FRED EARL INGERSON
(1906-1993)
Dr. Earl Ingerson was born on October 28, 1906, in Barstow, Texas. He spent all
of his formative years in Barstow, graduating from high school as class
valedictorian. He enrolled in Hardin-Simmons College at Abilene and graduated
summa cum laude with a BA in chemistry in 1928. He also played on and coached
the Hardin-Simmons tennis team to the Texas championship in 1926. At
Hardin-Simmons he then got an MA in geology in 1931. Ingerson continued his
education at Yale University, receiving the PhD cum laude in geology in 1934. He
did post-doctoral work in structural petrology with Professor Bruno Sander at
Innsbruck, Austria, in 1934 and 1935. From 1935 to 1947 he was on the staff of
the Geophysical laboratory of the Carnegie Institution in Washington, D.C. and
in 1947 became Chief of the Geochemistry and Petrology Branch of the U.S.
Geological Survey, a position he held until his move to UT-Austin in 1958. Dr.
Ingerson was recruited to develop the field of geochemistry and to enlarge its
international reputation. He was Professor of Geology at UT-Austin until his
retirement in 1977. From 1961 to 1964 he also served as Associate Dean of the
Graduate School. He married Martha Duncan, who was the "gracious lady" behind
him until her death in 1979. Professor Ingerson remarried and his second wife,
Maureen, died in 1992.
During his tenure with the Geophysical Laboratory and the U.S. Geological
Survey, Dr. Ingerson authored many of his nearly 200 publications. Among these
were such fundamental works as "Laboratory technique in petrofabric analysis"
(Geological Society of America Memoir 6, 1938), "Nature of the ore-forming
fluid" (Economic Geology, 1940), "Liquid inclusions in geologic thermometry"
(American Mineralogist, 1947), and "Methods and problems of geologic
thermometry" (Economic Geology, 1940).
Many honors and accomplishments typify Ingerson’s outstanding career: Honorary
Doctor of Science (Hardin-Simmons College, 1942), Day Medal (Geological Society
of America, 1955), Distinguished Service Award (U.S. Department of the Interior,
1959), and the Distinguished Alumnus Award (Hardin-Simmons University, 1977).
Ingerson was the founder of two major societies and their journals — The
Geochemical Society and its publication, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, and
the International Association of Geochemistry and Cosmochemistry and its journal
Organic Geochemistry. In recognition of the important role he played in
establishing these organizations, Earl Ingerson was asked to serve as the first
president of each. He held membership, fellowship, and committee service in more
than 35 professional societies in 13 nations.
Professor Ingerson taught physical geology and geochemistry at the upper
division and graduate levels. He supervised nine MA and six PhD students.
Although he retired in 1977, Professor Emeritus Ingerson remained active as an
editor and counselor to several journals and geological societies until
Alzheimer’s disease curtailed his activities. F. Earl Ingerson died on June 11,
1993, in Austin, Texas.
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