Art Sylvester

February 16, 1938 - May 2, 2023

Art was a native southern Californian, who grew up in South Pasadena and attended South Pasadena schools. His eyes were opened to geology by high school biology class trips to the Colorado Plateau. With a focus on earth sciences, earned a BA at Pomona College and an MA and PhD at UCLA, where he was the captain of the soccer team. He won a Fulbright scholarship to Norway before finishing his doctorate at UCLA. After graduate school, he joined a team of Shell Development Company research geologists to study the tectonic history of the Pacific margin of the United States, thinking that he could make a decent living in petroleum. UC Santa Barbara lured him from Shell to teach courses in structural geology, field geology, and petrology. His academic research focused on various structural, seismic, and igneous rock problems in the Colorado and Mojave Deserts, the Transverse Ranges, and the Lake Tahoe region, as well as in Norway and southern Italy. He retired from active teaching in 2003.

During 35 years of teaching geology at UCSB, Art led more than 300 field trips, mostly across Southern California. Art 'backed into geology' as a profession, motivated primarily to work outdoors, but not be a bridge engineer like our father. He became fascinated by geology during biology field trips down the Yampa and Green rivers and Havasu Canyon.

He watched coastal erosion from Goleta to Santa Barbara since about 1972. He spent a lot of time in the lower Coachella Valley, the Eastern Sierras, and Death Valley preparatory to writing his books. He also was a volcanist and spent some time in Hawaii and Iceland.

In his retirement, Art became very active as president and facilities manager of the Santa Barbara Genealogical Society, where he spearheaded a $1 million fundraising campaign at the height of the recession to expand the library. And speaking of lineages, he was active in the little-known Society for the Preservation and Promulgation of the Name Arthur. Asked about its origins, Art confessed, "Well, I made it up! It took me awhile to be proud of my name. Hardly anyone is naming their kid Arthur these days."

He spoke Bokmal, Norwegian, English, Italian, and German fluently. He belonged to many, many professional organizations, and received numerous awards. He has also written numerous books.

Art is survived by his wife, Diane; sisters, Virginia '59, and Aileen '64; daughters Karin and Katherine; and three grandchildren.

Aileen Sylvester '64, sister

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I'm really sorry to hear of the passing of our good pal, Art. I knew him in our childhood days, as our two families were reasonable close. I remember the huge tortoises in their backyard on Mission Street. The Sylvester house was painted a very bright color to coordinate with the neighbor's house also brightly painted a completely different color.

I purchased and very much enjoyed Art's book, Roadside Geology, in which he analyses the interesting geological structures revealed in land cuts made during highway construction

You're gonna be missed, old pal.

Warren Stirling '55

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Arthur G Sylvester, Santa Barbara, at 85. Won a full-ride scholarship from the Los Angeles Times to study liberal arts and geology at Pomona; earned both a master's degree and doctorate from UCLA; married Diane Stubblefield in June 1961 and within two weeks headed for Norway to study the evolution of granitic plutons at the University of Oslo as a Fulbright Scholar; a geology professor at UC Santa Barbara Earth Sciences for more than 50 years, including five as department chair; researched structural, seismic and igneous rock formations in the Colorado and Mojave deserts, Lake Tahoe and the Transverse Ranges of Southern California, as well as sites in Norway, Iceland, Hawaii and Italy; considered a broad geologic thinker and field scientist of unimpeachable integrity; pioneered global understanding of strike-slip earthquake faults; wrote a 1988 paper Strike-slip Faults which was selected in June 2021 as one of 48 'must-read' papers by the Division on Tectonics and Structural Geology of the European Geosciences Union, as it was regarded as the first of its kind on the topic; published three books on Southern California geology, Roadside Geology of Southern California, published with Libby Gans in 2016, Geology Underfoot in Southern California (second edition), with Glazner and Sharp in 2020, and Geology Underfoot in Death Valley and Eastern California (second edition), with Glazner and Sharp in 2023; traveled extensively, including two more stints in Norway as director of the University of California's Scandinavian Study Center at the University of Bergen in 1971-72 and as a Fulbright Research Scholar 30 years after his first visit; honored many times for teaching, receiving the UC President's Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Mentoring (1995), the UCSB Academic Senate's Award for Distinguished Teaching in the Mathematical, Life and Physical Sciences (1997) and was selected Faculty Member of the Year by UCSB graduate students in 1999 and by undergraduates in 2000; in 2023, was posthumously awarded a Career Contribution Award by the Geological Society of America's Structure and Tectonics Division; in retirement, served as vice president of a model railroader club and as president and project manager of the Santa Barbara County Genealogical Society during its capital campaign for reconstruction of the Sahyun Genealogical Library; became a Federal Aviation Administration-certified small drone pilot, helping ecologists understand habitat recovery following wildfires; oversaw publication of the Geological Society of America's journal, The Bulletin, for five years; had an array of hobbies, including bridge, poker, piano playing, pasta making, dancing, fly fishing, storm chasing and woodworking and music; spoke four languages; survived by sisters Virginia Howe and Aileen Zanteson, wife of 62 years Diane, daughters Karin McCarty and Kathryn Bowers and three grandchildren

Pomona College, contributed by Dan Evans '55