[Geology2] Renowned SDSU Geologist Gordon Gastil Dies at 84

Renowned SDSU geologist Gordon Gastil dies at 84

By Gary Robbins - San Diego Union-Tribune

7:12 p.m., Sept. 30, 2012
Updated 8:20 p.m.

R. Gordon Gastil, a retired San Diego State University geologist who was revered for his teaching and his exploration of the seismicity of the southwestern United States and Baja California, died Sept. 29 in La Mesa. He was 84. The cause of death wasn't immediately announced, but SDSU said in an online announcement that Gastil passed away at home where "his last days were spent listening to his family sharing stories, reading his poems aloud, singing selections from his Tremble Clefs songbook, and reminiscing on their shared lives together in San Diego, on family vacations, and on geologic field trips."

Gastil did geologic mapping throughout Baja California, helping expand oil drilling in Mexico during a career that wasn't limited to science. He also was a writer with a deep interest in politics, leading him to run for Congress in the mid-1970s. He didn't win, but he remained involved, helping his wife, Janet, win a local school board election. Gastil also is remembered as a man who was basically interested in everything, and everyone, and who remained vital after suffering a stroke.

"The way I remember Gordon is (as) a man hobbling though the long, fluorescent-lit white hallway that housed the Geological Sciences department offices," said Maureen N. Moses, who studied geology at SDSU after Gastil retired.

"Usually accompanied by his wife, Janet, to help him walk, he made a point to poke his head in every office, and say good morning to all the faces of the department. The love he fostered was returned by his former students, my professors, who helped him walk, who translated through the slur that marred his post-stroke conversations, and who waited with loving patience as he made his rounds to say hello, to ask a question about current research, and listened as Gordon reminisced about past adventures that are an inevitable part of an education in geology. I was grateful to be included."

Gastil was born in the Encanto section of San Diego on June 25, 1928, and developed a passion for geology early in life. He studied the subject at San Diego State Teachers College (today SDSU) and went on to earn a doctorate at the University of California Berkeley. Gastil later joined the SDSU faculty, where he became a prominent geologist known for the energy he brought to field research.

David Kimbrough, a geologic sciences professor at SDSU, first met Gastil on Mexico's Vizcaino Peninsula during a scientific meeting in 1979.

"We were on an outcrop of Eugenia Formation at the moment I first laid eyes on Gordon - with his straw hat crouched down low chewing on the end of a belemnite like a stogie – a sly grin and twinkle in his eye he was clearly immensely enjoying the occasion," Kimbrough said by email. "We then headed over to Puerto Escondido to a section of tuff known to contain Late Triassic radiolaria. After about 10 minutes on the outcrop Gordon discovered Monotis bivalves in the sectio and I remember thinking, 'Jeez, this guy is for real.' … I was in awe."

Deno Milano of Foster City said in an online tribute, "Gordon was my thesis adviser and I was one of his teaching assistants in a few field mapping classes. I was always amazed by how much geology he could map while walking up the side of a mountain, and how he could drive the department's Toyota land cruiser in places Toyota never imagined."

Eric Frost, a professor of geologic science and homeland security at SDSU, said, "By seeing what he was able to draw to the understanding of other geologists, he earned a special reputation as a remarkable person and remarkable geologist. By who he was and how he interacted with others, he was one of the major builders of the SDSU Geology Department and a major builder of our understanding of the geologic development of this entire region."

Source: http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/sep/30/friends-mourn-passing-sdsu-geologist-gordon-gastil/

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