Arnold H. Bouma

"A truly caring man who put his family and students first and who truly impacted thousands of lives." Surrounded by his family, Arnold H. Bouma passed away the evening of Friday, Dec. 16, 2011, at age 79. He is survived by his best friend and wife for more than five decades, Lieneke; their three sons, three daughters-in-law, and seven grandchildren. He was known internationally in the geological world as "an extraordinary geoscientist, a prolific author and editor, an educator committed to the highest standard of teaching and a researcher who advanced the geocommunities' knowledge through his innovation, creativity and tireless contributions to deep-water sedimentology and stratigraphy." Arnold Bouma was born in 1932 in Groningen, Netherlands. His professional education started at the State University at Utrecht, Netherlands where he earned a masters of science in Geology, Sedimentology and Paleontology in 1959 and a doctorate in Sedimentary Geology in 1961. Arnold Bouma's 1962 research findings identified a sequence for dividing deep-water turbidites into intervals - which later became known as "the Bouma Sequence;" it has been cited as being "a geological milestone of the 20th century." In 1966, Arnold and his family immigrated to the U.S. where he accepted a professorship in oceanography at Texas A&M University. From 1975 to 1981, he was a marine geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. Between 1981 and 1986, he was a senior scientist, manager, and acting vice president for Gulf Oil Research and Development Co. In 1986, he became a senior research associate at the Chevron Research and Development branch in La Habra, Calif. He left Chevron in 1988 to become the Charles T. McCord chaired professor at LSU in Baton Rouge where he taught for many years. In 2005, he and his wife returned to College Station, Texas, where he held a position as adjunct professor with a bold plan to establish a Shale Studies Center at Texas A&M. Arnold was the winner of LSU's 2003 Distinguished Research Master Award and a distinguished lecturer and leader for the American Association of Petroleum Geologists and the Society for Sedimentary Geology. His numerous awards include the Francis P. Shepard Award from the SEPM in 1982 and the Outstanding Education Award from the Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies in 1992. In 2007 he was the recipient of the Sidney Powers Memorial Award, the AAPG's highest honor. And in 2010, Arnold received the Doris M. Curtis medal for scientific excellence. A memorial service will be held at Aria Memorial Chapel on Wednesday, Dec. 21, at 11 a.m. In lieu of flowers, the family requests any memorials to be sent in honor of Arnold Bouma to the SEPM Foundation endowment fund (www.sepm.org) to help support future graduate studies. Please send family condolences and sign online register book at www.ariacremation.com. "There are still discoveries to be made, but it won't be the computer that tells us what it all means, for that, we always have to go back to the rock." - AHB. Arrangements with ARIA Cremation Service and Funeral Home 19310 Preston Road, Dallas, TX 75252, (214)306-6700.