Virgil E. Barnes,
Professor Emeritus of Geological Sciences, former Associate
Director of the Bureau of Economic Geology, and one of the
world's leading experts on the geological phenomena of tektites,
died in Austin, Texas, on January 28, 1998. He was at the University
of Texas at Austin for 63 years, and was professionally active
until the time of his death.
Born June 11,
1903, in Chehalis, Washington, Barnes earned his B.S. and M.S.
degrees in geology at Washington State College (now Washington
State University) and his Ph.D. in geology at the University
of Wisconsin in 1930. Immediately after finishing his doctorate,
he worked for the American Petroleum Institute in Austin and
later for the U.S. Geological Survey in Amarillo, Texas. He
joined the University's Bureau of Economic Geology in 1935.
Dr. Barnes's
long record of geologic research covered many areas: economic
geology, mineralogy, petrology, geophysics, and stratigraphy.
He authored one of the first and formative works in paleoecology.
Much of his activity as a University researcher involved geologic
mapping and, as a mapper, he excelled. More than 100 geologic
maps were made and published by Barnes, and a considerable
number remain to be published. He put together the monumental Geologic
Atlas of Texas-38 sheets in all (each 1:250,000 1_x 2_
in size), which took a quarter of a century to compile. He
later combined the Atlas sheets into a four-sheet wall
map of the Geology of Texas, a map that is as attractive
as it is scientifically accurate.
It was, however,
black glassy objects known as tektites that were the subject
of his deepest scientific interest and research. Ford Burkhart,
in writing Dr. Barnes's obituary in the New York Times,
recognized him as the world's premier scholar of tektites.
These first came to Barnes's attention in 1936 and were originally
thought to be meteorites. He quickly came to the conclusion
that tektites were terrestrial in origin and associated with
impacts. His 1940 University publication on North American
Tektites became a basic reference during the Space Age
and is now considered a classic work. Investigations during
the great surge in tektite research in the sixties verified
the conclusion earlier reached by Dr. Barnes.
Professor Barnes
twice traveled around the world with grants from the National
Science Foundation to visit all known tektite sites and a number
of impact craters. His long and careful research on tektites
won him the coveted Barringer Medal, which he received from
the Meteoritical Society in Vienna.
In addition
to his tektite research, Dr. Barnes also collected a new lithium
aluminum silicate mineral discovered in Peruvian Macusanite
glass. In 1968, this new mineral was named "Virgilite" in
his honor.
Virgil Barnes
was a fellow of the Meteoritical Society and was also active
in the American Association for the Advancement of Science,
the Geological Society of America, and the Mineralogical Society
of America. In 1988, he was named Distinguished Texas Scientist
by the Texas Academy of Science. In 1993, he received the Public
Service Award from the American Association of Petroleum Geologists.
Dr. Barnes was a long-time active participant in the quadrennial
International Geological Congresses, representing the Department
of Geological Sciences and the Bureau of Economic Geology in
London in 1948, in Algiers in 1952, in Mexico City in 1956,
in Copenhagen in 1960, in New Delhi in 1964, in Prague in 1968,
in Montreal in 1972, in Sydney in 1976, and in Paris in 1980.
Dr. Barnes's
many decades of field geology, in Texas and around the globe,
were never stopped by the onset of an early, protracted and
severe case of painful ankylosing spondylitis, which left many
of his vertebrae fused. Even with this condition, he was notorious
for out-walking other geologists when he led field trips.
Virgil Barnes
was the author or coauthor of nearly 300 books, articles, maps,
and abstracts in his long scientific career. One of his more
recent official duties was to write his memoirs, On Solid
Ground: Memoirs of a Texas Geologist, published in 1995
by the Bureau of Economic Geology.
Virgil Barnes
was predeceased in 1994 by his wife of 62 years, Mildred Louise
Barnes (nee Adlof), a frequent traveling companion and coauthor.
He is survived by his three children, Virgil E. Barnes, II,
Ph.D., of West Lafayette, Indiana, Louise Barnes, Ph.D., of
Nashville, Tennessee, and Elizabeth Barnes Thompson, Ph.D.,
of New York City, and six grandchildren, Virgil E. Barnes,
III, Christopher Barnes, Jeffrey Barnes, Daniel Barnes, David
Barnes-Seeman, and Victoria Thompson.
<signed>
Larry R.
Faulkner, President
The University of Texas at Austin
<signed>
John R. Durbin, Secretary
The General Faculty
This Memorial Resolution
was prepared by a special committee consisting of Professors
William L. Fisher (Chair), Ernest L. Lundelius, and William
R. Muehlberger.
