Norman Dennis Newell (January 27, 1909 – April 18, 2005) was professor of

geology Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ea ...

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, and chairman and

curator A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...

invertebrate Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...

paleontology Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

at the American Museum of Natural History in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

Personal life

Newell was born in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...

to Virgil Bingham and Nellie Newell. Shortly after he was born his family moved to

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to th ...

. Newell's father encouraged his early interest in geology from a young age, often taking him to

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

deposits located in Kansas and

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...

. In 1929 at the age of 20 Newell received his B.S. degree from the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. T ...

, and his M.A. degree in 1931. He received his

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

in geology from

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

in 1933, where he was mentored by Charles Schuchert and Carl Dunbar.Rigby, J. K. (2006). tp://rock.geosociety.org/pub/Memorials/v35/Newell.pdf "Memorial to Norman Dennis Newell (1909–2005)."''Memorials'' 35 (May): 13-16. Newell was twice married. His first marriage was to Valerie Zirkle on February 25, 1928. Newell married Zirkle while an undergraduate at the University of Kansas. Valerie Zirkle died in 1972. His second marriage was to Gillian W. Wormall on April 28, 1973. Wormall was a co-worker of Newell's at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Newell was also a talented

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of Single-reed instrument, single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed (mouthpi ...

player, and played in

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

bands to earn money through college. He briefly considered a career as a musician, but his intellectual interests moved him in a different direction. Newell died at his home in

Leonia Leonia is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States census, the borough's population was 8,937,New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

on April 18, 2005 at the age of 96.

Scientific achievements

Newell was an eminent paleontologist and systematist of Upper

Paleozoic The Paleozoic (or Palaeozoic) Era is the earliest of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic Eon. The name ''Paleozoic'' ( ;) was coined by the British geologist Adam Sedgwick in 1838 by combining the Greek words ''palaiós'' (, "old") and ' ...

and

Mesozoic The Mesozoic Era ( ), also called the Age of Reptiles, the Age of Conifers, and colloquially as the Age of the Dinosaurs is the second-to-last era of Earth's geological history, lasting from about , comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretace ...

bivalves. He taught geology and paleontology at Columbia University from 1945 to 1977. During his tenure at Columbia he trained a number of students who later became prominent paleontologists, including Stephen Jay Gould,

Niles Eldredge Niles Eldredge (; born August 25, 1943) is an American biologist and paleontologist, who, along with Stephen Jay Gould, proposed the theory of punctuated equilibrium in 1972. Education Eldredge began his undergraduate studies in Latin at Columb ...

Steven M. Stanley Steven M. Stanley (born November 2, 1941) is an American paleontologist and evolutionary biologist at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He is best known for his empirical research documenting the evolutionary process of punctuated equilibrium in t ...

, Alan Cheetham, Alfred Fischer, and Don Boyd. Stephen Jay Gould remarked, "The work of graduate students is part of a mentor's reputation forever, because we trace intellectual lineages in this manner. I was Norman Newell's student, and everything that I ever do, as long as I live, will be read as his legacy." An important part of Newell's research was the study of mass extinctions on the history of life, publishing on the topic well before the

Alvarez hypothesis The Alvarez hypothesis posits that the mass extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs and many other living things during the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event was caused by the impact of a large asteroid on the Earth. Prior to 2013, it was c ...

made such theorizing respectable. Newell was a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

. He was also the author of numerous scientific papers and several books including ''On Creation and Evolution'', which criticized the arguments of

creationists Creationism is the religious belief that nature, and aspects such as the universe, Earth, life, and humans, originated with supernatural acts of Creation myth, divine creation.#Gunn 2004, Gunn 2004, p. 9, "The ''Concise Oxford Dictionary'' say ...

. In 1961 Newell was awarded the Mary Clark Thompson Medal from the National Academy of Sciences. His numerous awards include accolades from

, the American Geological Institute, and the American Museum of Natural History.Keane, Christopher (2004)
"Norman D. Newell to Receive Legendary Geoscientist Award."
Retrieved on 2009-6-24.

Bibliography

*Newell, N. D. (1952)
"Periodicity in invertebrate evolution."
''Journal of Paleontology'' 26 (May): 371-385. *Newell, N. D. (1954)
"Expedition to Raroia, Taumotus."
''Atol Research Bulletin'' 31 (Nov. 30): 1-109. *Newell, N. D. (1959)
"The Nature of the Fossil Record."
''Proceedings, American Philosophical Society'' 103 (2): 264-285. *Newell, N. D. (1962). "Paleontological Gaps and Geochronology." ''Journal of Paleontology'' 36 (3): 592-610. *Newell, N. D. (1963). "Crises in the History of Life." ''Scientific American'' 208 (2): 76-92. *Newell, N. D. (1965). "Mass Extinctions at the End of the Cretaceous Period." ''Science'' 149 (27 August): 922-924. *Newell, N. D. (1967). "Revolutions in the History of Life." In ''Uniformity and Simplicity''. Boulder CO: Geology Society of America, pp. 63–91. *Newell, N. D. and Stephen Jay Gould, S. J. Gould, ed. (1980).
Late Paleozoic Pelecypods: Pectinacea and Mytilacea.
' Salem, NH: Ayer Publishing. *Newell, N. D. (2001)
"Half century later."
In G.D. Stanley ''The History and Sedimentology of Ancient Reef Systems''. New York: Springer Press, 205-216.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Newell, Norman 1909 births 2005 deaths American curators 20th-century American geologists Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Penrose Medal winners People associated with the American Museum of Natural History People from Leonia, New Jersey University of Kansas alumni Yale University alumni