Nevin Melancthon Fenneman (26 December 1865 – 4 July 1945) was an American professor of geology, with a long career at the

University of Cincinnati The University of Cincinnati (UC or Cincinnati) is a public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1819 as Cincinnati College, it is the oldest institution of higher education in Cincinnati and has an annual enrollment of over 44, ...

. His contributions were primarily in the large scale geographical understanding of American geology and based on his wide ranging studies, he produced a classification of US physiographic regions using a three-tiered system of 8 major divisions, 25 provinces and 78 sections that remains in use today.

Family and early life

Fenneman grandfather was a German from Westphalia, Johann Heinrich Vennemann, who moved to Baltimore in 1840. His son and Fenneman's father studied Calvinistic theology at the Heidelberg College in Tiffin, Ohio, and became a minister in the Reformed Church, altering his name to William Henry Fenneman. Nevin was born when W.H. Fenneman worked in Lima, Ohio, and named after the American theologian

John Williamson Nevin John Williamson Nevin (February 20, 1803June 6, 1886), was an American theologian and educationalist. He was born in the Cumberland Valley, near Shippensburg, Franklin County, Pennsylvania. He was the father of noted sculptor and poet Blanche Nev ...

with the middle name after the Lutheran reformer

Philipp Melanchthon Philip Melanchthon. (born Philipp Schwartzerdt; 16 February 1497 – 19 April 1560) was a German Lutheran reformer, collaborator with Martin Luther, the first systematic theologian of the Protestant Reformation, intellectual leader of the Lut ...

(1497-1560). His mother Rebecca Oldfather (originally 'Aultvater'), was of German and Irish descent and came from the

Shenandoah Valley The Shenandoah Valley () is a geographic valley and cultural region of western Virginia and the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia. The valley is bounded to the east by the Blue Ridge Mountains, to the west by the eastern front of the Ridge ...

. Young Fenneman was also trained, following the family tradition, at the Heidelberg College, receiving an AB in 1883 after which he taught at schools. Moving to Greensburg, he became a headmaster in 1886 and taught math and chemistry. He became a professor at the Colorado State Normal School in 1892. Here he married colleague Sarah Alice Glisan and began to take a keen interest in geography and landforms of the United States. A summer training course at Harvard in 1895 reoriented him and he was impressed by the teaching of William Morris Davis.

Career

Fenneman went to study at the University of Chicago in 1898 and received a MA on the Laramie Cretaceous Series working under T.C. Chamberlin and C.R. Van Hise of the Wisconsin Geological Survey. He then worked on his PhD, receiving it after three semesters after which he joined the University of Colorado as its first professor of geology. After a year, he joined the University of Wisconsin, Madison. In 1907 he moved to the University of Cincinnati where he spent the rest of his career. His major work was on the classification of the US into physiographic subdivisions which he attempted using a three-tiered system that is still widely in use.

References

External links

Physiography of western United States
(1931)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fenneman, Nevin Melancthon 1865 births 1945 deaths American geologists University of Cincinnati faculty