Memorial To Robert G. Douglas (1937–2016)

Abstract

Robert G. (Bob) Douglas, an internationally recognized micropaleontologist and marine geologist, passed away on January 26, 2016, after a long battle with cancer. During his career he pursued a diverse range of research interests, including the study of living foraminifera and modern environments, Cretaceous foraminiferal biostratigraphy, Cretaceous and modern paleoceanography and biogeography, and more. He published an extensive series of important and highly-cited articles, and he sat on a number of editorial boards and international scientific committees. Within every group that included Bob as a member, he was quickly recognized as a natural leader and a wise counselor. He was also a warm, thoughtful person with a great sense of humor and humility. A South Bay native, Bob’s interest in geology began during his childhood growing up in Palos Verdes, California. He and his brothers would hike around the Palos Verdes Peninsula, playing in the canyons, finding rocks, arrowheads and fossils, which sparked his curiosity, and ultimately lead him into a career in the Earth Sciences. He graduated from Redondo Union High School in 1955, and received his bachelor’s degree in Geology from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1959. After graduating from UCSB, Bob worked as a geologist in Shell Oil’s Alaska Division before earning his PhD from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1966. At UCLA, Bob was part of the first group of graduate students working under the guidance of his PhD supervisor at UCLA, Helen N. Tappan. There Bob participated in seminars on micropaleontology and marine geology and in field trips to the coast that inspired his later work. Helen and her husband Alfred R. Loeblich Jr., who at the time was a chief scientist for oil exploration at Chevron Research Lab in La Habra, California, and …