Ohio Geological Society Honorary Member - Constance G. Eirich (1888 - 1973)

 

The past few years, I've been writing biographies of geologists who have been awarded Honorary Membership by the Ohio Geological Society. Because of various website reorganizations, these biographies were never republished to the website or never released on the website (https://www.ohiogeosoc.org/). I thought I would release these biographies through my blog, in order to help recognise the important work that these geologists had done in Ohio.

                                                                                                                                                              

Ohio Geological Society Honorary Member

Constance G. Eirich (1888 - 1973)

By Margaret Pattison, Robbie Gries, and James McDonald

Eunice Grace Constance Eirich was born on October 14, 1888 in Van Wert, Ohio to Rev. J. Conrad Eirich and W. Margaret Eirich (nee Young). She was the youngest of eight children, of which only four lived to adulthood; the older children were Laura, Otto, and Frank. Constance graduated from Van Wert High School, and for a time, attended Ohio Wesleyan University. She transferred to the University of Michigan, where she obtained a bachelor’s degree in 1911 and a master’s degree in geology in 1913. After graduation, Constance taught geography and physiography in the Little Rock, Arkansas school system, taught in the Van Wert public school system, and later moved to Battle Creek, Michigan, where she taught physiography (geography) in the Battle Creek school system for two years. During her summers off from teaching, she took courses to prepare for a possible Ph.D. at the University of Chicago and the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

In 1918, she was considering taking a teaching position in the Kansas City school system, when through some friends (possibly from her summer course work at the University of Chicago), she became interested in the oil industry and moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma. It was in Tulsa that Constance became a pioneering woman petroleum geologist. She volunteered to work for the Gypsy Oil Company (which later became the Gulf Oil Corporation), and on September 1, 1918, was assigned to work as a subsurface geologist in the Tulsa production offices. During her time at the Gulf Oil Corporation, Constance discovered four oil fields in Oklahoma: Cheyarha (in 1944) and Garcreek (in 1946), both in Seminole County; Rosenwald in Okfuskee County (in 1948); and Payson East in Lincoln County (in 1952). Constance worked for Gulf Oil Corporation for 34 years. She rose to the position of acting chief geologist of Gulf Oil, becoming one of the first women to ever occupy that position in industry. Constance was also the first woman member of the Tulsa Geological Society, the first woman director of the Tulsa Geological Society in 1927, and became a member of AAPG in 1921. Because of her pioneering work as a woman petroleum geologist, Constance was awarded the second Honorary Membership by the Ohio Geological Society in 1973.

Constance retired on October 1, 1952 and returned to Van Wert, Ohio, where she lived with her life long friend, Ruth Douglas. She continued to be active during her life in Van Wert, Ohio. She was elected to the Van Wert City Council and was the president of the Van Wert Historical Society. She was an active member of St. Mark's Lutheran Church, the Van Wert Woman's Club, the Garden Study Club and Van Wert County Farm Bureau. Constance also donated all of her AAPG Bulletins, from 1921 to 1960, to Wittenberg University, along with many books and U.S. Geological Survey publications from her personnel library. This donation was considered an extremely important acquisition for the Wittenberg University’s Thomas Library geology collection. In addition, an endowment was established in her name at the University of Michigan. Constance Eirich died on March 10, 1973. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Eirich, C.G., 1913, A study in Historico-Geography – The establishing of the Ohio-Michigan boundary line: Journal of Geography, vol. 12, p. 5-8.