Remembering Hal Levin, Washington University

Just wanted to take a moment to remember
Dr. Hal Levin, professor emeritus, Earth and Planetary Sciences, Washington University, St. Louis, USA. He entered our profession in 1961, became department chair in 1973 and died in 2019 at age 90. He was the author and often illustrator for eleven editions of his geology textbook, “The Earth Through Time.”

Fig 1. Hal Levin, Wash U professor and author

From Levin’s obituary:
“Throughout his life, Levin was committed to unraveling the Earth’s secrets by examining microscopic ancient invertebrates from the Earth’s sedimentary layers to predict future changes and to expose the deleterious effects of climate change.

In other words, Levin studied forams.

“Levin joined the Washington University faculty in 1961. He taught and conducted research while concurrently serving as the coordinator of preprofessional studies in Arts & Sciences.

“He was chair of the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences from 1973-76. A prolific author, Levin wrote and illustrated numerous textbooks and laboratory studies in geology and paleontology, including 11 editions of the popular geology textbook “The Earth Through Time.”

Back in the day
when I was illustrating books like ‘Giants‘ …and back when you could just walk into university libraries and offices without a digital ID and a face mask, Dr. Levin invited me to illustrate the cover for the fifth edition of his university-level textbook on geology, ‘The Earth Through Time’ (Fig 2). I was just getting started in paleontology back then. He was just getting ready for retirement.

Figure 2. ‘The Earth Through Time’ the fifth of eleven editions, by Harold (Hal)( Levin, WashU. Cover illustration by David Peters.

Wash U is not famous for fossils,
but has several impressive legacy specimens from the old Gustav Hambach collection. Habach was a German immigrant who became head of the geology dept in 1887. Since then Wash U has been more into geology, both here on Earth and on Mars, with forays into human origins during the heyday of David Tab Rasmussen and Glenn C Conroy.

Figure 3. Ichthyosaur from the Hambach collection, Washington U, St Louis, USA.

Hal Levin was always kind and accommodating,
perhaps because there have never been more than a few paleo professionals and enthusiasts in St. Louis. Somehow we all find our mentors.

References

The one and only pterosaur skeleton at Washington University