August 7, 2023
Some thoughts of Jason Morgan, a colleague and friend for over 50 years. Lincoln Hollister, Aug 5, 2023.
Jason Morgan was the last man who knew everything. He was not just a pioneer in geology, he grasped the full historical context for geological details and was fully aware of how each detail connected to everything else.
One former student wrote, “Jason was a professor at Princeton when I was a graduate student 40 years ago; he was one of the kindest, lowest-key, but most erudite and wisest people I have known. He was foremost among those who shaped and developed the modern theory of plate tectonics and put it on a sound theoretical basis. If there were a Nobel Prize in earth sciences, Jason would certainly have received it.”
“Loose lips sink ships.” Jason, a Navy veteran, followed this rule. For example, his close friends did not know he had been awarded an honorary degree by Harvard University until after the fact. He always found the good in someone even if their science was not really worthy of note. He made everyone he knew feel like they were outstanding scientists and people. His lips were not loose!
If one had a question … any question … Jason had the answer. “Ask Jason” was a frequent refrain. One former student and wife writes that they “drove him around 1600 km of the German countryside, and he knew something about everything everywhere we went.”
I chatted on the phone with Jason about four times a week, for the last 20 years since he moved to Massachusetts. The last chat was the Sunday evening when he died. He was fine then and was packing up to drive to Princeton with his children, Michele and Jason Jr, and a grandchild. The purpose of their planned visit was to see the construction holes in the ground where they had all lived. He also asked me some questions about the Colorado Plateau which we had visited on a field trip with a class.
Jason went on every field trip he could hitch a ride with. He would patiently learn from the students on the trips and would help them understand the bigger story, like how did the Colorado Plateau form? Or how did the plates move across the Earth’s surface? Every rock was a data point for understanding the bigger picture.
His patient teaching extended to a boat operator in Prince Rupert, British Columbia. On receiving the news of Jason’s death, he wrote me: “When I saw his picture I instantly remembered the man that I met briefly in 1994. He was always smiling and tried so hard to explain to me the geology in my own back yard. As an old friend of yours, I understand your sadness of your old friend passing.”