The Arizona Geological Society is looking at setting up a program to capture images, videos, and oral histories of Arizona geologists and other geologists who have worked in Arizona. In-coming AGS President Mark Cocker proposed the idea at the AGS Executive Committee on Thursday night and it was enthusiastically received. An ad hoc committee is going to pursue the proposal.
Mark noted that AGS members have been involved in remarkable events and discoveries in Arizona and around the world but also have wonderful anecdotes and personal stories about the day to day ups and downs of doing geology.
The idea is to record remembrances, along with photos, slides, letters etc, and distribute them on CDs and online.
Along these lines, the AZGS recently received a collection of short movies of Troy Pewe, the legendary ASU geology professor, from his family. They show Troy, along with students and colleagues, doing field work and exploring the Grand Canyon and adjacent regions. We've posted them on our Visualizing Geology web page, something that is still being built.
We have a rich history that needs to be preserved, in conjunction with similar projects such as the Miners Story Project, Arizona Memory Project, or at the national level, This American Life.