Northern Arizona University

Geology Department
History

The first record of a geology course taught at what was then Northern Arizona Normal School is in the 1902-1903 catalog, which lists geology and geography as a first-year, first-seminar course for five credits. In 1903, the Coconino Sun announced a geology course to be taught in summer session by Miss Cornelia Hartwell, who had joined the college faculty as a science teacher in 1900.

In 1926, the college, known by then as Arizona State Teachers College, listed in the catalog the following courses under geology: Introduction to Geology, Historical Geology, and Mineralogy. These were taught by anthropologist John McGregor.

Beginning in 1935, and continuing for 25 years, Dr. Agnes Allen, a geographer by training, taught Physical and Historical Geology each year, along with courses in her own specialty. She developed the Historical Geology class, featuring an overnight trip into the Grand Canyon, into one of the most popular science course at the college, sometimes having 100 students enrolled out of a total student body of just several hundred.

In 1960, Charles St. Claire joined the college and became the first faculty member to have a graduate degree in Geology at what was then Arizona State College. In 1962, Stanley S. Beus replaced Charles St. Claire. A second geology staff member, Richard W. Rush, was added in 1963 to the faculty of Natural Science at the College. In 1965, the geology staff was increased to three. That same fall semester, the staff of geology and geography were combined to form the Department of Geology and Geography, having a total of five faculty members, with Stanley S. Beus as its first chair. That same year, the program for a Bachelor of Science degree in geology was approved, and the following spring semester (1966) seven geology majors were included in the graduating senior class. It was a good year - the college again changed names, this time to Northern Arizona University. The Master of Science degree programs in Geology and in the Teaching of Earth Science were approved in the fall of 1966, and that same academic year the first five graduate students enrolled in the Geology and Earth Science Education programs. Two more faculty were added in the fall of 1967, bringing the total geology staff to five. That year the Geology and Geography Department divided into separate departments.

By 1972, the faculty had grown to nine, with 31 seniors and 37 MS students. A large increase in enrollments occurred in the early 1980s, associated with high oil prices and high oil exploration activity. Student enrollments continued to follow employment opportunities, crashing in the early 1990s and rebounding through the 1990s with increased opportunities in environmental consulting and regulatory fields.