Keith Preston Young was born into an old-time ranching family
in Buffalo, Wyoming, in 1918. He frequently talked fondly about
his experiences growing up in the area. As the first in his family
to attend college, Keith’s geological education began at
the University of Wyoming, where he earned his bachelor’s
degree in 1940 and his master’s in 1942. In the summer
of 1942 Keith served as an assistant to the Wyoming State Geologist.
He joined the U.S. Army in September 1942, served in Europe,
and retired as a captain in August 1946. He had interesting stories
of his experiences slogging through Germany near the end of WWII. Following
his military service, Keith returned to his geological studies,
receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin at Madison
two years later in 1948. During the summers of 1947 and 1952,
Keith also served as an instructor at the Princeton University
field camp. While at Madison, Keith met Ann Smedal, and they
were married on June 4, 1949. Keith and Ann had three sons, Keith
M., Steven E., and Robert A.
In 1948 Keith joined the geology faculty of The University of Texas and began
his long career teaching and leading research on Cretaceous stratigraphy and
ammonite paleobiology. His zest for discovering ammonites and expanding knowledge
of Cretaceous events continued following his retirement from teaching in 1988. He
directed fifty theses and dissertations, most of which focused on the study
of Cretaceous geology during the years of 1950-1983. His teaching success was
recognized in 1981 when the department awarded him the Houston Oil and Minerals
Excellence in Teaching Award.
Keith’s professional contributions have been significant and varied.
In 1970 at the beginning of the development of the new discipline of environmental
geology, Keith designed and presented a short course for the American Geological
Institute. He expanded this material as a basis for a new undergraduate elective
course in the department and wrote one of the first textbooks in this discipline,
Geology:
the Paradox of Earth and Man (1975). From 1975 to 1982 he served on the
Mid-Cretaceous Working Group of the International Geological Correlations program
of the International Geological Congress (IGC) and on the Tethyan Correlations
Working Group. His publication record began in 1949 and ranges from ammonite
paleontology to Holocene subsidence. A major accomplishment has been the erection
of the ammonite biostratigraphy of the Gulf Cretaceous System and the correlation
of the European stages. Keith recognized the alternating endemic and cosmopolitan
character of ammonite biotas in the Gulf Comanchean and the significance of
these to understanding sea level changes in North America. Keith continued
his ammonite research long after retirement.
Keith was a voracious reader of geology journals and science
articles in newspapers and magazines, including those far from
his own fields of interest. The various clippings that he posted
on the bulletin board outside his office were the best source
of new discoveries in science prior to the internet.
A satellite interest of Keith was research on rudists, and he
ably guided his students within this research domain. Keith also
produced and catalogued a large number of acetate peels of rudist
specimens that are now in the Texas Memorial Museum. His excellent
cataloguing of the research collections held within the Department
of Geological Sciences has enabled the museum to move that information
speedily into the digital world.
Keith provided important public relations and service functions
for the Department of Geology over the years. For example, when
numerous lay visitors brought in local rocks or fossils that
they wanted identified, Keith delighted in not only identifying
the objects but would provide a brief lecture on the geological
and historical significance of the item.
A useful non-scientific endeavor of Keith was the writing of
a history of the discipline of teaching and research at UT Austin
up to the time of the dedication of the “new” geology
building in 1967. He remained the authority on the history of
the department long after his retirement.
Keith Young died at his home on August 20, 2004.
<signed>
Larry R. Faulkner, President
The University of Texas at Austin
<signed>
Sue Alexander Greninger, Secretary
The General Faculty
