Obituaries

Thomas W. Stern Geologist

Thomas W. Stern, 86, a geologist who retired as the chief of isotope geology at the U.S. Geological Survey in 1989, died May 23 at a hospice in Bend, Ore., of complications from a stroke.

Mr. Stern worked for the Geological Survey for 41 years, studying the origin of the Colorado Plateau uranium deposits as well as determining the age of rocks by the uranium-lead method, an isotopic dating system.

He received the Interior Department's Meritorious Service award in the 1980s and during his career published more than 75 papers in scientific journals on rock dating and uranium deposits.

Thomas Whital Stern, a native of Chicago, received a bachelor's degree in 1947 from the University of Chicago and a master's degree in 1948 from the University of Texas at Austin, both in geology. He served in the Navy during World War II in the amphibious forces in the Pacific. He participated in the initial occupation of Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945.

In 2007, he moved to Bend from Chevy Chase.

He was a member of the Cosmos Club and the American Geophysical Union and a fellow of the Geological Society of America and the Mineralogical Society of America.

During retirement, he worked as a docent at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum.

His wife of 41 years, Lyn Crost, died in 1997.

Survivors include a stepdaughter, Julia Kennedy of Bend; a brother; a sister; a granddaughter; and a great-granddaughter.

-- Lauren Wiseman