June 7, 2023
Dear Members of Our Campus Community,
I am deeply saddened to share with you that Professor Emeritus of Geological Sciences Arthur G. Sylvester passed away on May 2.
Dr. Sylvester joined our faculty in 1967, and devoted 35 years to teaching, mentoring, and inspiring our students with his courses in field geology, structural geology, and neotectonics, including his legendary field trips throughout California and beyond. He was a leader on our campus, chairing our Department of Geological Sciences (now Earth Science) from 1980 to 1983 and 1984 to 1986, and serving as Director of the UCEAP Study Center in Norway from 1972 to 1974.
Professor Sylvester was known around the world for his pioneering research, scholarship, and field studies. He was a Fellow of the Geological Society of America, and was featured as one of 190 Notable Earth Scientists in the 2003 publication A to Z of Earth Scientists. Deeply respected and admired by colleagues and students alike, he received numerous honors for his dedication to teaching and mentorship, including Faculty Member of the Year (twice), the Academic Senate Award for Distinguished Teaching, and the Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research Mentoring. Even in retirement, he continued to contribute to our academic community, and was awarded the Dickson Emeriti Professorship in 2015-16.
Our hearts go out to his wife, Diane, and their family, and to Art’s wide circle of colleagues, former students, and friends. Our campus flag is lowered today in his honor and memory.
I am honored to share the following remembrance from his family and our Department of Earth Science.
Arthur G. Sylvester (1938 - 2023)
Arthur G. Sylvester, UCSB Professor Emeritus in Geological Sciences, passed away in Santa Barbara on May 2, 2023 at the age of 85.
Dr. Sylvester was an expert in structural geology and neotectonics, and a general geologist whose wide-ranging research spanned the petrology and emplacement mechanisms of granitic plutons in Norway and eastern California, the deformation of minerals in thermal aureoles of plutons and thrust faults, the structure and deformation history of uplifted blocks along the San Andreas fault zone, and the vertical movements of active and potentially active faults in southern California, western Nevada, and western Wyoming. He also published on the volcanic history of the North Atlantic, earthquakes in southern California, occurrences of rare fossils in eastern California, and morphotectonics of southern Italy. His academic research included fieldwork in Norway, Italy, Grand Teton National Park, the Tahoe-Sierra, and the Salton Trough.
Sylvester pioneered a method for fault-mapping using high-resolution aerial photography. Using this technique, he mapped the Húsavík-Flatey Fault in Iceland, evaluated potential seismic surface rupture at TA-55 in Los Alamos National Laboratory, and characterized the Montefalco Quaternary Basin in Italy. As drone technology improved over the past decade, Sylvester seized the opportunity to apply the new tool to geology, becoming an FAA-certified small drone pilot and deploying his expertise across a range of projects, from investigating Santa Barbara coastal erosion and debris flow patterns to charting plant diversity and regrowth after wildfires.
Growing up in South Pasadena, Sylvester became fascinated by geology during high school biology field trips to the Colorado Plateau down the Yampa and Green rivers and Havasu Canyon. After receiving his A.B. degree in liberal arts and geology from Pomona College in 1959, Sylvester was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Oslo, Norway, where he matriculated in 1961. He returned to California and earned an M.A. (1963) and a Ph.D. (1966) in geology from UCLA (where he was also captain of the soccer team). After graduate school, he was a research geologist for Shell Development Company studying the tectonic history of the Pacific margin of the United States. UCSB hired him in 1967, and over his 35 years at the university, he taught courses in field geology at the introductory, intermediate, and advanced levels, structural geology, and neotectonics. He served for five years as Chairman of the Department of Geological Sciences. In 1972-74 he was Director of the University of California's Scandinavian Study Center at the University of Bergen, Norway.
A dynamic classroom lecturer, enthusiastic student advisor, and eagle-eyed editor, Sylvester truly shone as a field geologist. During 35 years of teaching geology at UCSB, Art led more than 300 field trips, mostly across California, including the lower Coachella Valley, the Eastern Sierras, Lake Tahoe, and Death Valley. His legendary 104A field course introduced thousands of students to the rigors and rewards of onsite mapping and fieldwork. His dedication to teaching was honored many times by his students and peers. In 1995 he received the University of California's Presidents Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research Mentoring, and in 1997 the UCSB Academic Senate's Award for Distinguished Teaching in the Mathematical, Physical, and Life Sciences. The UCSB graduate students in geology honored him with their Faculty Member of the Year award in 1999, and the undergraduate students did so, too, in 2000. In 1994 he received Coast Geological Society's Distinguished Teaching Award in Education. He was awarded the Dickson Emeriti Professorship for 2015-2016.
In addition, he led field seminars in structural geology and tectonics for various companies and organizations including ARCO, Shell, Unocal, Amoco, Chevron, Mobil, Occidental, the Geological Survey of Canada, the University of Oslo, the University of Arizona, AAPG, Geological Society of America, and SEPM. With his USGS colleague and friend Tor Nilsen, he led AAPG's field seminar in Exploration of Strike-slip and Rift Basins from 1989 to 2005. With UCSB colleague John Crowell, he led a comprehensive field excursion of the length of the San Andreas fault for the 1989 International Geological Congress.
Sylvester was a Distinguished Lecturer for the American Association of Petroleum Geologists in 1984, served as director of the association's Structural Geology School for three years, and was an associate editor of the AAPG Bulletin for four years. He was the Science Editor of the Bulletin of the Geological Society of America for six years from 1989 to 1995 and received the Society's Distinguished Service Award for that work. Sylvester was a Fellow of the Geological Society of America, and a member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, the Coast Geological Society, and the Seismological Society of America.
In 1995, Dr. Sylvester returned to Norway as a Fulbright Research Scholar at the University of Oslo, where again he studied the emplacement and evolution of granitic plutons, expanding on and adding to the work he had done three decades before. He continued and broadened that work as a Norwegian Research Council Fellow in 1996. While in Norway, Dr. Sylvester presented a V.M. Goldschmidt Lecture to the Norwegian Geological Survey, a lecture series named in honor of one of the foremost geochemists of the 20th century.
Among his recent publications are Roadside Geology of Southern California, published with Libby Gans in 2016; the 2nd Edition of Geology Underfoot in Southern California, published with Allen Glazner and Robert Sharp in 2020; and the 2nd Edition of Geology Underfoot in Death Valley and Eastern California with Allen Glazner and Robert Sharp in 2022.
In spring of 2023, Professor Sylvester was awarded the Geological Society of America's Structure and Tectonics Division's Career Contribution Award. The award was given posthumously at the Cordilleran Section Meeting in Reno, NV, May 17-19th, 2023.
After retiring from active teaching, Sylvester was president of the Santa Barbara Genealogical Society, where he spearheaded a $1 million fundraising campaign to expand the Sahyun Genealogical Library, serving as the project manager during construction. An avid model railroader, UCLA sports fan, and classical music afficionado, he was also a skilled linguist who read and spoke four languages – Norwegian, English, German, and Italian.
He is survived by his wife of 62 years, Diane, and their two daughters, Karin McCarty and Kathryn Bowers, son-in-law Andy Bowers, and three grandchildren, Connor McCarty, Caroline McCarty, and Emma Bowers. He was preceded in death by son-in-law Brian McCarty.
Sincerely,
Henry T. Yang
Chancellor