Alexander Robert McBirney

Mac was one of the rare individuals that had a keen interest in both scientific and cultural affairs. Our conversations were always intellectually stimulating, and his dry sense
of humor was positively fantastic for me! His memory leaves me a happier person, and always with a smile.

In 1982 after a 5-year hiatus working, I uprooted from Denver, drove west in a VW microbus to study ore deposits at the University of Oregon. I was unsupported and will always be grateful for admission. I arrived two weeks before the Fall quarter started. There was a pre-quarter class listed as The Death March: An Introduction to the Cascades. Naturally, I signed up. That's how I met the man I would come to know as Mac. Like my dad, Mac was a West Point graduate -just separated by six...

Mac was the first Geology professor that I had when I started at U of O in 1977, Geology 201. It was in Mac's class that I was introduced to the Condon Society, and became involved in the Geology student community at the U of O, often to the chagrin of the faculty. When Mt. St. Helens was awakening in 1980, Mac asked the Condon Society if we might want to help bring one of his friends and colleagues to the University as a speaker, Haroun Tazieff. We heartily agreed and co-hosted a number of...

Mac was my PhD dissertation advisor in the late '70's. I consider him one of the most consequential and inspiring people in my life. He was a wonderful and innovative scientist, and an outstanding teacher. Mac could convey complex material with wit, charm, and a great sense of humor that I and most other students found compelling. I left the university before completing my dissertation, and Mac was instrumental in making sure that I did finish, and that my work met his high standards. I will...