H.V. HOWE: PIONEER MICROPALEONTOLOGIST, GULF OF MEXICO

Henry Van Wagenen Howe (1896-1973) was perhaps the premier micropaleontological academician of his time in the Gulf Coast. He trained a host of industrial and academic micropaleontologists during his tenure at Louisiana State University (LSU). Dr. Howe began his career in 1922 at LSU when he accepted a mandate to re-establish the Department of Geology at the University. By 1931 he had also restored the Louisiana Geological Survey and founded the Shreveport Geological Society. In 1937, Dr. Howe attended the International Geological Congress in Russia, and traveled widely there, even to Novaya Zemlya. He laid the cornerstone of the then-new LSU Geology building in 1938. The faculty he hired (Harold V. Andersen, Alan H. Cheetham, Clarence O. Durham, John C. Ferm, Harold N. Fisk, Donald H. Kupfer, James P. Morgan, Grover E. Murray, Chalmer Roy, R. Dana Russell, R.J. Russell, Adolph E. Sandberg, Willem A. Van Den Bold, E.G. Wermund, L.J. "Slick" Wilbert, - to mention a few) were extremely capable, and soon LSU became a center for coastal, alluvial, stratigraphic, sedimentological and micropaleontological research. Dr. Howe's Ph.D. seminars, whose topics ranged widely (Development of the Geologic Column, Recent Geological Literature, etc.), were infamous for exposing weaknesses and/or strengths in candidate's backgrounds. During his long career, Dr. Howe established world class collections of mollusks, foraminifera, ostracoda, and bryozoa. During World War II, Dr. Howe's ex-students (his "boys") managed to collect modern sand samples (while under fire!) from many beachheads they established throughout the Pacific war theatre. His Microfossil Collection grew quickly during these years and eventually assumed huge proportions. The Howe Microfossil Collection is now included as part of the Museum collections at LSU. Dr. Howe received many awards, including the Sidney Powers Memorial Medal (1960), as well as a Boyd Professorship from LSU. His name is memorialized in the ostracode species Heinia howei Bold, 1985.