JIM, WE'LL MISS YOU!

On April 28, 2007 we lost a true crusader for the realms of engineering geology and seismology. James E. Slosson influenced the lives and careers of countless geologists, seismologists, soil engineers, students and even collegiate track stars. Today I have been asked to relate how Jim affected my life and career.

Jim's and my 38 years of personal and professional friendship began with two geological talks given May 1969 in Denver at a Governor's Conference on Environmental Geology. Jim's talk used Los Angeles data to prove that tremendous savings in money and property damage would result from the application of grading codes, soil engineering and engineering geology to construction projects. Over the years we discussed that concept which resulted in Colorado's statutory state-wide requirements to consider geology prior to the subdivision of land.

My talk outlined my view of the Colorado Survey's Role in Environmental Geology. The talk by a then neophyte State Geologist impressed Jim. Our discussion as how to implement that view went long into the night and was essentially repeated in numerous phone calls and personal discussions over the next 38 years. Copies of both talks are still available in the Colorado Survey's Special Public. No. 1.

When we first met, jogging was the fad but Jim relied on his track and field experience and ran several miles every morning. He never convinced me to take up running as a hobby, but convinced me of the value of a geologist's physical fitness. Each morning and noon I climbed the 7 flights of stairs at our office.

Jim could not take a rockfall-caused train wreck case and recommended me for the job. Although it was my first major law suit case as a consultant, it provided excellent experience.

In 1992 Jim convinced me to accompany him and give a talk at the Sixth Australia-New Zealand Conference on Geomechanics in Christchurch. We went a week early and ran a self-guided landslide field trip of the South Island. I felt quite experienced in the field recognition of landslides but that week with Jim was great. These experiences and the fact that I'd been invited to give a talk in New Zealand on geologic hazard mitigation were factors in my being selected years later as an expert witness in New Zealand's Golden Cross landslide occurrence, the largest and most challenging case in my career.