Wilmot Hyde Bradley, a.k.a. "Bill" Bradley (4 April 1899 in
New Haven, CT – 12 April 1979 in
Bangor, ME) was a co-founder (1943) and Chief of the Branch of Military Geology and Chief Geologist of the
U.S. Geological Survey from 1944 to 1959.
He was the son of Anna Miner Hyde and John Lucius Bradley. He attended college at the
Sheffield Scientific School of
Yale University and graduated from Yale in 1920 with a Ph.D. in geology, after switching from engineering and chemistry.
After two years as geologic aide to Julian D. Sears of the U. S. Geological Survey, he was taken on by the Survey to work full-time on the
Eocene Green River Formation because of its
oil-shale
Oil shale is an organic-rich fine-grained sedimentary rock containing kerogen (a solid mixture of organic chemical compounds) from which liquid hydrocarbons can be produced. In addition to kerogen, general composition of oil shales constitute ...
potential.
As a result of his work there, the mineral "trisodium magnesium phosphate carbonate" was named Bradleyite in his honor.
On the conclusion of his 48-year career with the Geological Survey in 1970, Bill and his wife retired to
Pigeon Hill Bay Pigeon Hill Bay is a bay in Washington County, Maine.
Divided between the towns of Milbridge and Steuben, it is separated from the Gulf of Maine
, image =
, alt =
, caption =
, image_bathymetry ...
, Maine, where he continued writing his results from years of research on the Green River Formations and Mud Lake.
Bradley was elected to the United States
National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...
in 1946, the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1949, the
American Philosophical Society in 1963, served as president of The
Geological Society of America (GSA) in 1965 and was awarded GSA's
Penrose Medal in 1972.
Bill Bradley was buried at a tiny local graveyard situated on his property at Pigeon Hill Road, Steuben, Maine. On his gravestone, he had engraved in advance the phrase, "The Earth has music for those who listen". (Although this phrase is of uncertain origin, a similar phrase -- "The Earth has its music for those who will listen"—first appeared in print in 1955 in a poem by Reginald Vincent Holmes.
)
References
External links
National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir by E.V. McKelveyWorldCat Identities: W. H. BradleyNational Academies Press: Photograph of Wilmot Hyde Bradley
1899 births
1979 deaths
20th-century American geologists
Presidents of the Geological Society of America
Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
{{US-geologist-stub
Members of the American Philosophical Society