Editor’sTable……

Tis May, the merry month of May… congratulations to all who are in academe and receiving degrees this spring. Best wishes to you all. This column generally contains a historical note or two on events that happened at various fifty-year increments in the past. I will step out of my own time sequence slightly here to note that Othniel Charles Marsh, known to all as "O.C.", died in 1899 on March 18, at the age of sixty-seven. Edward Lhwyd, who became Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum in 1691, is well remembered to geologists and paleontologists for his many contributions in those areas of science. Lhwyd died June 30, 1709. In August, 1859, successful oil drilling began in Titusville, Pennsylvania. A century later, the Lake Hebgen earthquake (mag. 7.5) struck Yellowstone National Park on August 17, 1959. The Explorer satellite took the first pictures of Earth only a few days earlier. And on August 5, 1959 Professor James E. Church Jr. of the University of Nevada passed into eternity. Dr. Church, as he is fondly known at UNR, taught classics and art. Rumor has it that he did janitorial work on occasions as well. He is best known for his invention of a water measuring instrument, the Mount Rose Snow Sampler, which determined water content in snow packs. Such samplers are used to this day. The fine arts complex at Univ. Nevada, Reno is named in his honor. We hear that he haunts the place, although in thirty-one years of working in Church Fine Arts, I can’t say that I have seen him. Jane P. Davidson, HoGD secretary/treasurer, newsletter editor. jdhexen@unr.edu CFA 157