Allison Ralph "Pete" Palmer

1927 - 2022

Pete Palmer lived a rich and full life, right up to his last remarkable day. On October 24, 2022, as he requested, Pete Zoomed with his entire family. His wife, six adult children and spouses, a sister-in-law, step- daughter-in-law, niece and nephew, 7 grand kids and step-grandkids, and two of four great-grandchildren, all joined in from 11 states, 2 Canadian provinces, 4 time zones, and his bedside (Pete loved stats!). Propped up in bed, he watched and listened intently as everyone declared their love, admiration, and thanks. With this last heartfelt item on his to-do list done, Pete departed peacefully hours later.

The son of Allison Raymond 'Ray' and Elizabeth 'Betty' Palmer, Pete, and younger brother Richard ('Dick') had a comfortable upbringing on a spacious, one-acre estate in Bound Brook, New Jersey. He was clearly precocious, starting kindergarten at four, skipping first grade, starting high school at 12, Penn State University at 16 (BSc 1946), and graduate school at 19 (University of Minnesota, PhD 1950).

Pete wrote early and prodigiously. He contributed poems, crosswords, and short stories to newspapers in elementary, middle, and high school. Starting at age 12, he reported four summers for a local newspaper where his family camped. He crafted clever ditties for numerous talent shows over the years. From 1951 to 2009, he wrote over 150 papers, book chapters and monographs on various topics in paleontology. Until the end, he contributed to the Memoirs group at Frasier Meadows Retirement Community, wrote bios of new residents for its newsletter, played iPad Scrabble with his son, and enjoyed Wordle, chess, and making terrible puns.

Trilobites - extinct fossil arthropods that dominated the world's oceans after the dawn of animal life - were Pete's passion from the moment he split his first complete specimen out of a rock to the last time he bent over one at a tiny desk lab in his Frasier apartment. He was internationally revered as a world expert on the Cambrian era.

His career had four phases. Initially (1950-66), he worked for the US Geological Survey (Washington, DC), analyzing fossils and fossil localities in the western US. Next (1966-80), he joined academia as Professor of Geology in the Earth and Space Sciences department (SUNY Stony Brook, NY), where he taught, mentored graduate students and was occasional chair. Changing paths again (1980-94), he used his gift of bringing people together as Editor-in-Chief to produce the colossal 37-volume (nearly 2000 contributors!) Decade of North American Geology project for the Geological Society of America (GSA) (Boulder, CO). Finally, he became a gentleman scientist, establishing The Institute for Cambrian Studies and a complete lab in his Pine Brook Hills home. He consulted with international trilobite experts, occasionally mentored students, and always kept his microscope close by.
Ever an enthusiastic educator, Pete co-wrote and narrated a powerful 20 min. film The Earth HAS a History (GSA 1989, YouTube), filmed around Boulder. It shows how the ancient age of the earth can be grasped easily by looking at one dramatic rock formation in Eldorado Canyon. In his last decades, he led close to 100 geology hikes in the area. He also spoke widely about sustainability issues to Rotary Clubs and other groups. Characteristically, as his eldest son drove him to urgent care weeks before he passed, Pete gave a running commentary on rock formations they passed.

Pete was an equally enthusiastic learner with unquenchable curiosity and a wide-ranging concern for our larger world.
He garnered many scientific honors, notably the Walcott Medal (US National Academy of Sciences), the Golden Plate Award (American Academy of Achievement), and elected Fellow (American Association for the Advancement of Science), as well as numerous scientific society awards. He helped an international committee search the planet - as far as Canada, UK, Siberia, Beijing, and Australia - to identify the fossil locality that best marked the time when marine animals first burgeoned and diversified 540 million years ago. (It's in Newfoundland). Notably, he was invited by a Saudi prince to converse with Islamic scholars about geological truths in the Qur'an, which yielded a quote about deep time he greatly treasured: "In the presence of eternity, the mountains are as transient as the clouds."

Pete was predeceased by his younger brother, Dick, and his wife of 66 years, Pat. He is survived by their five children (Richard, Sandra, Mark, Steven, Deborah), stepdaughter Beverly Henderson, five grandchildren, 4 great grandchildren, and wife Janet Klemperer, his joyful, loving companion in his last decade. He deeply loved his extensive family, and generously contributed to the fabric of every community where he lived. He will be profoundly missed.

An informal, open-house commemoration is planned for Sunday Dec. 4 from 3-5pm at Frasier Meadows. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Frasier Meadows Retirement Community Employee Education Fund, about which Pete cared deeply.