Honorary Degree Citation for George H. Davis
President Poskanzer: It is a great honor and pleasure to present George H. Davis for the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa.
George H. Davis is Regents Professor (Emeritus) of Structural Geology and Provost (Emeritus) at the University of Arizona – and a long-time friend of Carleton College. After graduating from the College of Wooster, and receiving a Master’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin, George completed a Ph.D. in geology at the University of Michigan in 1971. He has spent most of his career at the University of Arizona. George continues to teach, pursue geologic research, and carry out other professional projects. His term as Prpesident of the Geological Society of America (our oldest professional geology society) begins in a few weeks on July 1.
At Michigan, George and Merrily became close friends of fellow graduates students Shelby and Jean Boardman. That friendship started t connection between George and Carleton. He has visited campus several times over the last thirty years, for instance, for the carleton geology Department’s 50th anniversary celebration in 1983, as a Benedict Distinguished Visiting Professor ten years later, and as a lecturer on several occasions, most recently three years ago. In addition he has advised comps projects of Carleton geology students and guided their graduate school work at Arizona.
George’s contribution to geology include field-based studies of deformed rocks of the Basin and Rage and the Colorado plateau in the U.S., economic geology and structural geology in Argentina in Canada, and most, recently, the archaeological geology of Greece. He has also contributed to scholarship on the teaching of structural geology and general education geoscience courses George has supervised forty MS and PH.D. theses(and been on committees of many other students). His widely-used textbook,Structural Geology of Rocks and Regions, now in its third edition (2012) is known for its personal style, creativity, and humor (three elements not typically associated with the concept of a “textbook”).
George has a extraordinary generosity of spirit. It shows in the ways he mentors graduate students and other faculty, how he interacts with undergraduates and in his commitment to geology and the liberal arts. In 2010, when he helped my students prepare a field guide for southern Arizona, one of the students commented: “At Picture Rocks, there are many petroglyphs carved into rock. George Davis says it’s cool, and I trust George Davis.”
Recently, a first-year seminar student nominated George for the Inspire Integrity Award of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars (and he won!). According to the NSCS website, “these awards are presented to full-time university faculty and administration who have, through their lessons and actions, made a significant impact on the lives of their students and instilled a high degree of personal and academic integrity.” George’s seminar was titled “What it means to be human, our place in the universe.”
This story remind me of Larry Gould, another part of the connective tissue between Carleton and the University of Arizona. When Larry was inaugurated as Carleton’s fourth president in 1945, his speech was titled “Science and the Other Humanities” and it’s an interesting read 67 years later. In that wide-ranging address, Gould suggests that the branch of humanities called mathematics and science “seeks to orient man as a child of the earth.”
President Poskanzer, members of the Board of trustees, faculty, staff and members of the class of 2012: I am very pleased to present Gorge Davis for the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa.
Honoris Causa 