"June 1950 Taku Glacier. The ski-wheel C-47 touched down smoothly on the snow. It was early evening with long daylight hours approaching the summer solstice. Shadows marking sun cups that barely had begun to form defined the flat speckled surface, making depth perception for landing far better than in the glare of midday. In a half hour of flying time from Juneau, the earth, transformed, took on the image of a past ice age. After gaining altitude over Gastineau Channel, the flight at first followed Mendenhall Glacier to the north and later, turning eastward, crossed over to the Taku. As the dark Pacific coastal forest receded, a seemingly endless alpine snowscape, lapped onto intervening horned peaks and sharp-edged ridges, came into view. Under a pale sun, hung low in the sky, the flight entered the ice-sculptured sanctum of another world. Nunataks studding the sky stood like watchmen that for millennia had guarded an eternity of ice and snow. Overcome by the size and distance of physical features, one became transported by the vastness of the ice field. The immediate, wide expanse of landing area had not been readily apparent in aerial perspective. Visibility extended to peaks over 6 km distant. Across the glacier, the Taku Towers at over 1950 m in altitude, stood in sharp relief on the skyline. Cooling from the heat of day, the light air, carried by a gentle wind, was deceptively mild. Inescapable, in the stillness of oncoming night, evolved an engrossing atmosphere of unparalleled tranquility and spiritual cleansing.







Made more than a half century ago, the initial foray to the Taku was for me the first of countless unforgettable flights into the ice field that followed during eight ensuing field seasons through the International Geophysical Year of 1957-1958. At midpoint last century, The American Geographical Society of New York had launched a ten-year study of the glaciers of the Juneau Ice Field in the Coast Mountains of Southeastern Alaska. Interdisciplinary by design, research focused on the relationship between glacier hydrology, advance and recession of ice fronts, and climatic trends, and also investigated the geomorphic and paleoecological setting of the Coast Mountains in the ice field sector. Data were related to findings from other parts of Northwestern America to gain a perspective of present and past environmental controls.







This Retrospective of the Juneau Icefield Project (1952-1958) is long overdue. A half century after the fact, it is intended to bring together under a single heading, the place, work, personnel, events, and results of studies to serve as a scientific and historical document." (Juneau Icefield Research Project (1949-1858) a retrospective, Elsevier 2007)







Cal's fieldwork, begun in the Juneau Icefield and in other glaciers of the Pacific Northwest expanded south to the glaciers of southern Chile (1959). His pioneering research in southern South America, which extended over 40 years, is synthesized in his book "Ice Age Southern Andes - A Chronicle of Paleoecological Events". (Elsevier, 2003)







Calvin J - his passion for fieldwork, for research, his love of plants, his love and knowledge of music- will forever be missed.