MEMORIES OF AL KEHEW AND SOME OF THE PROJECTS ON WHICH WE COLLABORATED

Al Kehew was a friend and colleague since about 1990. He became chair of Geosciences in 2007 and was then crucial in negotiating my transition from a research specialist in the IWS, to an associate professor position in 1998 in the Geosciences Department. I was then able to advise and serve on committees of graduate students. My interests in near-surface geophysics meshed very well with Al’s research in the geomorphology, hydrogeology, and glacial history of southern Michigan (and many other places). Thus, we were frequently on the same MS and PhD student committees. Brief descriptions of the work of 11 of these graduate students is given. It is an incomplete sample of some of the projects in which Al was involved. Their work has resulted in numerous publications in relevant journals. Al planned, obtained funding, and organized a joint program with Suez Canal University and South Valley University (of Egypt) and Western Michigan University. We did field work in the SW Sinai, primarily using gravity to begin mapping a significant Tertiary alluvial basin that is now known as a major aquifer for the region. This was followed by further gravity work during trips in May and Dec of 2005 to completely map the basin. This survey, as well as some deep vertical resistivity soundings, was the basis for estimating the volume of groundwater stored in that basin. The early field work led to other funding obtained by Mohamed Sultan to support trips in 2007 and 2008 for field research using the Very Low Frequency (VLF) electromagnetic method in the Eastern Desert. This was to locate fissures and fault systems that provided small water sources in bedrock areas and was used in conjunction with remote sensing to identify which of the many lineaments were conductive and hence probably contained some water resource. Over several decades, these cooperative projects with Egypt led to further exchange visits with our Egypt colleagues who were hosted by WMU. Many graduate students from Egypt enrolled in the PhD program at WMU. Al Kehew’s hard work and foresight continue to influence events to this day. His legacy lives on in the many US and International students who he guided.