Richard M. Petkewich passed away due to cancer in March, 1997.
Dick studied under Robert Fields at the University of Montana
and received his Ph.D. in 1972. His dissertation, entitled "Tertiary
geology and paleontology of the Beaverhead East Area, southwestern
Montana", was a synthesis that integrated studies on the
vertebrate paleontology, stratigraphy, and structural geology
of several Tertiary basins.
Dick began teaching at Georgia Southern in 1971, and taught a
broad range of courses including physical geology, historical
geology, field geology, geomorphology, geophysics, and vertebrate
paleontology, leaving behind a legacy of well-taught students.
One of Richard Petkewich's pedagogical strengths was his attention
to the details of the pathways of critical thinking and problem
analysis, techniques he insisted be followed by his students.
Throughout his career, Dick placed major emphasis on the teaching
and service aspects of academic life. He made four significant,
permanent contributions to the field of vertebrate paleontology.
First, he initiated field work in long neglected coastal Georgia,
involving numerous students in his research, that resulted in
the discovery of several Miocene, Pliocene, and Pleistocene localities
including the Isle of Hope and Porter's Landing localities.
Second, when South Dakota School of Mines donated a nearly complete
specimen of the mosasaur Tylosaurus proriger to Georgia
Southern in 1979, Richard Petkewich assumed the task of directing
its preparation and mounting. With the assistance of many students,
Dick expertly prepared and mounted the specimen in the Georgia
Southern Museum, where it still serves as the focal point of our
Hall of Natural History and a focus of learning for thousands
of school children for over two decades. Working with this specimen
provided Dick with the opportunity to study mosasaurs that was
reported at the 1981 annual meeting of the Rocky Mountain section
of GSA and the 1981 and 1982 meetings of the Georgia Academy of
Science.
Third, in the early 80's, Richard organized the collection of
a 20-foot Bryde's Whale on Blackbeard Island, directing its flensing
and burial and later its exhumation and preparation for eventual
mounting.
Finally, in 1983, Dick led a field crew of Georgia Southern geologists
who collected the partial skeleton of a middle Eocene whale that
had been encountered by a construction crew at Georgia Power's
Nuclear Plant Vogtle in Burke County, Georgia. Collaborating with
Winston Lancaster, Dick began the arduous task of preparing the
specimen. At the time this was one of the oldest known whale skeletons
in the world (its collection predated the discoveries of Ambulocetus,
Rodhocetus, and others from Asia) and the oldest from North
America. They presented preliminary reports on the specimen at
the 1984 meeting of the Georgia Academy of Sciences and the 1986
meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology. This specimen
was formally described as a new genus and species, Georgiacetus
vogtleensis, in a paper co-authored by Dick and submitted
for publication to the Journal of Paleontology a few weeks prior
to his death.
Dick's wife, Betty, died three months before Dick's death. He
is survived by six children and ten grandchildren.
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