D. Graham Jenkins Obituary

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D. Graham Jenkins (1933-1995)

David Graham Jenkins was born in Burry Port, Wales in the summer of 1933.
His early education took place at the Burry Port Council School and, later,
at the Llanelli Boy's Grammar School where he obtained a Higher School
Certificate in Botany, Geology, and Zoology in 1951. Graham embarked upon
his journey through the field of palaeontology in earnest from 1951 through
1959 at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, completing a B.Sc.
with First Class Honours in Geology in 1955 and a Ph.D. in biostratigraphy
and micropalaeontology in 1959 under the direction of Alan Wood. The
subject of Graham's Ph.D. thesis was the Tertiary planktonic foraminiferal
faunas of the Southern Hemisphere. After completing his dissertation he
joined British Petroleum as a Palaeontologist in Gisborne, New Zealand.

Southern climes agreed well with the young Graham Jenkins.  So much so that
he spent the next 18 years in New Zealand, moving from BP (1959-62), to the
New Zealand Geological Survey (1962-66), and then to the University of
Canterbury, Christchurch (1966-74) where he served as acting Head of the
Dept. of Geology from 1968-70, and again in 1974. This was an
extraordinarily productive time for Graham during which he made a number of
landmark discoveries in micropalaeontology and stratigraphy (e.g.,
establishing a Cenozoic planktonic foraminiferal zonation for New Zealand
[1966], discovering the first conodonts in New Zealand [1967], identifying
the first Carboniferous rocks in New Zealand [1971], taking leading parts
in DSDP legs 9 [1969-70] and 29 [1973], documenting the initiation of the
circum-Antarctic current [1974]), while at the same time serving in various
offices (including President) of the Geological Society of New Zealand. In
recognition of his outstanding achievements in the areas of New Zealand
geology, stratigraphy, and palaeontology Graham Jenkins was elected a
Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 1977.

In that same year Graham returned to the University of Wales (his alma
mater) on a sabbatical, after which he took up a position as a Senior
Consultant with the Open University. He maintained an association with the
Open University (one of Britain's most popular centres of higher learning)
for the remainder of his career, even though he returned to live in Wales
and work as an Honorary Research Fellow at the National Museum of Wales,
Cardiff in 1990. During this second stage of his career Graham continued
his solid record of innovation, discovery, and commitment. Among his
achievements during this time were documentation of a major North Atlantic
warming event c. 2.0 Ma with S. D. Houghton (1987) and an increasing
involvement with the International Union of Geological Sciences,
culminating in his chairmanship of the Subcommission on Paleogene
Stratigraphy from 1989 to present.

With the naming of more than 30 new planktonic foraminiferal taxa (in a
field when the naming of a single new species has been a comparatively rare
event for some time now), Graham was a widely respected taxonomist who knew
the value of hands-on experience with the fundamental data of
palaeontology. Yet, at the same time, Graham's bibliography of over 120
papers (no abstracts included in this count), published over a span of 37
years, range far and wide over the geological landscape, taking in topics
as diverse as biostratigraphy, palaeoceanography, and evolution and ranging
across the globe from New Zealand and Australia to the northeast Atlantic
and the North Sea. Indeed, during the last few years of his life Graham was
in the process of moving into areas completely outside the realm of geology
with the same restless intellect and original insight that was typical of
his overall approach (see John Cooper's description of Graham's
speculations on the construction of Stonehenge).

Given this record of accomplishment, it is all the more telling that Graham
was a genuine pleasure to have around and to work with. In the same manner
in which he was quick to recognize the critical test or observation that
would demonstrate or refute a proposed hypothesis, Graham was also quick to
recognize and respond to the essential humour of the way scientists in
general and palaeontologists in particular make their living. His
self-deprecating wit (usually involving references to his Welsh ancestry)
always seemed designed to put people at their ease and bring out the best
of the social context in which our science is often conducted. While known
primarily to micropalaeontologists and stratigraphers, Graham Jenkins was a
palaeontologist's palaeontologist and he will be sorely missed by those of
us who had the pleasure to have known him over the years.


Norman MacLeod



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Norman MacLeod
Senior Scientific Officer
N.MacLeod@nhm.ac.uk (Internet)
N.MacLeod@uk.ac.nhm (Janet)

Address: Dept. of Palaeontology, The Natural History Museum,
         Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD

Office Phone: 071-938-9006
Dept. FAX:  071-938-9277
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