CITATION

John S. Klasner 2001 Goldich Mdeal Recipient

It is my distinct honor and privilege to present this citation for John Klasner, the 22nd recipient of the Goldich Award. John was born and raised in the Upper Peninsula. He received his Bachelor's degree in 1957 from Michigan State. His first professional job was with INCO in the bush of northern Ontario in the summer of 1957. From 1958 to 1962, John worked for Geophysical Services International reducing seismic data for petroleum exploration in New Mexico, Texas, Wyoming, and then overseas in  Libya and Muscat. He returned to Michigan State in 1962 and earned a Master's degree
John Klasner
in geophysics in 1964. His thesis, mapping a bedrock valley by gravity methods was sponsored by the Groundwater Branch of the U.S.G.S.  For the next five years, John worked for the Standard Oil Company of California as an exploration geophysicist stationed mainly in Anchorage, Alaska. He worked in the Cook Inlet area, and while in Anchorage, he met and married his wife, Gretchen, who also happens to be from the U.P. of Michigan. He worked in California from 1967 to 1969, and was then transferred back to Alaska in 1969 to work on the North Slope oil project.

In the fall of 1969, he left Standard Oil to work on a Ph.D. at Michigan Tech., under Jo Kalliokoski. His dissertation was on the structure and metamorphism in the western Marquette range. I believe that John's thesis was the first study to show that the Early Proteozoic rocks are detached from the Archean in the area, suggesting large-scale horizontal tectonics. Upon completion of his Ph.D. in 1972, John joined the faculty at Western Illinois University, where he taught for 27 years. He resumed his contact with the U.S.G.S. spending summers mapping in northern Michigan. John as applied his knowledge of geophysic and structural geology to solving problems in the Precambrian of a number of areas including he Marquette range, the Gogebic range, the Felch trough, several areas in Wisconsin and in the Trans-Hudson Orogeny. He has done a broader range of structural studies in the Lake Superior region than anyone I know. He has a long list of publications (49) resulting from his work, in addition to the teaching and administrative load at an undergraduate university. He received the highest awards offered by Western Illinois University for his teaching and research. An indication of the esteem with which he was held at Western is shown by his being named Director of their Honors Program from 1994-1998. He introduced many students to the mysteries of he Precambrian by leading a field trip to the area every year. Especially important, I think, has been his role of introducing undergraduate students to professional activities by supervising fourteen Senior theses and six Honors theses during his years of teaching at Western.

I have had the privilege of working directly with John since the mid-1980s, doing field work in Wisconsin and northern Michigan. During this time John has been the mentor for a number of NAGGED/USES Summer trainees and volunteers. I have found John to be an exceptionally dedicated teacher of young geologists, as well as being a very competent geologist himself, a very good woodsman, and a pleasant fellow to work with. Therefore, it is with great pleasure that I present the 2001 recipient of the Goldich Award for "Outstanding Contributions To The Geology Of The Lake Superior Region", John S. Klasner.

Submitted by Gene L. LaBerge
Awarded May 10, 2001
Madison, Wisconsin
47th Annual Institute on Lake Superior Geology