Thomas Charles Mowatt

Apr 24, 1936 -

Jun 20, 2023

Retired geologist Tom Mowatt died, age 87, in Bandon, Ore., his home for the past 12 years. He was born to George and Elizabeth Mowatt in West Orange, N.J., and raised Union, N.J. He received a B.S. from Rutgers in 1959, and completed his Ph.D. from the University of Montana in 1964. Tom also served in in the U.S. Marine Corp and the U.S. Army.

During Tom's career in Alaska, from 1970 through 2011, he worked for the Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys, the US Bureau of Mines and the US Bureau of Land Management. He also taught geology at University of Alaska Fairbanks, Anchorage and Southeast. Early in his professional career he worked for Amoco in Tulsa, Okla., and taught at Minnesota State University and the University of South Dakota.

Tom said that he had the privilege of doing geological field work in the Beartooth Mountains of Montana followed by field work in the Brooks Range, the Alaska Range and the Forty Mile area which he greatly enjoyed. Most notably, Tom was a petrologist which involved identifying the minerals of rocks in thin sections. His career started with analyzing reservoir rocks for Amoco. But his main expertise/interest/love was igneous, metamorphics and skarns. After retiring, he continued consulting for Online Exploration of Anchorage and for other hard rock prospectors in Alaska and the Yukon. He continued doing field work with his wife, collecting more rocks into his 80s. Tom also assisted with field geologic guides to the Haul Road, the Taylor Highway and the Dalton Highway in Alaska.

Tom is survived by his loving wife of 30 years, Sonya, an office full of thin sections and a storage unit filled with Alaska and Yukon rock samples. His nephews, Lee and Clifford Guempel, and their families also survive him. Tom's first wife, June; and their daughter, Linda, predeceased him.

Although he was a mostly quiet man, Tom will be greatly missed by his family, friends and colleagues.