Chester Ray Longwell (15 October 1887 – 15 December 1975) was an American geologist who conducted extensive research into the geology of the
Basin and Range province
The Basin and Range Province is a vast physiographic region covering much of the inland Western United States and northwestern Mexico. It is defined by unique basin and range topography, characterized by abrupt changes in elevation, alternatin ...
in Nevada. His fieldwork led to a more complete understanding of Paleozoic and lower Mesozoic stratigraphic sequence in the southern Great Basin.
Elected a Fellow of the
Geological Society of America
The Geological Society of America (GSA) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the advancement of the geosciences.
History
The society was founded in Ithaca, New York, in 1888 by Alexander Winchell, John J. Stevenson, Charles H. Hitch ...
in 1923, Longwell served as society's president in 1949.
He was elected a member of the
National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nat ...
in 1935.
From 1953 to 1954, he served as president,
American Geological Institute
The American Geosciences Institute (AGI) is a nonprofit federation of about 50 geoscientific and professional organizations that represents geologists, geophysicists, and other earth scientists. The organization was founded in 1948. The name of ...
. He was elected to 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 communi ...
in 1948 and the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, ...
in 1953.
Chester Ray Longwell was born on 15 October 1887 near
Spalding, Missouri to John Kilgore and Julia (Megown) Longwell.
He earned his bachelor's degree at University of Missouri and his Ph.D. at Yale. He taught at Yale from 1920 to 1956. He died at his home in
Palo Alto, California
Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto.
The city was ...
on 15 December 1975.
Selected publictations
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References
1887 births
1975 deaths
20th-century American geologists
University of Missouri alumni
Yale University alumni
Yale University faculty
Fellows of the Geological Society of America
{{US-geologist-stub
Members of the American Philosophical Society