William E. Galloway, GCSSEPM Honorary Member
The election of Bill Galloway as Honorary Member of GCSSEPM is most fitting. His research and publications on Gulf Coast geology, from his first paper on the Wilcox deltas of Louisiana to his monumental, ongoing synthesis of the Gulf Basin in the Gulf of Mexico Depositional Synthesis Project, have made him the foremost scholar of the Basin over the past generation. No one has contributed more to our understanding of Gulf Coast Basin geology than Bill Galloway. His work has won him three best paper awards and two Leverson Awards, along with the prestigious Pratt Award from the American Association of Petroleum Geologists for his seminal paper on the Frio. His publications, including his widely used book on terrigenous clastic depositional systems with Dave Hobday, have made him one of the most cited geologists over the past three decades and the most cited geologist on Gulf Coast Basin geology. He will most likely hold that distinction for many years to come.
Bill Galloway is a native Texan, born in Waco 57 years ago. He received a B. S. in geology from Texas A&M University, and his M. S. and Ph. D. in geology from the University of Texas at Austin. He began his professional career with Conoco in their Exploration Research Division at Ponca City where he served as Research Group Supervisor and later as Director of the Geology Section of the Exploration Research Division. But within four years he yearned again for university life and we were able to persuade him to come back to UT Austin to join the Bureau of Economic Geology as Research Scientist were he has been the past quarter of the century.
While engaged in a variety of research projects at the Bureau, Bill maintained a keen interest in teaching, both in the classroom and in external short courses. He served as the Bowling Professor in the Department of Geological Sciences, the Klabzuba Visiting Professor at the University of Oklahoma, the Nordic Visiting Professor in Petroleum Geology at the University of Bergen, and a Visiting Professor at the University of Adelaide. He joined the Department of Geological Sciences at UT Austin in 1985 as Elliot Professor and currently holds the Davis Centennial Chair in Petroleum Geology. He remains a Senior Research Scientist with the Bureau of Economic Geology.
Bill Galloway is one of the best synthesizers of data I know, able to organize and put complex ideas into straightforward presentations. It is a rare gift that serves him well in teaching and on the lecture circuit. It makes his substantial scientific publications easy to read and thus, even more influential. He has supervised more than 40 graduate students at Texas, many of them among our very best products. In 1993 the GCAGS named Bill Outstanding Educator. Bill Galloway is always in demand as a lecturer, having lectured literally throughout the world. He served as an AAPG Distinguished Lecturer in 1985-86 and in the Spring of 2002 he was an International Distinguished Lecturer for the Association, lecturing in southeast Asia.
Bill Galloway is a first class, well respected scientist and teacher. His tracks in the Gulf Coast Basin and elsewhere in the fields of stratigraphy and sedimentology are deep and lasting and he continues at full speed today. He is an excellent and highly merited choice for Honorary Membership, a credit to the Gulf Coast Section and his profession.
William L. Fisher