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WILMOT HYDE BRADLEY
April 4, 1899-~pril 12, 1979
BY V. E. McKELVEY
WILMOT HYDE B~DLEY was both an ordinary and an
extraordinary man. He was ordinary in the sense that
he was of average builcI, had plain tastes, was unpretentious,
and considered himself to be no better than anyone else. He
was, in fact, a superb geologist with extraordinarily broad
interests. He was a generalist, not in the sense of one who
hasn't specialized in anything or who knows a little bit about
a lot of things, but in the sense of one who has demonstrated
the ability to probe deeply into diverse subjects and to con-
tribute new and illuminating knowledge about them. He was
extraordinary also in his leadership capabilities, exercised
first as chief of the Branch of Military Geology, which he
helped to found in 1943, and then as chief geologist of the
U.S. Geological Survey from 1944 to 1959. In the eyes of his
associates he was extraordinary because of his exceptional
warmth and selfless attitude toward! others, the personal in-
terest he showed in their work and problems, his good humor
and wit, and his ability to make almost any conversation an
interesting, stimulating exchange among all the participants.
Bill, the son of Anna Miner Hyde and John Lucius
Bradley, was born April 4, 1899 in Westville, Connecticut, a
suburb of New Haven. He attended grammar school in West-
ville, high school in New Haven, and college at the SheffielcI
75
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76
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
Scientific School of Yale University. He enlisted in the U.S.
Naval Reserves in 191S, ancT his junior year at Yale was
chiefly given to naval-officer training on a two-masted
schooner, supplemented with courses in navigation, spherical
trigonometry, and related subjects. Although he had
majored in engineering in his first years at Yale, he switcher!
to chemistry in his senior year. He soon hacT doubts about his
choice, however, and his friend and later USGS colleague,
Arthur A. Baker, then a first-year graduate student, sug-
gestec! that geology might be more to his liking. After nine
weeks of exposure to an introductory course taught by Alan
Bateman, he changed his major to geology and graduated
from Yale in 1920 with a Ph.B. That summer he served as
field assistant to Frank C. Calkins of the U.S. Geological
Survey in the Cottonwood District in the Wasatch Mountains
of Utah.
The following two years were spent in graduate studies at
Yale, with summers as a geologic aide to Julian D. Sears of the
Survey on the north flank of the Uinta Mountains. During
the second of these field seasons with "ED.," in which lames
G. Gilluly also served as an assistant, Bill first saw and became
fascinated with the Eocene Green River Formation. He
learned that David White, then chief geologist, was looking
for someone to work full time on the Green River because of
its of] shale potential; he volunteered for the assignment and
was taken on full time by the Survey in the fall of 1922 to
work on the Green River.
The fall of 1922 thus began Bill's union with two of his
lifelong loves the Green River Formation and the Survey.
A third was joined during the same period when, on No-
vember 4, he married Catrina van Benschoten, also of New
Haven anct a friend since childhood. Their marriage
blessed with two slaughters, Anne and Penny was a devoted
one, lasting until Bill's death.
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WILMOT HYDE BRADLEY
77
Bill's Geological Survey Professional Paper 140, "Shore
Phases of the Green River Formation in Northern Sweet-
water County, Wyoming," served also as his doctoral disserta-
tion, and he received his Ph.D. from Yale in 1927. His sound
academic training laid a solid foundation for the career that
followed. He was appreciative of his teachers' stimulus
particularly Adolph Knopf at Yale who inspired him to
search for causes and dependent relationships among nat-
ural phenomena and processes.
Bill's broad interests had been stimulated before he
reached the college level by his father, a dentist, who was
interested in all things mechanical and electrical, anct who
taught Bill how to wire motors and to make anc! experiment
with various kincis of wet batteries, Leyden jars, and other
electrical devices. His mother and her maiden sister, Carolyn,
also played strong parts in arousing Bill's curiosities, for they
were intensely interested in bircis, flowers, butterflies, and
moths and took him on numerous trips to nearby woods and
meadows, anc} to Yale University's Peabody Museum as well.
With this background, it is easy to unclerstancl how Bill's
interest in the Green River Formation encompassed almost
every aspect of its composition and geologic origin. His first
scientific paper described "Foss)! Caciclice Fly Cases from the
Green River Formation of Wyoming," and subsequent
papers clealt with its mineralogy, plant and animal fossils,
physical structures such as varves and mud cracks, stratigra-
phy and areal geology, and geochemistry, as well as the
climate of the Green River Epoch and the paleolimnology of
the Green River lakes. In his later years, Bill broadened his
study of of! shale to its formation in the modern environment.
Motoaki Sato, Bill's colleague in some of these studies, says
of them:
One of Bradley's main scientific concerns was to find a modern lake
that was producing rich organic ooze with very little elastic material. He was
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BIOGRAPH I CAL MEMOIRS
excited when he heard R. S. A. Beauchamp, an English limnologist, de-
scribe a remarkable organic ooze that was forming in the northern part of
Lake Victoria. The organic ooze consisted almost wholly of algal matter
which would not decay in a warm, wet, and oxidizing environment. Bradley
immediately began his search for such lakes and found that only one more
lake in equatorial East Africa and two lakes in Florida, one of which is Mud
Lake, are known to be accumulating this kind of pure algal ooze. His
tireless and all-out effort in understanding the limnology, microbiology,
and geochemistry of Mud Lake, Marion County, Florida, began soon after-
wards. Bradley's approach was characteristically multidisciplinary. Not
only did he examine the algal ooze microscopically to identify micro-
organisms and the evidence for their activities, he mobilized experts in the
nation to identify various organic compounds and microbes existing in the
organic sediment, and to develop tools for sampling the ooze and conduct-
ing an situ measurements of geochemical parameters. His main effort was
directed to unravelling the secret of how the algal matter resisted decay in
a subtropical to tropical environment and how relatively oxygen-rich algal
matter changed with time to the hydrocarbon-rich organic matter of oil
shale in an ordinary diagenetic environment. His pioneering efforts in this
realm of science have given impetus to many students of organic sedimen-
tation. One of the most thorough documentations of geochemical param-
eters existing in organic sediments, which Bradley worked on even after his
retirement from the U.S. Geological Survey, is expected to be published
shortly.
With respect to the significance of Bill's overall work on
the Green River, Erie Kauffman of the U.S. National Mu-
seum writes:
Bill Bradley was the true "father" of non-marine aquatic paleoecology
and paleolimnology. He pioneered modern technique by crossing the line
between recent and ancient ecosystems to become a respected limnologist
and aquatic biologist, and then to apply that knowledge with great preci-
sion to the interpretation of ancient ecosystems. His early work was twenty
to thirty years ahead of its time, and stands today as one of the best
examples of fresh water paleoecology on record. A measure of Bradley's
perception as a student of paleoecology and paleoenvironments has come
to light in the recent "Green River controversy," which seemed to pit
IMotoaki Sato 1979: personal communication.
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WILMOT HYDE BRADLEY
79
Bradley's older stratified fresh water lake model against a newer playa lake
model for the origin of Green River oil shale. Bradley reasoned that varved
oil shales with their high organic residues and beautifully preserved biota
could only have formed in a permanently stratified lake, characterized by
a thick, poorly circulated, O2 depleted and H2S enriched hypolimnion and
a metalimnion and epilimnion with a diverse fresh water biota, high pro-
ductivity, and seasonal fluctuation producing well defined varves.
From the outset, Bill recognized a significant stratigraphic interrup-
tion in the middle of the Green River formation in which the stratified lake
model broke down. He termed this the "middle saline facies," or the
Wilkins Peak Member of the Green River Formation. He noted paleogeo-
graphic restriction of the Wilkins Peak and determined that the lake had
shrunk considerably and was without outlet at this time. He reviewed the
geochemistry of the unit, and especially the unique suite of authigenic
saline minerals. From this he concluded that evaporation greatly exceeded
fresh water input, and that a shallow, clear saline lake persisted, with broad
episodically exposed brine flats. Bradley was describing a playa; he simply
never called it this. Subsequent filling of the Green River lake basins re-
sulted in the redevelopment of a large stratified freshwater lake system,
possibly with a saline hypolimnion. Subsequent detailed stratigraphic anal-
yses of the Wilkins Peak Member by others have revealed extensive new
evidence in support of the playa lake model for the Wilkins Peak phase of
the Green River. Whereas this started out as a sober analysis of a specific
unit, it mushroomed into a quiet controversy in which some workers in-
sisted on a playa origin for most of the Green River System. From the
outset, Bradley agreed that the Wilkins Peak evidence fit the playa model,
and even presented new evidence in support of it. But at the same time he
quietly warned of extrapolating to make one depositional system (the playa
model) fit the whole Green River. His prediction was correct, the contro-
versy has run its course, and now in the aftermath Bradley's perception and
the breadth of his observations have re-emerged. His original stratified
lake model, from the standpoint of integrated geochemical, sedimentolog-
ical, paleogeographic, and paleoecological evidence, is still supported for
most of Green River time, and most of the varved oil shale.2
Although the Green River Formation was the stimulus for
much of Bill's work, his fielct studies inclucled geologic map-
2 Erle Kauffman 1979: personal communication.
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Representative terms from entire chapter:
river formation
80
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
ping and evaluation of oil and gas possibilities in south-
western Wyoming and adjacent parts of Utah and Colorado,
as well as in southcentral New York. One of the most reward-
ing of his other assignments was his pioneering work on the
C. S. Piggott cores from the creep ocean floor of the North
Atlantic between the Grand Banks off NewfounctIand ant!
the continental shelf of Irelanct. Eleven in all, and averaging
nearly ~ feet in length, they were the first obtained from the
abyssal depths. Bill's careful studies of these cores, made in
collaboration with several others, shower! for the first time
the possibilities of unravelling geologic, oceanographic, and
climatic history from analysis of the sedimentary record on
and beneath the creep ocean floor.
Another series of investigations demonstrating Bill's
multidisciplinary interests had to do with the dynamics and
history of tidal flats in Maine. It is noteworthy that his prin-
cipal report on these studies was publisher! by the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service because of their bearing on commercial
clamming.
Although the Geologic Division of the Geological Survey
hacT been blessed with fine leadership beginning with its first
chief geologist, Grove Karl Gilbert, none gave it better or
more decticatec! service than Bill Bradley. Wise in the ways in
which a scientific organization can be guiclecT to do its best
work, Bill lecl not by command or clirective; through inspira-
tion, the contagiousness of his own enthusiasm, and the stim-
ulating effect of his interest in other people ant! their work
ant! problems, he brought forth their best efforts. Bill's
sixteen-year period of service as a branch chief and chief
geologist spanner! a neriod of great chance in the (~.~olo~ir
~
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WILMOT HYDE BRADLEY
81
Not only was he able to finch solutions to the many difficult
problems that he had to face during this expansion, but he
found them without affronting or offending those con-
cernecI. He won and held the deep respect and affection of
. .
his associates.
Through his membership, Bill contributed to the activi-
ties of a diverse array of organizations: National Academy of
Sciences, American Philosophical Society, American Acacl-
emy of Arts and Sciences, Geological Society of America,
American Society of Limnology and Oceanography, Inter-
national Limnological Association, American Association for
the Advancement of Science, American Association of Petro-
leum Geologists, Botanical Society of America, Sigma Xi,
Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists, Geo-
logical Society of Washington, and the Cosmos Club of
Washington. Several of these organizations honoree! him
with awards and high office: the National Academy with its
Award of Merit in 1940, the Philaclelphia Academy of Sci-
ence with the F. V. Hayden Medal and Award in 1971, the
Geological Society of America with its presift ency in ~ 965 and
its Penrose Meclal in ~ 972, the Geological Society of Washing-
ton with its presidency in 1946, and the Society of Economic
Paleontologists and Mineralogists with honorary member-
ship. Bill also received the Department of the Interior's Dis-
tinguishec3 Service Aware! in 1958 and an honorary Doctor of
Science degree from Yale in 1947. His colleagues honored
him with the Bradley Volume Festschrift, publisher! by theAmer-
ican journal of Science in ~960.
At the conclusion of his forty-eight-year career with the
Geological Survey in 1970, Bill and Catrina moved to the west
shore of Pigeon Hill Bay, Maine. There he continued writing
up his results on the Green River ant! Mud Lake while enjoy-
ing the physical stimulation of outdoor work on their farm.
During a visit with him in the fall of 1978, when illness had
82
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
already begun to overtake him, he was rhapsodic about the
enjoyment ant! satisfaction his life had given him the love
of his family, the excitement of his research, his stimulating
and rewarding friendships, and his life with the Geological
Survey. His life was a joyous and satisfying one to him and an
enriching one for his family, his friends, his scientific organi-
zations, his country and its Geological Survey, and his science.
He cried of a stroke on April I2, 1979, eight days after his
eightieth birthday.
WILMOT HYDE BRADLEY
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1924
83
Fossil caddice fly cases from the Green River Formation of Wyo-
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An oil shale and its microorganisms from the Fuson Formation of
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1925
A contribution to the origin of the Green River Formation and its
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1926
Shore phases of the Green River Formation in northern Sweet-
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1928
Zeolite beds in the Green River Formation. Science, n.s. 67:73-74.
1929
The occurrence and origin of analcite and meerschaum beds in the
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1930
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84
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
1931
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1933
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WILMOT HYDE BRADLEY
85
With M. N. Bramlette, }. A. Cushman, L. G. Henbest, K. E. Loh-
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86
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
1953
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1957
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88
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
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algal sediment in Mud Lake, Florida. Am. I. Sci.
