"Geomorphologist" Robert P. Sharp Hand Signed TLS Dated 1973 For Sale

Up for sale "Geomorphologist" Robert P. Sharp Hand Signed TLS Dated 1973.

1911 – 25 May 2004) was an American geomorphologist and expert on the geological surfaces of the Earth and

the planet Mars. Sharp served as the chairman of the Division of

Geological Sciences at California Institute of

Technology (Caltech) from 1952 to 1968.[4] He built the modern department and especially

recruited new faculty in geochemistry, tectonic geomorphology, planetary science, and field geology. Professor Sharp

specialized in geomorphology and

published heavily in glacial terrain (the Sierra Nevada, Blue Glacier in the Olympic Peninsula, and Alaska), Mojave Desert terrain, and the Ruby-East Humboldt Range in north-central Nevada. Sharp retired in 1979 but continued leading geological

field trips afterwards (with emphasis on the Grand Canyon geology using rubber rafts). Robert Sharp was a member of the United

States National Academy of

Sciences and received the National Medal of Science from

President George H. W. Bush in

1989. Professor Sharp won the Penrose Medal from

the Geological Society of

America, its highest honor. Sharp was honored by Caltech as the

first named professorship in geology: the Robert Phillip Sharp Chair in

Geology. Sharp was a native son of Oxnard, California. He

attended Caltech as an undergraduate, beginning in 1930, earning a bachelor's

degree (1934) in geology, and master's degree (1935) in geology. While at

Caltech, he was quarterback on the football team. He matriculated to Harvard University for

a doctorate (1938) in geology under Professor Kirk Bryan. Sharp served in the United States Army during World War II as an analyst in the Arctic, Desert and

Tropical Information Center and achieved the rank of captain. During

World War II, Sharp performed extensive field work in the Aleutian Islands of the Alaskan Peninsula, simultaneously

testing new arctic clothing for soldiers, and quietly performing geological mapping of several islands, which he published

in the Bulletin of the Geological Society of America. Sharp was briefly an

instructor in geology at the University

of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign before World War II, then

briefly an Assistant Professor of Geology at the University of Minnesota immediately

after the war. As soon as possible, Caltech's Division Chairman Ian Campbell

arranged for Sharp to return home to Caltech as a full professor in 1947. Sharp

remained at Caltech for the next half-century, and was quickly promoted to the

Chairman of the Division of Geological Sciences, later renamed to the Division

of Geological and Planetary Sciences. While at Caltech, Sharp mentored dozens

of doctoral students in field geomorphology; these are now working at the United States

Geological Survey facility in Menlo Park, California and

in leading geology departments throughout North America. Sharp became a published expert on the glacial

geomorphology of the Sierra Nevada range, the Trinity Alps of northwestern

California, the Olympic Peninsula of Washington, and Mount Saint Elias in the Fairweather Range of Alaska. In the winter season, he

focused his geological field work in the Mojave Desert of California, with emphasis on the geomorphology of Cima Dome, and the sliding stones on the Racetrack Playa in northern Death Valley. Robert Phillip Sharp was an expert on the

physics of blown sand and the formation of sand dunes in

the Mojave Desert and the Coachella Valley. He was awarded the Kirk Bryan Award by

the Geological Society of

America for his scholarly publications on the geomorphology of

sand dunes in desert terrain. Professor Sharp loved weekend field trips, and so

he authored a number of field books in geology of southern California,

published by Mountain Press. While in his sixties, Sharp continued to teach

rigorous field geology to Caltech geology students during summer classes. Field

geology classes were taught at Henry Mountain in Utah,

where Grove Karl Gilbert discovered laccoliths.After retiring from Caltech, Sharp and his wife

Jean moved their home from Altadena to Santa Barbara, where they

lived for two decades in a custom-built house on Gibraltar Road overlooking

the Pacific Ocean. Bob and

Jean Sharp are survived by two adult children, Bruce Sharp and Christy Sharp.