G IL B E R T H . E S P E N S H A D E 3211 North Woodrow Street, Arlington, Virginia 22207

D a v id M a rc e l L a r r a b e e d ie d o n M a y 3, 1979, in S o m e r s e t , M a ry la n d . H e h a d su f fe re d f ro m h e a r t d ise a se f o r tw e lv e y e a r s a n d h a d b e e n c o n f in e d to h is h o m e f o r n e a r ly tw o y e a r s by p h y s ic a l d is a b il i t ie s c a u s e d b y a se v e re s t r o k e . H is w ife , K a te P u tn a m L a r r a b e e , su rv iv e s h im .

D a v e L a r r a b e e w a s a f r ie n d ly , a c tiv e m a n w h o e n jo y e d p e o p le a n d a v ig o ro u s o u td o o r life . H e re lish e d a c h a lle n g e , w h e th e r it w a s m a p p in g th e g e o lo g y o f a n in t r ic a te p e g m a ti te d e p o s it , m a k in g a w h ite -w a te r c a n o e t r ip , c o m p ilin g in f o rm a t io n o n m in e ra l r e so u rc e s , o r h e lp in g s o m e o n e re so lv e a p e r s o n a l p ro b le m . D a v e h a d a fo rc e fu l p e r s o n a l i ty a n d w a s o u ts p o k e n — so m e tim e s in f a v o r o f th e a c t io n s o f a p e r so n o r g ro u p , a n d so m e tim e s a g a in s t . H e w a s v e ry te n a c io u s a n d th o r o u g h in c a r ry in g

o u t a n y e n te rp r is e , a n d h e w a s s t ro n g ly lo y a l to p e r so n s a n d o rg a n iz a t io n s . L a r r a b e e sp e n t m u c h o f h is p ro fe s s io n a l life in th e in v e s t ig a t io n o f n o n m e ta l l ic m in e ra l d e p o s its a n d in re la te d m in e ra l r e so u rc e s tu d ie s . H e w o rk e d fo r a n in d u s tr ia l c o n c e rn f o r a b o u t te n y e a rs in h is e a r ly d a y s a n d f o r th e U .S . G e o lo g ic a l S u rv e y d u r in g th e re s t o f h is c a re e r .

D a v id L a r r a b e e w a s b o r n J u n e 2 4 , 1909, a t W ill ia m s p o r t , P e n n s y lv a n ia , th e s e c o n d o f th r e e so n s o f D o n M a rs h a l l a n d O liv e M o o re L a r ra b e e . H e g r a d u a te d f ro m D ic k in s o n S e m in a ry in W il l ia m s p o r t a n d e n te r e d D a r tm o u th C o lle g e in 1927.

A s a n u n d e r g ra d u a te a t D a r tm o u th , D a v e w a s d e v o te d to th e L e d y a rd C a n o e C lu b a n d th e O u tin g C lu b , a n d s p e n t m u c h t im e in le a d in g c a n o e a n d c l im b in g t r ip s , r e p a ir in g c a b in s , b ru s h in g o u t tr a i ls , a n d t r a in in g o th e r s in th e se a c tiv itie s . I n th e s u m m e r o f 1929 h e m a d e a su rv e y o f th e m in e ra l d e p o s i ts o f N e w H a m p s h ire f o r th e N e w E n g la n d P o w e r A s so c ia t io n . D u r in g th e fo l lo w in g s u m m e r h e w o rk e d a s c a m p c o o k a n d c a n o e m a n in O n ta r io f o r a fie ld p a r ty o f th e G e o lo g ic a l S u rv e y o f C a n a d a , led by H a ro ld M . B a n n e rm a n , h is g e o lo g y p ro fe s s o r . A f te r re c e iv in g h is A .B . d e g re e in g e o lo g y in 1932, D a v e c o n t in u e d a t D a r tm o u th f o r tw o m o re y e a rs as a g r a d u a te s tu d e n t a n d a s s is ta n t in s t r u c to r in g e o lo g y . H is p ro fe s s io n a l g ro w th d u r in g th e y e a r s a t D a r tm o u th w as e s p e c ia lly e n c o u ra g e d b y H a r o ld B a n n e rm a n , w h o s e c o u n se l D a v e so u g h t o f te n in la te r life.

L a r r a b e e w e n t to th e U n iv e rs ity o f I l lin o is in J u n e 1934 a s a g r a d u a te s tu d e n t in g e o lo g y , a n d a s A s s is ta n t D e a n o f M e n f o r f re s h m e n a n d fo re ig n s tu d e n ts . H e c a r r ie d o u t f ie ld a n d l a b o r a to ry s tu d ie s o n th e c o lo re d s la te s o f V e rm o n t a n d N e w Y o rk , d e sc r ib e d in h is th e s is f o r th e M .A . d e g re e , w h ic h he rece iv ed in 1936. H e p a r t ic ip a te d in o th e r fa c e ts o f u n iv e rs ity life b y o p e ra t in g th e U n iv e rs ity M u tu a l B e n e fit H e a l th In s u ra n c e P la n fo r s tu d e n ts a n d fa c u lty , a n d a c tin g a s f a c u lty a d v is o r to th e I n te r f r a te rn i ty C o u n c il.

W h ile a t I l lin o is , D a v e m e t K a te M . P u tn a m , a y o u n g n u rse in c h a rg e o f n u rs in g a t th e u n iv e r s i ty h o s p ita l . T h e y w e re m a r r ie d in J u ly 1937. O v e r th e y e a rs , K a te a n d D a v e a c q u ir e d

Memorial to David Marcel Larrabee1909-1979

2 TH E GEOLOGICA L SOCIETY O F AM ERICA

many friends through their warm hospitality to colleagues, lonely field assistants, neighbors, and young people, and through their participation in church affairs and other community activities. Kate was a constant source of strength for Dave during times of difficulty or illness.

In 1937 Dave was employed by the Staso Milling Company at Poultney, Vermont, which manufactured roofing granules from the colored slates of the region. He was responsi­ble for geological guidance of the mining operations, and he carried out investigations at other places in the country for new quarry and mill sites.

Dave Larrabee joined the U.S. Geological Survey in the summer of 1942 to work in New England on the expanding program of investigation of pegmatite deposits, which was designed to assist in the production of mica, beryl, and tantalum for urgent wartime needs. Dave brought to this program a sound, practical, economic approach to the search for and production of pegmatite minerals. He and various assistants made detailed plane-table surveys and evaluations of numerous pegmatite deposits in Maine and New Hampshire, and during 1944 and 1945 he participated in similar studies of pegmatite districts in North Carolina, Brazil, and Mexico. This work showed that there was some consistency and predictability in the patterns of distribution of the minerals in granitic pegmatites. The results were of great practical use in guiding exploration and mining of the deposits and were essential to a correct understanding of their genesis. Larrabee was co-author of several significant publications on these subjects.

At the end of World War II Dave asked to be assigned to the newly founded Engineering Geology Branch of the U.S. Geological Survey. He undertook the investigation of the resources of nonmetallic minerals and construction materials in the Missouri River basin. A complete review of the literature and considerable field examination were neccessary in order to acquire up-to-date information. Larrabee organized much of the work and was co-author of fourteen published maps and numerous volumes of unpublished data sheets that presented resource information for individual states or specific regions within the river basin. These maps were used not only by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and state organizations working on river development but were also used extensively by geologists and prospectors, particularly during the search for uranium.

In July 1947 Dave resigned from the Survey and returned to his former employer, the Staso Milling Company, and its parent organization, Central Commercial Company. He was chief geologist in charge of geologic mapping and exploration at six roofing granule operations, and carried out field examinations and exploration for granules and other industrial rocks and minerals throughout the country. Dave and Kate resided at Bound Brook, New Jersey, for several years and later moved to the Chicago area.

By 1953 Dave was attracted once again to the Geological Survey, and for about three years he was engaged in the Washington office in study of resources of pegmatite and various other nonmetallic minerals. He was responsible for the review of exploration proposals for certain nonmetallic mineral deposits that were submitted to the Defense Minerals Explora­tion Administration and successor agencies in a program started during the Korean Conflict to promote exploration for strategic minerals.

When the Geological Survey began a program of regional geologic investigations in Maine in 1956, Dave Larrabee saw this as a challenging opportunity to map the geology of a poorly known area, which might hold some promise for the discovery of mineral deposits like those found a few years before in the Bathurst district of New Brunswick. He and his assistants mapped the geology of a large area in eastern Maine where rock exposures are scarce because of glaciation, forests, lakes, and swamps and where accessibility to many areas is difficult; much of the mapping was necessarily of reconnaissance nature. The

M EM ORIAL TO DAVID M A RCEL LA RRA B EE 3

resulting geologic maps were a significant contribution to the preliminary geologic map of Maine, published by the state in 1967; they provide a good basis for guiding future investiga­tions of stratigraphy and structure in the region and for mineral exploration.

I n 1964 Larrabee began a study of the distribution of ultramafic rocks in the Appalach­ians; he compiled maps at 1:500,000 scale showing the distribution of ultramafic and intrusive mafic rocks in the southern Appalachians (published 1966) and in New York and New England (1971). These are the most detailed maps yet compiled to depict the occurren­ces of ultramafic and intrusive mafic rocks in the region. They have proven to be very useful to students of ophiolites and have been cited frequently in recent papers discussing the role of plate tectonics in the geologic history of the Appalachian system.

As an extension of these studies, Dave made a very detailed investigation of the serpentinite exposed in a large quarry for crushed stone at Hunting Hill, Maryland, on the outskirts of Washington, D.C. Dave determined that the serpentinite is intruded by a complex system of dikes of rodingite, or metasomatized gabbro, which is a known feature of some serpentinite bodies but had not been previously recognized in the Appalachians. The rodingite is well exposed in irregular but continuous dikes in the Hunting Hill quarry, and Larrabee (1969) pointed out that the unbroken continuity of the dikes indicates that rodingite, and the serpentinite as well, was formed by alteration at constant volume. This is strong evidence to contradict the concept widely held that serpentinization is accompanied by a large increase in volume. The discussion of the rocks and minerals and the fine map (1:1,200 scale) in Larrabee’s report show how informative a detailed geologic study can be, even in an apparently ordinary rock quarry.

Late in 1966 the Geological Survey was required to move a sizable part of its staff to an old building on the former grounds of the National Bureau of Standards in northwest Washington. Dave Larrabee was given the responsibility of supervising renovation of the building, a job on which he spent about two months of continuous effort in order to meet the deadline. During the move into the building in February 1967, Dave collapsed from the accumulated strain of long days of work, and a little later was hospitalized because of congestive heart failure. Although he was back at work in a few months, his activities were much curtailed, and he retired from the Geological Survey in 1970.

David M. Larrabee was a Fellow of the Geological Society of America; he was a member also of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers; the American Institute of Professional Geologists; the Geochemical Society; the Geological Society of Washington, D.C.; and the Society of Economic Geologists.

David Larrabee received the Meritorious Service Award of the Department of the Interior in 1971 “in recognition of his valuable contributions to the program of the Geologi­cal Survey in the field of nonmetallic mineral resources.” The citation characterizes the importance and high quality of his contributions as follows: “By careful attention to detail, insistent demand for accuracy, and bringing to colleagues an awareness of the importance of nonmetallic mineral resources in our increasingly urbanized society, Mr. Larrabee has helped to advance the study of such resources in the Geological Survey.”

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

/ wish to thank Kate M. Larrabee fo r providing information, and m y colleagues who helped me write this memorial, particularly James J. Norton and Lincoln R. Page.

4 t h e g e o l o g i c a l s o c i e t y o r a m e r i c a

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF D. M. LARRABEE

1939 The colored slates of Vermont and New York: Engineering and Mining Journal, v. 140, no. 12, p. 47-53; 1940, v. 141, no. 1, p. 48-54.

1945 (and others) Structural and economic characteristics of New England mica deposits: Economic Geology, v. 40, no. 6, p. 369-393.

1945-1948 (and others) [Fourteen maps showing deposits of construction materials and resources of nonmetallic minerals of the Missouri Valley region]: U.S. Geological Survey Missouri Basin Studies Maps.

1950 (and others) Mica deposits in Minas Gerais, Brazil: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 964-C, p. 205-305.

1954 (and others) Pegmatite investigations, New England, 1942-1945: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 255, 352 p.

1962 (and Page, J. J.) Beryl resources of New Hampshire: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 353, 49 p.

----- (and Griffitts, W. R., and Norton, J. J.) Beryllium in the United States: U.S.Geological Survey Minerals Investigations Resource Map MR-35, scale 1:3,168,000.

1963 (and Spencer, C. W.) Bedrock geology of the Danforth quadrangle, Maine: U.S. Geological Survey Geological Quadrangle Map GQ-221.

----- (and Griscom, Andrew) Aeromagnetic interpretation and preliminary bedrockgeology of the Danforth area, Maine: U.S. Geological Survey Geophysical Investigations Map GP-423, scale 1:62,500.

----- Geologic map and section of the Kellyland and Vanceboro quadrangles, Maine: U.S.Geological Survey Mineral Investigations Field Studies Map MF-269, scale 1:48,000.

1964 Reconnaissance bedrock geology of the Wabassus Lake quadrangle, Washington County, Maine: U.S. Geological Survey Mineral Investigations Field Studies Map MF-282, scale 1:62,500.Bedrock geology of the Big Lake quadrangle, Washington County, Maine: U.S. Geological Survey Geologic Quadrangle Map GQ-358, scale 1:62,500.

1965 (and Spencer, C. W., and Swift, D .J.P.) Bedrock geology of the Grand Lake area, Aroostook, Hancock, Penobscot, and Washington Counties, Maine: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1201-E, p. E1-E38.

1966 Map showing distribution of ultramafic and intrusive mafic rocks from northern New Jersey to eastern Alabama: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Investigations Map 1-476, scale 1:500,000.

1968 (and Sweeney, J. W.) Olivine in U.S. Geological Survey and U.S. Bureau of Mines, compilers, Mineral resources of the Appalachian region: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 580, p. 326-327.

----- Roofing granules in U.S. Geological Survey and U.S. Bureau of Mines, compilers,Mineral resources of the Appalachian region: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 580, p. 252-254.

1969 Serpentinite and rodingite in the Hunting Hill quarry, Montgomery County, Maryland: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1283, 34 p.

1971 Map showing distribution of ultramafic and intrusive mafic rocks from New York to Maine: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Investigations Map 1-676, scale 1:500,000.

Printed in U.S.A. 5 /80