Cornelius Searle Hurlbut Jr. (1906-2005)

摘要

On 1 September 2005 Cornelius S. Hurlbut Jr., known to family and friends as "Connie," died peacefully in Lexington, Massachusetts, in his one hundredth year. He was born 30 June 1906 in Springfield, Massachusetts, the son of a dentist. A graduate of Antioch College, Hurlbut arrived at Harvard University for graduate study in fall 1933 and never left. He trained as a petrologist under Prof. Esper S. Larsen, studying the Bonsai tonalite in San Diego County, California, for his dissertation; he was also part of Larsen's team that studied the Highwood Mountains of Montana. He joined the Harvard faculty in 1934 as a petrography instructor but switched to mineralogy when Prof. Charles Palache recruited him to assist in teaching the undergraduate mineralogy course. On Palache's retirement, Hurlbut took over Mineralogy 101, which consisted of three one-hour lectures and two three-hour laboratories per week for a full year, and he taught it until he retired in June 1972. His retirement was celebrated with a wonderful party in the Smithsonian Institution's Hall of Minerals and Gems, the first such use of the hall.