Richard Doell

Roland Doell
Roland Doell
Born	1923; MIT
Doctoral advisor	John Verhoogen

Richard Doell (1923 – March 6, 2008) was a distinguished American scientist known for developing the time scale for geomagnetic reversals with Allan V. Cox and Brent Dalrymple. This work was a major step in the development of plate tectonics. Doell shared the Vetlesen Prize with Cox and Dalrymple.

Life and career

Doell was born in Oakland, California in 1923 and grew up in Carpinteria, California.

After serving for 2 years as a combat infantryman during World War II, he resumed his studies at

UC Berkeley, where he earned his doctorate in geophysics

in 1955. Following graduation, Richard held teaching positions at the

U.S. Geological Survey Geophysics Branch in Menlo Park, California, in 1955 where he specialized in research on the Earth’s magnetic field and remanent magnetization

in rocks.

He was an integral member of a team that presented convincing evidence of periodic polarity reversals of earth’s main magnetic field by analyzing magnetization of rock samples collected from widely separated, geologically young, volcanic sequences. Furthermore, isotopic dating of the rock samples provided the first time scale of polarity epochs for the last 3.2 million years.

Geomagnetism and Paleomagnetism

from 1968 to 1970 and as Chief of the Geological Survey’s Branch of Theoretical Geophysics from 1967 to 1971.

In 1978, Richard retired from the USGS to pursue his passions for the new field of environmental studies, sailing, exploration, and photography. Having built a 38-foot sailboat, Muav, he began a series of long sailing cruises to Alaska, French Polynesia, and northern Europe. In 1984 he married Janet Hoare who joined him on those voyages.

Doell died in his sleep on March 6, 2008, at his home in

Point Richmond, California, following a series of grave illnesses.^[4]^[5]