Ohio Geological Society Honorary Member - A. Kirk Roberts (1928-2018)

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

A. Kirk Roberts (1928-2018)

By James McDonald

A. Kirk Roberts, born in 1928, was a graduate of Tulsa University, in 1952, with a degree in Geology. He served in in the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers in Japan after his university education. After his mandatory service, Kirk was employed by the Gulf Oil Company. One of his first assignments for Gulf Oil was oil exploration in North Dakota. He was later transferred to Ohio to work in the Morrow County oil fields, which were just beginning to boom in the early to mid 1960s. Eventually, he became an independent consulting geologist.

In his retirement, Kirk could be found discussing the Civil War at one of the local Civil War Roundtables. Kirk’s great-grandfather was a Confederate soldier who was captured at the surrender of Vicksburg, MS and was a prisoner of war at Fort Delaware.

Kirk served as president of the Ohio Geological Society in 1970-1971. Because of his service to the Ohio Geological Society, he was awarded Honorary Membership.

Kirk passed away Sunday, February 11, 2018 after a long bout of Parkinson's disease.

Bibliography

Roberts, A. Kirk, 1994, Geologic commentary on the Bill Allen and Assoc. #1 C.D. Goodman, in Shafer, William E., editor, The Ohio Geological Society anthology on Morrow County, Ohio 'oil boom', 1961-1967 and the Cambro-Ordovician reservoir of central Ohio: Ohio Geological Society, p. 289-302.

McClish, Richard F., Sr., and Roberts, A. Kirk, 1994, Crude oil and natural gas production history of Morrow County, Ohio (1959-1988) July, 1989, in Shafer, William E., editor, The Ohio Geological Society anthology on Morrow County, Ohio 'oil boom', 1961-1967 and the Cambro-Ordovician reservoir of central Ohio: Ohio Geological Society, p. 303-355.