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Reginald Aldworth Daly(1871-1957)Did you know that R.A. Daly, author of the textbook,Igneous Rocks and the Depths of the Earth (1933) is aUniversity of Toronto alumnus? He was born on a farmnear Napanee and took his B.A. in 1891 and S.B. in 1892 atVictoria College where he was also an instructor in mathematicsin 1892. Professor A. B. Coleman was instrumentalin Daly’s decision to embark on a career in geology. He obtainedhis Ph.D. from Harvard in 1896 and, in the words ofone biographer, became an “authority in igneous petrology,structural geology, physiography, geophysics and marinegeology”. After four years of teaching at Harvard, Dalyjoined the Canadian International Boundary Commissioncarrying out a survey from the Pacific coast to the centralplains. On the basis of field photographs taken during theInternational Geological Congress in Russia (1897) FrancisBirch described Daly as “physically impressive, sartoriallyelegant, and conspicuous among the somewhat worn-downgathering of international geologists.” He took a positionat MIT in 1907 and in 1912 became the Sturgis HooperProfessor of Geology at Harvard. Daly was the creator andprincipal proponent of a theory for the creation of alkalirock by the assimilation of limestone into basaltic magmaand even though this idea did not survive the passage oftime, he was one of the most influential geologists of hisday. He became a U.S. citizen in 1920, was elected to theU.S. National Academy of Sciences and was awarded thePenrose Medal of the Geological Society of America andthe Bowie Medal of the American Geophysical Union.I am grateful to the Geological Society of America forpermission to use information in the article Reginal AldworthDaly(1871-1957): Eclectic Theoretician of the Earthby J.H. Natland, published in GSA Today, volume 16, no. 2,February 2006. This article contains several references tocontemporary Daly obituaries.J.J.F.Andrew Cowper Lawson(1861- 1952)B.A. 1883, M.A. 1885 (both University of Toronto and aGold Medal Scholar); Ph.D. (Johns Hopkins) 1888.Did you read the recent Simon Winchester book, A Crackin the Edge of the World? This account of the great SanFrancisco earthquake of 1906 contains several referencesto the 1908 Report of the San Francisco Earthquake Commission,a group that was chaired by Lawson during hischairmanship of the Department of Geology of the Universityof California at Berkeley. Lawson, born in Scotland,lived in Hamilton, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver beforehis move to California and is probably best known inCanada for his outstanding contributions to the geology ofthe Canadian Shield.See also Andrew C. Lawson; Scientist, Teacher Philosopherby F. E. Vaughn A. H. Clark Company, 1970 andA.M. Goodwin, A biographical Sketch of Andrew CooperLawson, Geological Association of Canada – Proceedings,Volume 24, 1972.Joseph Burr Tyrrell(1858-1957) B.A. 1881*This illustrious pioneer of Canadian geology achievedmany firsts in exploration and discovery and is celebrated,among many other things, for contributions to geography,glacial geology, stratigraphy, paleontology, and economicgeology. He is a member of the Canadian Mining Hall ofFame. A Toronto school, a park and a street and are allnamed in his honour as is a medal of the Royal Societyof Canada. Tyrrell is the subject a of a new biographicalstudy, Measuring Mother Earth; how Joe the Kid becameTyrrell of the North, by Heather Robertson ( McClellandand Stewart 2007).* In all fairness it should be pointed out that Tyrrell’sdegree was in biology, though it is probably reasonableto expect that he took some geology courses in his undergraduatecareer. His professional education was `on thejob’ when he was a summer field assistant at the GeologicalSurvey of Canada.7