Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology

Contrib Mineral Petrol (2984) 86:1-2

9 Springer-Verlag 1984

Francis John Turner: on the occasion of his 80th birthday

Francis John Turner was born on April 10th, 1904 in Auckland, New Zealand where - after the early death of his father, a classics teacher at Auckland grammar school he and his three brothers were raised by his mother. In 1921 he entered the University College of Auckland (then part of the University of New Zealand) to study geology; and, under the influence of Professor J.A. Bartrum, acquired a broad background in virtually all branches of the science, from petrology to paleontology. After graduating with a bachelor's degree he worked briefly as a geologist for the New Zealand Geological Survey while completing his master's thesis. In 1926, at the age of twenty-one, he accepted the position of lecturer in the department of geology at Otago University in Dunedin. It was here - and stimulated, no doubt, by the head of the department, W.N. Benson - that his interests in igneous

and metamorphic processes matured, and that he developed the skills with the polarizing microscope that place him amongst the world's great petrographers. While at the University of Otago he carried on extensive field investigations and published many studies of metamorphic regions in the South Island, culminating in his work on the Otago Schist - a work that still stands as one of the best documented petrographic studies of a region of low grade metamorphism - and on the metamorphic and plutonic rocks of Lake Manapouri, a then almost inaccessible region in Fiordland. His work earned him the D.Sc degree from the University of New Zealand in 1934. During all this professional activity he had the good fortune to meet and, in 1930, the wisdom to marry Esm6 Bentham of Dunedin who became his life-long companion and inspiration. In the late nineteen thirties, Frank Turner - along with E.B. Knopf and H.W. Fairbairn in the United States and F.C. Phillips in Britain - became one of the first Englishspeaking geologists to take a serious interest in the new field of petrofabrics or structural petrology, as it was later to be named by E.B. K n o p f - developing in Europe through the pioneering work of B. Sander and W. Schmidt. This interest was soon to lead him on his first journey outside New Zealand, when, on the same day in 1938 that the ominous Munich Pact was signed in Germany, he and Esm6 boarded a ship bound for the United States. He had been awarded a Sterling Fellowship to work with Mrs. Eleanora Knopf, then at Yale University, on the structural petrology of metamorphic rocks. Until it was cut short late in 1939 by the outbreak of war in Europe, this period in New England opened new scientific horizons for Frank Turner. He met and conferred with some of the most influential scientists of the day; and he became more closely acquianted with others - including the young David Griggs, then studying at Harvard - with whom he would later form close professional relationships. He had access also to techniques and equipment previously unavailable to him in New Zealand, including the universal microscope stage, his subsequent mastery of which would play a crucial role in the interpretation of Griggs' experimental results many years later. Back in New Zealand for the war years, Frank Turner continued to teach at Otago and began work on what was to become the first truly modern monographic treatment of both the petrology and the structure of metamorphic rocks. Drawing on his vast and scholarly knowledge of the work of his predecessors, and incorporating the newest informa-

tion available to him, he produced a major treatise (published eventually in 1946 as a Memoir of the Geological Society of America) that quickly established him with an international audience as a leader in metamorphic petrology, and strongly influenced a whole postwar generation of young geologists. In 1946 a second opportunity to leave New Zealand, and this time permanently, came with an invitation to join the faculty of the University of California in Berkeley. Still stimulated by the scientific promise he had found in pre-war New England, he accepted the post and arrived in Berkeley to find a department combining seismology under Perry Byerly with a strong but traditional program in geology in which field work and classical descriptive geology were emphasized. It is a tribute to the foresight of the then chairman, volcanologist Howell Williams, that he worked for the appointment of F.J. Turner and, soon afterwards, of J. Verhoogen, thus opening the way for the early introduction into the Berkeley department of the analytical, experimental and theoretical tools that were to explode into post war geology. The Department of Geology and Geophysics at Berkeley soon gained international recognition, and during the years that followed, attracted a vigorous young faculty, as well as students and visiting scientists, many of whom came specifically to work with Turner on problems of metamorphic rocks. A long period of productive scholarship followed for Frank Turner including the series of collaborative papers with D.T. Griggs and others on experimental rock deformation that forms the roots of almost all modern work on the subject. He maintained his interest in the classical approach to metamorphism, but - with S. Fyfe, J. Verhoogen and many students - was also instrumental in introducing new concepts such as the application of chemical and thermodynamic principles to metamorphic processes. For twenty-five years, until his retirement in 1971, Frank Turner remained an active member of the faculty at Berkeley. In addition to scholarly publications, influential textbooks flowed from his pen, most of them written with colleagues in the same department. Turner was the

main driving force in these works and he left his mark on all of them in their content and style. Throughout all of his work is a clarity of thought and expression that sets it apart from the work of many of his peers. His ability in no way diminished to this day - to absorb vast quantities of information; then to select significant material and present it as a masterly and readily comprehensible synthesis is virtually unmatched among geologists, and has placed his writings in a unique position of pedagogic authority. This ability, coupled with his prodigious energy and tirelessly inquiring mind, has also made him a gifted teacher; and the generosity with which he has shared ideas has made him a valued colleague. Those who have had the privilege of working closely with him know him also as a delightful companion, a hospitable host and a loyal friend. The international scientific community has formally acknowledged Frank Turner's many contributions with many honors and awards, including the Hector Medal of the Royal Society of New Zealand (1951), Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation (1952 and 1960), election to the National Academy of Science (1956) and the Lyell Award of the Geological Society of London (1969), to name a few. The purpose of this present tribute on the occasion of his 80th birthday anniversary is to acknowledge on a more personal level the high esteem and great affection felt for him by students, friends and colleagues and to express their deep appreciation for his guidance, inspiration and friendship. Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology has been chosen as an appropriate vehicle for this tribute because it represents another example of Frank Tnrner's influence on the earth sciences. Late in his academic career and together with C.W. Correns, he helped to transform the local HeideIberger Beitriige zur Mineralogie und Petrographie into a modern journal with the high international reputation it has today. On the behalf of all their friends and colleagues I wish both Frank and Esmb Turner many more years to share with us their wisdom and their good fellowship. K.F. Springer