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Salem J. Rice, 1919-2003
Excerpt from California Geology
magazine,
June 1983:
After nearly 33 years
of state service with the California
Division of Mines and Geology, Salem
J. Rice has retired. Salem provided
expertise in California economic
geology and mineralogy, as well as
engineering geology, and was
recognized for his understanding of
the widespread and controversial
Franciscan geology.
Salem, a native of
Kentucky, attended the University of
Kentucky where he majored in botany.
He became interested in forestry and
transferred to the University of
Idaho in 1938. On a visit to San
Francisco to see the 1939 World's
Fair at Treasure Island, he was so
captivated by the area that he
transferred to the University of
California at Berkeley, again as a
botany major.
As a field assistant
on a summer research project in
paleobotany he became so interested
in the geological aspects of the
subject that he took up the study of
geology at UCB. His academic career
was interrupted in 1942 when he was
drafted into the army. He served as
a radioman in the South Pacific,
where he spent his free time
studying the botany and geology of
the islands, especially Okinawa, and
Korea.
After his discharge
from the army in 1945, Salem
returned to UCB to complete his
Bachelor's degree in geology in
1948. He continued at Berkeley as a
graduate student; during the summer
of 1949 he was hired as a field
assistant by the U.S. Geological
Survey to help map the Glacier Bay
National Monument.
Salem began his
33-year career with the division in
1950 under Dr. Olaf P. Jenkins, who
was then the division chief. Salem's
early work on asbestos, nickel, and
chromite did much to call attention
to the economic potential of these
mineral commodities in California.
He is an expert on
the geology and metamorphic
mineralogy of the Tiburon Peninsula,
and over the years conducted
numerous field trips for
professional societies and visiting
geologists and petrologists to this
classic locality. In 1960 he
discovered tourmaline crystals in
Francis- can sandstone and presented
several professional papers
documenting his findings on the
tourmalinized Franciscan sediments
of Mt. Tamalpais, Marin County. In
1964 he published on the lawsonite
type locality at Tiburon, and in
1966 on a new mineral locality near
Laytonville where deerite, howieite,
and zussmanite had been discovered.
Although Salem spent his entire
service with the division in the San
Francisco District (which was also
division headquarters until 1970),
he worked in nearly all parts of
California. In recent years Salem
served as a senior scientist
specializing in geologic hazard
evaluation in the state, ranging
from Marin County planning studies
to site evaluations at the Auburn
Dam, Warm Springs Dam, the
Vallecitos Reactor, and Point
Conception LNG site.
Salem Rice is a
Fellow in the Geological Society of
America and a long standing member
of the following professional
organizations American Association
for the Advancement of Science,
California Academy of Sciences,
Peninsula Geological Society,
California Native Plants Society,
and Friends of the Pleistocene. Even
though he is leaving the division,
Salem has no intention of retiring
from geology. His inquisitive nature
and love of science will continue
unabated. To his colleagues he is a
geologist's geologist and is always
willing to take the time to share
his broad knowledge of mineralogy,
petrography, botany, and the geology
of California with others.....
Salem Rice passed
away on August 16, 2003. |