Necrology

Donald Sherwood Stone '50

Oct. 20, 1928-Sep. 5, 2023

Donald Sherwood Stone ’50 died at his home in Centennial, Colo., on Sept. 5, 2023. Born on Oct. 20, 1928, in Mineola, Long Island, he grew up in nearby Garden City. Unsurprising for a member of a musical family, he developed a reputation on the Hill as somewhat of a jazz musician and singer; he was a bass. At the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity house he was known as a talented jazz pianist and drummer, skills that would accompany him throughout his life. Following graduation, he was the drummer for a trio called The Three Feathers that appeared on Ted Mack and The Original Amateur Hour television show in 1951.

During his childhood, his family regularly summered on the northwest shore of Lake Champlain, and it was there that Don began to take note of his geological surroundings including, no doubt, the Green Mountains to the east and the Adirondacks to the west. 

In those high school summers, he and a cousin collected fossils from two rock formations dating back to the Ordovician Period, which spanned from 485 million to 444 million years ago. It would not be until his junior year at Hamilton, however, when, as a consequence of taking courses in geology from Philip Oxley, then a new faculty member, that his interest in the subject came fully into focus.

Don had come to Hamilton from Garden City High School. A member of Alpha Delt, he was active in three sports to varying degrees. He played on the hockey team as a freshman, was a member of the swim team during his sophomore and junior years, and played soccer throughout his time on campus. He played in the band during his first two years and sang in the Glee Club in his second and third. His affiliation with the Geology Club began when he was a junior (he served as its secretary that year) and continued through his final year on campus. 

Don graduated with honors in geology and received the Rogers Prize, which is awarded to a senior who excelled in courses in that field. His achievement did not go unnoticed elsewhere, specifically at Cornell University. In April of his senior year, Don was notified that he had been awarded the Eleanor Tatum Long Scholarship, at the time the largest graduate study grant awarded to a Hamilton student and one usually offered to someone whose graduate study was already in progress.

His focus was on structural geology, specifically on certain rock types found in the vicinity of faults in the upper Champlain Valley. It seems reasonable to suppose that he had first become aware of these phenomena during those summer vacations with his family.

He wasted little time in Ithaca, completing his master’s degree in 1951. His thesis  appeared in the Journal of Geology, among the field’s preeminent scholarly publications, and it was the first of what would ultimately total more than 75 articles of which he was either principal author or a collaborator. Also in 1951, he started to work for Standard Oil of California as an exploration geologist. Shortly after beginning this job, he met a colleague, Charity Ann Murray. They married the next year in Sacramento. They had four daughters.

Don and Mary remained in California until 1961, traveling to various sites where petroleum reserves were likely. Then, leaving Standard Oil and the Golden State, they moved to Littleton, Colo., where he worked for a succession of companies, all based in Denver and involved oil exploration: Franco-Western Oil Co. (1961–65), Chevron Oil (1965–68), and Baumgartner Oil (1968–72). Then, in 1972, he founded his own company: Sherwood Exploration Co., based in Littleton, of which he was president until 1987. Thereafter, he worked as an independent geologist and consultant into his late 80s.

Don’s contributions to the field of geology were highly regarded. Long a member of the Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists (RMAG), he served as associate editor of the 1970 edition of the RMAG’s Rocky Mountain Geologic Atlas and, for a time, as editor of its journal, Mountain Geologist. He was elected president of the RMAG in 1985. In 1989, he was named an honorary member of the organization, as “the quintessential professional petroleum geologist, scientist, artist, musician, … whose zest for seismic and structural geology as well as life” was much appreciated. 

In 1994, at RMAG’s annual meeting, Don was elected to honorary membership in the American Association of Petroleum Geologists “for doing superb petroleum geology, especially seismic interpretation in petroleum exploration and for spreading the results of his work.” In a delightful twist, it was Joseph Hull ’52, another Hamilton geology major, who conferred the award upon him.

There was more to Don than rock formations and petroleum reserves, and in fact he was something of a Renaissance man. He was interested in photography, constructed model ships, and continued to swim and scuba dive, having developed skills in underwater photography. He also played tennis into his 90s. When they got together, he and three of his siblings sang barbershop quartet repertory. In a 13-year period beginning in 1976, he and Charity traveled abroad 16 times. His jazz performances on the Hill were but the beginning of more than 70 years of playing, during 50 of which he was drummer in a dance band made up of geologists who played for RMAG’s annual Rockbusters’ Ball. In 2013, he published Memoir of an Independent Geologist: Navigating the Oil Patch Minefields, both a record of his accomplishments to that point and a reflection on the various skills required to achieve them. The right brain proved to be as essential as the left in his experience. 

For Don, Hamilton was the place where he learned tolerance and developed confidence in his writing skills — the foundation of his prolific publication history. He never forgot the formative experience of studying with Professor Oxley, whom, he said, “started me in geology.” The fact that George Nesbitt awarded Don an “A” for a story he had written (despite several spelling errors) was also highly motivating. As he noted in his 50th reunion yearbook: “With that pat on the back, I have gone on to publish over 70 papers in national journals.”

Donald S. Stone was predeceased by his father, A. Waldron Stone, Class of 1919, his uncle Philip W. Stone, Class of 1916, and, more distantly, Ralph W. Stone, Class of 1899, who at one time was the state geologist for Pennsylvania. He is survived by his wife, four daughters, six grandchildren, three great-grandchildren, and three siblings.

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