Daniel R. Shawe

Daniel Shawe


Daniel R. Shawe, member of the SME Foundation Legacy Club, leaves a Lasting Gift

JUNE 24, 1925 – AUGUST 24, 2017

Daniel Reeves Shawe, 92, of Lakewood, Colorado, passed away peacefully on August 24, 2017. He was an SME member and had a 44-year career as a geologist for the U.S. Geological Survey.

Dan was born in Gardnerville, Nevada, on May 24, 1925, and grew up in this same small town, located in the Carson Valley just east of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. He was a proud American throughout his life, and he served his country in the Second World War, from June 1943 to September 1945, as a flyboy in U.S. Naval Aviation.

Dan received his higher education at Stanford University, obtaining a B.S. in geology in 1949, an M.S. in geology in 1950, and a Ph.D. in geology in 1953. In June of 1951, he embarked on a rewarding career as a field geologist for the U.S. Geological Survey, eventually mapping and studying mineral resources in many areas of the western United States, as well as in several foreign countries; in October of that same year, he married. Initially, Dan was stationed in Grand Junction, Colorado; however, in 1958, at the conclusion of the Colorado Plateau Uranium Program, he transferred to the Denver USGS office. He retired in January of 1995, continuing on into his 80s, as a Scientist Emeritus, completing reports related to his earlier field work.

Specific projects in which Dan was involved over the course of his career included thorium reconnaissance and geologic mapping at Mountain Pass, California (1951-52); uranium exploration in the Slick Rock district of the Colorado Plateau (1953-58); geologic mapping in the Egan Range, Nevada (1958-60); mapping beryllium in volcanic rocks in the western U.S. (1961-65); serving as Chief of the Heavy Metals Branch (1966-69) and the Branch of Central Mineral Resources (1970-72); completing geologic studies of the Great Basin (1973-74); holding a temporary-duty assignment in Thailand, as well as preparing a report on the “Geology and Mineral Resources of Thailand”; and geologic mapping in the southern Toquima Range, Nevada (1974-95). In June of 1967, Dan and his colleague Barney Poole discovered large, high-grade deposits of bedded barite in East Northumberland Canyon in the northern Toquima Range.

Dan received special recognition for his work both from the university he attended and from his geologist peers throughout his career; his awards included a B.S. with Great Distinction from Stanford in 1949 and the Federal Meritorious Service Award from the USGS in 1972. His interests outside school and, later, work included drawing, ornithology, Nevada artifacts, preparation of his autobiography, study of the natural world, woodworking, stone cutting, photography, and politics.

Dan was preceded in death by his loving and devoted bride of 50 years, Helen Mae Cruikshank. He is survived by his three children, four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

We thank Mr. Shawe for thinking of the SME Foundation and leaving a Legacy Gift!