Up for auction "Geological Society of America" Thomas Seward Lovering Hand Signed First Day Cover Dated 1958.
ES-1555
Thomas S. Lovering, a Fellow of the Geological
Society of America for 64 years and its president for part of 1951 and all of
1952, died peacefully at his residence in Santa Barbara, California, on April
9, 1991. He was within about a month of reaching his 95th birthday when he
succumbed to leukem ia. T hroughout his long professional career he directed
his energies almost exclusively to geologic field studies, laboratory research,
and university instruction in economic geology, and w ith only a few exceptions
consciously avoided the tem ptation to assume many of the supervisory and
administrative positions offered to him. Thus, he epitomized the definition of
a true research scientist and teacher. To some who knew him as a scientific
competitor, or only casually from his penetrating questions and comments at meetings and symposia, he often appeared brusque, argumentative, and somewhat
egocentric. To his closest associates and coworkers, however, he was invariably
courteous, generous, and steadfast in his support and friendship. To him, the
search for scientific excellence was paramount and all else was secondary. Tom,
as he was known by his colleagues and a wide circle of acquaintances, was bom
in St. Paul, Minnesota, on May 12, 1896. During World War I he trained as a
Navy aviation cadet, but the Armistice was signed before he was transferred to
combat duty, and upon his discharge in 1919 he entered the Minnesota School of
Mines. In 1922 he graduated with an E.M. degree and later in the same year
enrolled in the graduate school of the University of Minnesota, where he
received an M.S. degree in geology in 1923 and a Ph.D. in economic geology in
1924. Tom’s first position after completing his doctorate was an an instructor
in the Department of Geology at the University of Arizona. He remained at
Arizona for only one academic year, accepting a position in 1925 with the U.S.
Geological Survey to conduct comprehensive studies of selected mining districts
in the Colorado Front Range under the general supervision of B. S. Butler. In
1934 he terminated his full-time position with the USGS and became an associate
professor of geology at the University of Michigan. During the following eight
academic years he undertook many laboratory investigations, and also worked
during the summer months for the USGS in Colorado, where he continued his
studies of tungsten and base- and precious-metal mining districts and
participated in regional mapping projects. Upon the entry of the United States
into World War II, Tom took a leave of absence from Michigan and rejoined the
U.S. Geological Survey on a full-time war-service appointment to assist in the
strategic minerals program. His wartime activities included the completion of
several studies of mining districts in Colorado and the early phases of what
became a long-range study of deeply concealed ore bodies in the East Tintic
mining district of central Utah. A t the end of World War II, Tom returned to
the University o f M ichigan, w here he resumed his professorship in the
Department of Geology and Mineralogy for the 1946-1947 academic year. By this
time, however, his field research at East Tintic had reached a critical phase,
and in 1947 he resigned from the faculty at Michigan and accepted a permanent
position with the Mineral Deposits Branch of the U.S. Geological Survey. From
this time forward, his activities with the USGS progressed from field and
laboratory studies in Utah and Colorado to several administrative,
consultatory, and advisory roles in both the Geological Survey and Department
of Interior. Later he became a United States delegate to mineral conferences
throughout the world and a mineral resource consultant to other civilian and
military federal agencies.