AASP Primary Records Program

Unpublished

ROBERT C. BRIGHT
1903-1995
Owen K. Davis

Robert C. Bright, long time faculty of the Department of Ecology and Behavioral Biology, University of Minnesota, died February 16, 1995, of lung cancer. Bob was an incredibly diverse master of Quaternary biotic remains of North America. Known in the West as a palynologist, diatomist, and expert of plant macrofossil identification, Bob's work in the Midwest primarily focused on mollusks. Bob's early work on the pollen and macrofossils of Swan Lake, the spill- over site of Lake Bonneville, remains the baseline research for southern Idaho. His dating of the diversion of the Bear River likewise is a fundamental contribution to the understanding of the chronology of Pluvial Lake Bonneville.

I best remember Bob as a gracious advisor, who loved the Rockies, and who enthusiastically shared that devotion with his students.. Every year, in early Autumn, Bob would return to his Preston, Idaho, home to collect samples and explore the Wasatch Mountains in his old red Jeep. His devotion to students, uncompromising standards, and phenomenal breadth were without equal.

I have a lot of memories of Bob. He was one of the most important people in my life and certainly in my career. He was full of so many contradictions that I don't think any one person could ever have known him completely. I've tried to follow his strengths and avoid some of his shadows. I will never be able to do anything but admire his personal integrity and sense of honor. I'll miss Bob a lot.

I will always remember our first gruff conversation on the phone, from Washington State University, and staying with him in a camp trailer on the National Reactor Testing Station in Idaho, and in his parents house in Preston. I still remember Thatcher Basin, Dinky Lake, and Red Rock Pass. That was 20 years ago, but that part of Bob Bright will stay with me forever.

University of Minnesota Faculty Minutes
APRIL 20, 1995
http://www1.umn.edu/usenate/usen/950420sen.html

XIII. TRIBUTE TO DECEASED MEMBERS OF THE UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY

FACULTY

Robert C. Bright
1928-1995

Robert C. Bright (Bob), 66, died February 16, 1995, in his apartment in Eaglecrest Commons in Roseville, Minnesota. He was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, on December 27, 1928, the son of Ray C. and Merle Ingram Bright. He and his family moved to Preston, Idaho in 1929 where his father managed a lumber company. Bob graduated from Preston High School and then pursued undergraduate studies in Aeronautical Engineering at the University of Idaho and ultimately majored in Geology at the University of Utah. He was first Lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force from 1953-1954. He received his M.S. in Geology from the University of Utah in 1960 and his Ph.D. in Geology with Dr. Herbert Wright at the University of Minnesota in 1963. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Sweden in 1963-64 studying paleoecology (with Maj-Britt Florin 1905-1993), and a research associate with the Limnological Research Center from 1964-65. From 1965-67 he was the State Paleontologist with the Minnesota Geological Survey.

He joined the faculty of the University of Minnesota in 1965, initially in the Geology Department and later in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior. From 1965 he was Curator of Paleontology and from 1987 to the present, he was Curator of Invertebrates in the Bell Museum of Natural History. He also served as Acting Director (1956-1970) and Associate Director (1978-1980) of the Bell Museum. He started a seed collection in 1970 for teaching and research in Quaternary paleoecology. This collection now contains over 500,000 specimens and is one of the best university-based collections of its kind in the country. He conceived and managed the 1971 Bell Museum of Natural History Art Show which established the Twin Cities as a major wildlife art center, and set the standard for such shows nationwide. Through Bob's efforts, the Bell Museum acquired the Dwight D. Taylor Collection of Mollusks from the Western U.S., one of the most significant in North America for Western material. He also expanded and updated the museum's freshwater mussel collection. He spearheaded and organized the establishment of a graduate minor in Quaternary Paleoecology in 1987 at the University of Minnesota.

Bob was elected fellow of the Geological Society of America, and member of many professional organizations. His research expertise was in volcanology, Quanternary geology, limnology, paleobotany, paleontology, paleoecology, Cambrian trilobites, freshwater diatoms, seed and pollen analysis, and malacology. He lead many workshops, conferences, and field trips on various topics in geology and paleobotany. He was particularly proud of his involvement (1966-1972) as Director of the Wasatch-Uinta summer field course in geology for undergraduate majors in Park City, Utah. Besides serving as a major advisor and committee member to over a dozen graduate students, he was a mentor to many undergraduate students. Bob believed undergraduates could conduct research. He provided endless opportunities for undergraduate students to experience the natural sciences, allowing and expecting them to participate in the project design, collection, and analysis of data, photography, illustration, and collection management. He spent hours discussing questions, theories, and principles of the natural world, both past and present. Bob was interested in everything from the smallest detail to the grand scheme of things, and was never too busy for his students or anyone else's students. In addition, he supported and participated in educational outreach activities for high school and grade school youth. He is survived by aunts Betha Ingram and Zelma Bright and numerous cousins. His absence is felt especially by his students and colleagues. Memorials to the James Ford Bell Museum of Natural History or donor's choice.