July 2008 Issue
Obituary
Dr. Robert Edward Folinsbee, OC, P.Geol.
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An APEGGA life member widely regarded as a giant in the geological community and a driving force in the development of the University of Alberta’s geology program died on May 1. Dr. Robert Edward Folinsbee, OC, P.Geol., was 91.
Dr. Folinsbee, who received APEGGA’s highest honour in 1973, the Centennial Leadership Summit Award, was a multi-faceted academic and professional, a visionary about future shortages in the world supply of fossil fuels, and even a catalyst for an increased national interest in meteorites.
“Bob had a plethora of eclectic research interests and as a result he was a prolific publisher of scientific papers,” says a tribute written by Dr. Roger Morton, P.Geol., professor emeritus at the University of Alberta and one of Dr. Folinsbee’s former colleagues.
Dr. Folinsbee’s early papers, focusing mainly on mineralogy and regional geology, were published by the Geological Survey of Canada. Later publications reflected his interests in geochronology, ore deposits and meteorites — Dr. Folinsbee made important contributions in all three fields.
Among his survivors is current APEGGA Coun. Allin Folinsbee, P.Geoph., who is one of his four children. His daughter-and-law and Allin Folinsbee’s wife is the renowned geologist Alice Payne, P.Geol.
The geology community very nearly didn’t end up with Dr. Folinsbee at all. In the mid-1930s he registered at the U of A to study law, but stimulating undergraduate geology lectures by the famed Dr. P.S. Warren, as well as chats during walks over the High Level Bridge with fellow student Charles Stelck, changed all that. These experiences “rapidly converted him to the pursuit of a career in geology,” says Dr. Morton’s tribute.
Perhaps those were his first lessons in just how influential the words and attention of others can be, because he also became known as an inspiration and mentor to young people. Many of his former students, in fact, now occupy senior positions in academia and industry, and his enthusiasm and knowledge were passed along to many successful exploration geologists.
In 1938 he received his bachelor of science degree from the University of Alberta, and then he moved to the University of Minnesota where he was awarded a master of science degree in 1940 and a PhD in 1942.
In the summers of the late 1930s through to the late 1940s, Dr. Folinsbee worked as a field geologist with the Geological Survey of Canada in the Northwest Territories and in Northern Ontario.
During mapping of the Lac du Gras area of N.W.T., he collected indicator minerals that eventually provided clues for the discovery of Canada’s first diamondiferous kimberlites there during the 1990s. Today, the University of Alberta is the site of the De Beers Laboratory for Diamond Research.
During the Second World War, Dr. Folinsbee became a pilot with the Royal Canadian Air Force. He was training for active service in the Pacific when the war ended in 1945.
Then Dr. Folinsbee spent a post-doctoral year at Harvard University, and in 1946 he joined the University of Alberta as an assistant professor. He became an associate professor in 1950, a full professor in ’55.
After a sabbatical year at the University of California, Berkeley, he was elected chairman of the Department of Geology at the U of A, a position he held until 1969. Dr. Folinsbee built the department into a centre of excellence with international stature.
He started the job “filled with enthusiasm for the new innovations in geochemistry and geochronology,” says Dr. Morton’s tribute. “He strove to build the department into a well-staffed and enviably equipped centre of excellence.”
Meteorites were among Dr. Folinsbee’s interests, stemming from his study of Canada's largest known meteorite, the Bruderheim, which fell near Edmonton in March 1960. He and his colleagues prepared detailed studies and descriptions of the fall and recovery of the Bruderheim, and also of its geochemistry.
In fact the work stimulated a new Canadian interest in meteorites, leading rapidly to the recovery and study of others of them, including the Peace River and the Revelstoke. The work may even have led to the formation of the National Research Council Associate Committee on Meteorites, says Dr. Morton.
“Today, the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences in the University of Alberta is blessed with one of the world’s better collection of meteorites, thanks to Bob’s enthusiasm,” Dr. Morton wrote.
Dr. Folinsbee’s successes were well recognized, through many appointments, awards and honorary degrees. He received the Royal Society of Canada’s Willet G. Miller Medal in 1967, was named a fellow of the society and was its president in 1977-1978. In 1973, he was made an officer of the Order of Canada.
He was president of the Geological Society of America in 1975-1976 and president of the 24th International Geological Congress in Montreal in 1972. Honorary degrees were bestowed upon him by the University of Windsor in 1972 and U of A in 1989.
Dr. Folinsbee retired in 1977 and started a second career as a hobby farmer from his family cottage at Fallis on Lake Wabamun, west of Edmonton. He still contributed to local geology projects, such as the popular Edmonton Geological Society publication Edmonton Beneath Our Feet.
Bob married Catherine Terwillegar in 1942. They had four children — Allin, John, Terry and Catherine. He has seven grandchildren and two step-grandchildren. Dr. Folinsbee’s wife Catherine died in 1994.
In 2001 he married Mary Jean McBride and moved to Southern Ontario, where he spent his remaining years.