Lögberg-Heimskringla - 06.12.2002, Blaðsíða 6

page 6 » Lögberg-Heimskringla » 6 December 2002
My Career as an icelandic North American ____
The purpose of this column is to encourage
and enable people of Icelandic descent
throughout North America to exchange
information about their careers, in a “this
is what I do ” format. Contributors will be
invited to provide photos.
This column recognizes people of
Icelandic descent who have made or are
now making significant contribution to the
Icelandic/North American community.
Please let us know if there is someone spe-
cial you know who should be featured. Send
us bio notes and a photo. If you don’t have
bio notes available, let us know and we’ll
arrange an interview.
One of Canada's Most Honoured Geologists
Raymond Thorsteinson, O.C., Ph.D., F.R.S.C.
Ray Thorsteinson still goes
into the office six days a
week to do research on fossils
he collected over the thirty-
nine seasons he worked in the
arctic for the Geological
Survey of Canada. Even
though he's been retired since
1992, and is over eighty years
old.
Raymond grew up on a
farm in the Mountain School
District, near Wynyard, SK,
and received his B.A. in geolo-
gy from the University of
Saskatchewan in 1944, his
M.A. in 1950 from the
University of Toronto, and his
Ph.D. from the University of
Kansas in 1955. He went on
his first northem trek in 1950,
when, he says; he was "unrav-
elling the geological history of
the area."
When he first began going
north, the norm was to "travel
with dog teams and live in dou-
ble walled tents and igloos."
When asked what it was like to
live in an igloo, Ray said,
"They're warm to be in. You
can be in shirtsleeves. They
look very antiseptic when you
first move into them, because
they're so white." The geolo-
gists were accompanied by
Inuit, who "made parkas for
us." He learned to speak
Inuktutuk because "the Inuit
we worked with didn't speak
English." In the ice-free sea-
son, they travelled by freighter
canoe. When air travel became
common in the north, they
went first in Piper Super Cubs
with big balloon tires, and later
in helicopters supported by
fixed wing aircraft such as
Twin Otters.
During his career, Ray was
"mapping the geological for-
mations of the Arctic islands,
looking for fossils, which tell
the age of the rock." Asked
what he liked about the north,
he said that "Part of the islands
are extremely beautiful — the
mountains rival the Rockies in
terms of relief." He mentioned
especially Ellesmere and Axel
Heibers. He also said he liked
"the solitude of the Arctic. We
were often in small parties."
He added that he also led some
large parties, comprised of four
assistants, camp managers and
cooks and eight to ten geolo-
gists. "You have to get along if
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you're living in he same tent as
a colleague. I became fast
friends with most of the people
I worked with."
Ray is very interested in the
work of Vilhjalmur Stefansson,
and in 1958 he came across "a
discovery record left in a caim
that he (Stefansson) and his
Norwegian travelling compan-
ions constructed on Brock
Island, the first of four major
islands that he discovered in the
Canadian Arctic Archipelago. I
consider Stefansson's discovery
of Brock Island as the pinnacle
of his career because that event
alone assured him of celebrity
status while he lived, and
immortality as a historical fig-
ure who discovered the last
remaining unknown lands on
this planet. I and a colleague of
mine (Dr. E.T. Tozer) recovered
this record ... when we were the
first humans to visit the island
since its discovery. As a fmal
point of interest in this matter,
Stefansson named this particu-
lar island for Dr. R. R. Brock
who at the time of its discovery
was the director of the
Geological Survey of Canada."
Ray pointed out that in his book
The Friendly Arctic Stefansson
replicates exactly the words on
the discovery record.
Raymond Thorsteinson has
been widely recognized for his
achievements, and is one of
Ellesmere Island, 1957
Canada's most honoured geolo-
gists. An Officer of the Order
of Canada since 1989, he was
also elected to Fellowship in the
Royal Society of Canada, the
doyen of Canadian leamed soci-
eties. He is one of a select
group of three Canadian geolo-
gists who have been recipient of
all three premier awards given
for outstanding achievement in
earth sciences. They include
the Willet G. Miller Medal of
the Royal Society of Canada,
the Logan Medal of the
Geological Society of Canada,
and the R.J.W. Douglas Medal
of the Canadian Society of
Petroleum Geologists. He has
at least a dozen more awaíds
and honours in his name, and is
Research Scientist Emeritus at
the Geological Survey of
Canada.
Raymond is the son of
Pétur Thorsteinsson, born in
the Reykjadalur country in
Iceland, who came to
Saskatchewan from North
Dakota. His mother was
Elizabeth Readman. The quar-
ter that his father homesteaded
is still in the family, and
Raymond himself owns the
quarter that his dad's brother
filed on. He still maintains
close connections to Wynyard,
going there three or four times
a year. He spoke Icelandic as a
child, and continues to read it.
"There are two Icelandic dic-
tionaries at my bedside," he
said.
He married Jean
Kristjanson from Leslie, SK.
She died in 1998. They have
two children, Erik, who is also
a geologist in Calgary, and
Anna Ingrid, who lives with
Ray in Calgary.

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