AAPG
EXPLORER
EXPLORER
Researcher, educator and AAPG Sidney Powers Medalist Arnold H. Bouma died Friday in Frisco, Texas. He was 79.
A native of Groningen, The Netherlands, he received his bachelor’s from the State University in Groningen, a masters at State University at Utrecht in geology, sedimentology and paleontology in 1959 and a Ph.D. in sedimentary geology in 1961.
His doctoral dissertation, titled “Sedimentology of Some Flysch Deposits: A Graphic Approach to Facies Interpretation,” was published and widely distributed in 1962 and set off numerous laboratory and field research studies and formed the basis of what eventually came to be known in the field as “the Bouma Sequence” – which has been called a “geological milestone of the 20th century.”
In 1962, he accepted a Fulbright post-doctoral fellowship at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography in La Jolla, Calif., and in 1966, Bouma immigrated to America with his family to accept an academic post in oceanography at Texas A&M University.
He taught there until 1975, when he was asked to join the U.S. Geological Survey, initially in the Pacific-Arctic branch and then in the Atlantic-Gulf of Mexico branch.
In 1981, he joined Gulf Oil as a senior scientist and working his way up to chief scientist and acting vice president for Gulf Research and Development Co. When Gulf Oil was purchased by Chevron in 1985, Bouma assumed the position of senior research associate with Chevron Oil Field Research Co.
Bouma returned to the academic world in 1988 when he was named Charles T. McCord Professor of Geology and Geophysics at Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge. There he taught and served for a few years as director of the Basin Research Institute and head of the School of Geosciences. He retired in 2005.
Back in Texas, Bouma became an adjunct professor in the Department of Geology and Geophysics at Texas A&M.
A 49-year member of AAPG, Bouma was a Charter Member of the Division of Environmental Geosciences, a member of the Division of Professional Affairs, served on the Publications, Education and Marine Geology committees and as an AAPG Distinguished Lecturer.
A memorial service will be held at 11:00A.M., Wednesday, December 21, 2011 at Aria Memorial Chapel, 19310 Preston Road Dallas, TX 75252.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests any memorials to be sent in honor of Arnold Bouma to the SEPM Foundation endowment fund.
