HALF ZANTOP: A DARTMOUTH EARTH SCIENCES PERSPECTIVE

After completing his Ph.D. at Stanford in 1969, Half Zantop spent 7 years as an industry geologist involved in exploration in Spain, Argentina, and Costa Rica. He joined the Dartmouth Earth Sciences faculty in 1976. His expertise in economic geology, industry contacts, familiarity with life in Latin America, and fluency in English, German, French, and Spanish precisely met the Department's need for an economic geologist who could contribute to existing active research and teaching programs in Central America. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 1982 and full Professor in 1988. His research initially focussed on manganese and iron deposits, shifting later to stratiform/stratabound deposits and ultimately to hydrothermal precious metal deposits. At the time of his death he had nearly completed the revised second edition of International Mineral Economics: Mineral Exploration, Mine Valuation, Markets, and International Mineral Policies (co-authored with W. Gocht and R. Eggert; Springer-Verlag).

Half was renowned as a teacher in his upper-level economic geology classes and even more so in his introductory courses. Countless students were inspired to switch their major to geology after taking physical geology with Half. Many students thought he was the best professor they had at Dartmouth. Beyond being a superlative teacher in the classroom, he was a mentor without peer, caring and fair to his students. His devotion to his students was well known in the department and made him one of the most sought-after undergraduate thesis advisors. Half would take on undergraduates whose previous academic performance might have dissuaded other faculty; his faith in them and the time he invested paid off at thesis defense time when the quality of the work took everyone else by surprise.

Half maintained a cultured approach to people and life. He and his wife, also a Dartmouth faculty member (German Studies department), were frequently active in political and human rights issues beyond the scope of the Department and Dartmouth. In departmental affairs, he was our conscience, never permitting expediency to come before fairness and justice. And always, he spoke with grace, tact, and humor even when in disagreement. He left us the better, and the more honorable, for knowing him.