, Roger had me convinced that geology was the way to go.
I walked over to the Registrar’s office, then in Spicer Hall, changed my major to geology and signed up for Roger's Physical Geology class that fall. It was the beginning of my career as a geoscientist, and Roger would not only advise me until I graduated in June 1973, but would become my graduate advisor a few years later in 1976 after my stints with Ohio EPA and a year of well-logging.
So many good times in the Geology Department! Roger and Jim Teeter were quite a pair of humorists, Roger, a bit more reserved, and Jim, more irreverent—They complemented each other quite well. Without getting too woowoo about, I’d say they added a sort of spiritual energy to the department that supplemented the academic excellence.
Roger wrote several times in 1993 that he, Leslie, and Cassie would like to visit the Pacific Northwest after Laura’s wedding, and they did come out that summer and thoroughly explored the area. My wife Leslie and I enjoyed their visit with us in Olympia and field day at Mount St. Helens where we hiked into see a portion of the debris avalanche deposit in the North Fork Toutle River valley.
Roger would typically arrive in the classroom a minute to two early daily with full pages of notes and often a tray of slides, and he started lecturing and writing on the blackboard as soon as he greeted the class. He was amazingly well-organized, but never boring, because his lectures were narratives, interspersed with humor, history, and stories, and they were packed with information. Toward the end of class, he would often present a short slide show, a virtual field trip relevant to the day’s topics. When I started teaching classes occasionally in the 1980s, I found myself instinctively incorporating components of Rogers teaching style into my own presentations, and I’d be willing to bet many students were likewise inspired by the geology and the teaching of geology they experienced in his classes and on field trips.
Roger was the first geoscientist to introduce the concepts of environmental geology in his classes, perhaps influenced on this topic during his time at the University of Virginia. He also spoke about the relationship of American foreign policy to our interest in geologic resources, particularly petroleum.
After getting quite ill with Coccidioidomycosis, or “Valley Fever”, while well-logging the San Joaquin valley of California in winter of 1976, a phone conversation with Roger convinced me to enroll in the graduate program that coming fall. During that master’s program, it was Roger’s geologic writing skills that most influenced me, particularly his edits and suggestions on a couple drafts of my thesis on the Cuyahoga Valley NRA (now National Park). Roger was excellent at wordsmithing, and had a “chewy” yet fluid writing style.
Roger knew that as an undergraduate, I had been a board member of the Cuyahoga Valley Association and had actively promoted the concept of the national park. I was sitting in the hallway outside the Geology Dept. office one day when he came by with an idea that I do an earth sciences thesis on the geology of the southern sector of this new national park, a concept that would later influence books on the geology of Mount St. Helens and Mount Rainier National Park and several geological field guides for professional society meetings.
Roger was patient with students like me who were “free spirits”. He could get on your case when you needed to pay more attention, but did so with humor and a smile. “Look class, Pat’s here today.” In early September of 1981, I took him a couple completed chapters of my theses to review. After a day or two, he handed them back to me, “you’ve got 30 days to get me the whole thesis.” It was just the deadline I needed, and I brought him 176 typed pages (including figures) a day or two after the deadline. “I was just kidding Pat, but I thought it would motivate you get something done!”
After graduating with an M.S. in 1982, I was fortunate to work at the US Geological Survey’s Cascades Volcano Observatory from 1982–1990, the Washington State Geological Survey from 1990–2005, and then teach at Centralia College until 2017. In summary, I, and many others were very lucky to be guided and influenced by Roger Bain, truly a great teacher of geosciences, as well as a friend.
Thinking of you Leslie, Cassie, and Laura!
Sincerest condolences from Leslie and me.
