John C. Crowell: A Geologist’s Geologist
Supplying wave forecasts for the Normandy invasion and guiding field trips in the southwestern United States as a University of California at Los Angles (UCLA) professor are just two of John C. Crowell’s adventures as a geologist. He inadvertently found a passion for geology when he filled an assigned seat in geology class as a favor to a friend who was more interested in his girlfriend than his geology class. Crowell’s discovery drove him to seek a master’s degree at UCLA; however, he eventually postponed his degree to pursue a job as a field geologist at Shell Oil Company. After he was drafted for World War II, he completed a meteorology program in the U.S. Army Air Corps. He eventually studied wave forecasting at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography with Prof. Harald Sverdrup and Walter Monk. Their forecasts of how storms affected waves in the English Channel helped determine the landing date for the Normandy Invasion. A feature story in the June 1999 Geotimes details Crowell’s participation in the war and the rest of his geological career.