Necrology

John Drew Silvernail '51

May. 14, 1929-May. 21, 2021

John Drew Silvernail ’51, 91, died at home in New Berlin, Wis., on March 14, 2021. Born in New York City on May 14, 1929, he came to Hamilton from Crestwood, a neighborhood in Yonkers, N.Y.

A member of Delta Phi fraternity and a double major in anthropology and geology, his interest in the latter subject was no doubt reinforced by some of his extracurricular activities. He was a member of the Outing Club for all four years, and its expeditions took him to locations of geological interest in Central New York State and the vicinity. Equally telling was his membership in the Geology Club in his senior year. Other activities included, during his freshman year, involvement with WHC, the College radio station. He played on the lacrosse team for his first three years and became a member of the Block H Club his junior year.

After graduation, Silvernail headed to the University of Texas/Austin for graduate work in geology, after which he went to work for the Kerr-McGee Oil Co. His career took him to several states and to Cuba where he was one of the last American geologists to work in the country before Fidel Castro assumed power.

Transferred by the company to New Orleans in 1955, he lived there for 50 years. After leaving Kerr-McGee, he worked as a consulting geologist serving the needs of individuals as well as large and small oil companies. While much of this work was carried out along the Gulf Coast, he also had clients in the Netherlands and in Ras al Khaimah, one of the seven emirates of the United Arab Emirates.

Silvernail was a life member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, the Society of Independent Earth Scientists, the Shreveport Geological Society, and the New Orleans Geographical Society.

In August 1958, Silvernail married Anita Rogers. They had one daughter, Ruth. In May 1975, he married Shirley Spence. In 2005, they were forced to evacuate their home in New ­Orleans ahead of Hurricane Katrina, and with the subsequent failure of the levees their home was too damaged to repair. They moved to Shreveport in 2006 into a home on high ground. They would remain there until Shirley’s death in 2015. In 2018, Silvernail relocated to New Berlin, Wis., a suburb of Milwaukee, to be near his daughter.

Silvernail is survived by his daughter, stepdaughter, four grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.

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