died of a massive heart attack on New Year's Eve, December 31, 1983, at the age of 68. He is survived by his wife, Frances, his son, Alfred, his daughter, Jeannette, and his grandchild, Clayton.
Dick served as Dean of the School of Earth Sciences over a 14-year period (1965--1979) during which a major revolution took place in the theories of how the earth works. His tenure as Dean was marked by great vision, a devotion to his students and colleagues, an outstanding record of university and public service, an infectious sense of humor, and the fostering of growth in the mission, quality, and funding of Earth Sciences programs, including the final stages of planning and funding, and the construction of the Ruth Wattis Mitchell Earth Sciences Building. His last four years at Stanford as Professor were divided among a multitude of activities including teaching, organizing, and running a popular and widely respected graduate program in engineering geology; supervising a score of graduate theses in engineering geology and petrology; serving on national, state, and university committees; and consulting in the private sector, particularly in the area of seismic hazard and risk. He was also one of the founding editors of this journal.
Dick was born in Los Angeles, California, on March 10, 1915, but grew up in Seattle, Washington, where he graduated from Seattle High as class valedictorian. He developed an interest in science from a high school class in analytical geometry and entered Cal Tech at the age of 16 to pursue a degree in chemistry. Exposure to the beauty and symmetry of natural crystals in a mineralogy class taught by the late Ian Campbell, former California State Geologist, and long hikes in the San Gabriel Mountains north of Los Angeles played a significant part in Dick's decision to change his major to geology during the last portion of his junior year at Cal Tech. To our knowledge, he is the only Cal Tech geology major who ever substituted organic chemistry for the normally mandatory course in field geology. It was during his undergraduate days at Cal Tech that Dick developed his love of athletics, particularly baseball, and perfected his talents as a practical joker --a talent that remained honed until his death. It is also likely that his lifelong fascination with railroads was engendered during this period when he lived with his grandparents in Alhambra, California. His grandfather was the chief civil engineer for the Southern Pacific Line and was responsible for the early survey work that led to construction of the first train lines from Texas to Mexico shortly before the Mexican Revolution.