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

[Tim Patterson <tpatters@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I was deeply saddened to hear of the passing of my former Ph.D. Supervisor
(1983-1986) Helen Tappan Loeblich on August 18. As Jere Lipps mentioned in
his notice Helen and her husband Al Loeblich have left an outstanding legacy
in several branches of micropaleontology.  She and Al formed an interesting
and very effective tag team supervisory committee with Helen being rather
demur in her approach and Al being more than a bit more direct.  In addition
to being a world class researcher, parent, musician, and linguist, Helen was
also a great cook.  I fondly remember pleasant Thanksgiving dinners at their
house (although it was back to the lab right after!)  All in all one could
not have asked for a better pair of supervisors.  This is the end of an era
in our discipline, and I will miss them.  God speed Helen.

Tim Patterson


___________________________
Dr. R. Tim Patterson
Professor of Geology
Dept. of Earth Sciences
College of Natural Sciences
Carleton University
1125 Colonel By Drive
Ottawa, Ontario
K1S 5B6 CANADA

___________________________
tpatters@ccs.carleton.ca
tel: 613-520-2600 ext. 4425
fax: 613-520-2569
www.carleton.ca/~tpatters




On 8/28/04 7:59 PM, "Jere H. Lipps" <jlipps@berkeley.edu> wrote:

> 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.
> 
>