paleonet Helen Nina Tappan Loeblich 10/12/1917 - 8/18/2004

["Jere H. Lipps" <jlipps@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Professor Helen Nina Tappan passed away after several years of medical 
problems at the age of 86 in Anaheim, California, on August 18.  She, 
together with her husband Alfred R. Loeblich, Jr., who preceded her in 
death, contributed in major ways to the entire field of 
micropaleontology.   They wrote the definitive systematic treatment of 
foraminifera in their 1964 Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, Protista 
volume, a later revision of it in 1987, and books on dinoflagellates and 
acritarchs, and silicoflagellates, as well as hundreds of papers on all 
groups of microfossils.   Helen wrote a prize-winning book on the 
Paleobiology of Plant Protists in 1980.  They both received many honors for 
their work, as well as for their professional service to the Cushman 
Foundation for Foraminiferal Research, the Paleontological Society, the 
SEPM, and GSA.    Helen Tappan, with Al acting as her assistant, trained 
many students at UCLA who have gone on to their own successful 
careers.   In all, Helen left an exceptional legacy, and she and Al will be 
remembered and their work cited for years to come.