Harold E. Andrews, professor of geology emeritus, died on Feb. 22, 2015, at the age of 72. He leaves his wife, Karen, and his two sons, Scott and Mark. His Wellesley career spanned the years from 1971 until his retirement in 2006. A graduate of the College of Wooster, with a master’s degree from the University of Missouri and a Ph.D. from Harvard, Harold was an invertebrate paleontologist and an early adopter of computational statistics to provide insight into the functional morphology of turitellids and the distribution of conodonts.

Harold was a beloved teacher and colleague, a true leader who served the College selflessly in many positions. He served two years as director of the Science Center during its first operative years, and numerous stints as chair of the geology department. He chaired the Board of Admission and served with distinction on many other faculty and trustee committees. With Diana Kamilli, he revived the geology department from a single faculty position and helped build a strong faculty, new facilities, and an enthusiastic student cohort. Harold mentored the junior faculty in our department, showing us how to be more effective teachers.

Winner of the coveted Pinanski Prize for teaching excellence in 2005, his citation noted “his ability to make science accessible without making it simple.” During his career, he taught more students than almost anyone else at the College. In the era of large lectures, his Oceanography class often had 100 or more students, who recall his broad knowledge and ability to communicate with precision and organization. Early in his career, he adapted the minimal computational resources then available and taught computer programming to geology students at a time when the only other computer science class was a single extradepartmental course.

A raconteur, Harold kept students attentive as he turned stories and pictures into ideas and logic about processes in the natural world. His breadth of knowledge enabled him at various times to teach almost all of the courses in the geology department curriculum. He was always willing to help individual students who would come to his office with some confusion or anxiety. A former student describes his courses as being “as fun as they were challenging.”

Harold was noted for his good humor, sympathy, and genial manner. He could teach a course on factor analysis or the anatomy of extinct brachiopods one moment and juggle in the Sage Lounge the next. Former students who are now professors still seek out laboratory exercises he devised for historical geology. The Harold E. Andrews Award is given each year to an outstanding senior to recognize particular service to the Department of Geosciences. His colleagues and former students mourn the loss of an unforgettable professor and friend.