[meteorite-list] In Memory: Planetary Geologist Ronald Greeley

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2011 13:08:41 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201110282008.p9SK8fSk016389_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://asunews.asu.edu/20111028_rongreeley

In memory: Planetary geologist Ronald Greeley
Arizona State University
October 28, 2011

Ronald Greeley, a Regents' Professor of planetary geology at Arizona
State University who has been involved in lunar and planetary studies
since 1967 and has contributed significantly to our understanding of
planetary bodies within our solar system, died Oct. 27, in Tempe. He was 72.

As the son of a military serviceman, Greeley moved around a great deal
as child. As a result he saw many different geological landforms and it
was no surprise that when he went to college, he majored in geology.
Greeley earned undergraduate and graduate degrees from Mississippi State
University. After receiving his doctorate in 1966 at the University of
Missouri in Rolla he worked for Standard Oil Company of California as a
paleontologist.

Through military duty, he was assigned to NASA's Ames Research Center in
1967 where he worked in a civilian capacity in preparation for the
Apollo missions to the Moon. He stayed on at NASA to conduct research in
planetary geology.

"I had been on sabbatical at NASA Ames Research Center working on the
analysis of lunar samples, and I saw Ron and I saw potential," recalls
Carleton Moore, founding director of ASU's Center for Meteorite Studies.
"When I got the opportunity, I hired him."

Greeley began teaching at ASU in 1977 with a joint professorship in the
department of geology and the Center for Meteorite Studies. He studied
wind processes on Earth and other planets and conducted photogeological
mapping of planets and satellites among other research projects. In
1986, Greeley left the Center for Meteorite Studies to serve as chair of
the department of geology.

"It was exciting to have him here; he was a major step in advancing
space at ASU. He was the first one that came that did missions and
experiments on planetary bodies,??? says Moore. "He was really the first
person to reach out to the other planets. And then he hired Phil
Christensen."

"Ron Greeley was indisputably one of the founders of planetary science,
and the influence he has had, both through his own work and through the
students and colleagues that he guided and mentored, touches virtually
all aspects of this field," says Christensen, a Regents' Professor in
the School of Earth and Space Exploration in ASU's College of Liberal
Arts and Sciences.

"Ron played a major role in my career,??? says Christensen. "I came to ASU
specifically to work with Ron after receiving my graduate degree, and I
have remained at ASU for 30 years largely because of the remarkable
environment that Ron created here to foster planetary science as an
extension of geology."

Greeley, a pioneer in the planetary geology field, served as the
director of the NASA-ASU Regional Planetary Image Facility and principal
investigator of the Planetary Aeolian Laboratory at NASA-Ames Research
Center. He served on and chaired many NASA and National Academy of
Science panels and he was involved in nearly every major space probe
mission flown in the solar system since the Apollo Moon landing. Mission
projects included the Galileo mission to Jupiter, Magellan mission to
Venus and Shuttle Imaging Radar orbiter around Earth. He was also part
of the data analysis program for the Voyager 2 mission to Uranus and
Neptune. His projects focused on the moons of these distant bodies.
Passionate about Mars exploration, he has been involved with several
missions to the Red Planet, including Mariner (6, 7, 9), Viking, Mars
Pathfinder, Mars Global Surveyor and the Mars Exploration Rovers. He is
a co-investigator for the camera system onboard the European Mars
Express mission.

Former students scattered throughout the universities and research
institutes of this country provide testimony to his influence on
planetary geology.

"As I began my research career, Ron reminded me of the old adage: 'A
journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step.' I am fortunate to
have had Ron there walking beside me," says Robert Pappalardo, senior
research scientist at NASA Jet Propulsion Lab. Greeley served as
Pappalardo's advisor. After receiving his doctorate from ASU in 1994,
Pappalardo worked with Greeley for one year immediately after that as a
postdoc. Since about 2002, the two had worked together on the science
basis for Europa mission studies.

"Ron was a gentleman, a statesman, a mentor, a scholar," says
Pappalardo. "Not a day goes by that I don't think, in some situation,
'What would Ron Greeley do?' "

"Ron was a profoundly influential scientist whose imprint on planetary
science will live on through his body of research and the many students
he taught and mentored. He was a wonderful friend and colleague. We were
fortunate to have known him and will miss him terribly," said Kip
Hodges, founding director of the School of Earth and Space Exploration.
Greeley served a year as interim director of the school before Hodges
joined ASU.

"Ron has been a very good friend of mine for many years, an incredible
leader in planetary science, and the founder and guiding force for
planetary science here at ASU. His leadership, friendship, and vision
will be sorely missed," says Christensen.

Greeley's work lives on in proposed missions to Europa, a moon of
Jupiter, and in the numerous students he mentored who today play pivotal
roles in space science efforts.

Greeley is preceded in death by his daughter, Vanessa. He is survived by
his wife Cindy and his son, Randall (Lidiette). He leaves behind three
grandchildren.

Memorial arrangements will be announced once details are available. A
Facebook page dedicated to Professor Greeley will also be updated with
related information:
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003109532235&sk=wall.

Nikki Cassis, ncassis at asu.edu
602-710-7169
School of Earth and Space Exploration
Received on Fri 28 Oct 2011 04:08:41 PM PDT