Christopher George Alick Harrison
1936-2021
On the 7th September 2021 Geophysics lost a great man Prof Chris Harrison. I had the luck of being his nephew and being inspired, at a young age, to pursue a career in Geophysics partly through chatting with him about geology on walks. With the help of his long-time colleague Peter Swart, I have written this obituary.
Christopher George Alick was the second son of Robin and Margaret Harrison, was born in Oxford in December 1936. At 4 years old, in 1940, Christopher along with his two brothers John and Michael and his mother went to live in the USA because of fears that the Nazis would invade the UK. Robin their father, remained at home working in the Ministry of Food. They were provided accommodation at Mount Holyoke college in Massachusetts through friends of Christopher’s maternal grandparents. In 1943, unknown to her husband, Margaret decided to return home, crossing the Atlantic during a time when German U-boats were very active. Interestingly, some of the equipment that was developed to detect U-boats was later used to measure the Earth’s magnetic field. Unfortunately, I never asked Christopher whether this was a complete fluke or whether he was drawn to study the Earth’s magnetic field because of these experiences early in his life. Christopher became interested in geology as a young man but told me once he ended up studying geophysics at Cambridge so that he did not have to draw fossils. (A sentiment I can understand).
After school Christopher undertook Military service between 1955 and 1957 rising to the rank of 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers. He served in Korea, Malaysia and India and visited many other places. During this time Christopher must have caught the bug to travel and experience other cultures, as this passion stayed with him throughout his life.
Harrison Family late late 1950’s Christopher far right.
In 1957 Christopher went to Cambridge, England, to study Natural Sciences which has a fairly unique degree structure allowing students to study a combination of Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Earth Sciences. Whilst at Cambridge, Christopher was approached by the British secret service but he would never confirm or deny whether he took up their offer. Following his undergraduate degree he went on to study for a PhD, first in Cambridge, and then between 1961 and 1967 at Scripps Institute in San Diego, first as PhD researcher and after the defence of his thesis in 1964, as a post-doc. Whilst in San Diego Christopher met Martha Raitt, daughter of the renowned geophysicist, Russell Raitt and Helen Raitt. Christopher and Martha got married in 1964. This was also the year of Christopher’s first publication on paleomagnetic reversals recorded in deep marine sediments (Harrison and Funnell, 1964). In 1967 Christopher joined the faculty at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (RSMAS) and was pivotal in the rise of RSMAS to one of the premier marine schools in the world. He was recruited to what was then called the Marine Laboratory at the University of Miami through the efforts of Fritz Koczy and Cesare Emiliani and joined an impressive group of (at the time) young faculty, including Frank Millero, Joe Prospero, Enrico Bonatti, Kurt Bostrom, Jose Honnorez, and Harry de Ferrari. Christopher remained at RSMAS until his retirement in 2015 and becoming an Emertus faculty member.
Chris was a devoted member of the AGU, serving on many committees and as General Secretary from 1992-1998. I remember going to my first fall-meeting during this period. In spite of Christopher’s commitment as General Secretary, he still managed to find the time to attend my talk and take me out to dinner. Christopher was elected a Fellow of AGU in 1986. He was critical of some of the developments in AGU over the years but stayed faithful and supportive of the organisation. He also served on many committees for the ocean drilling programme. In RSMAS he took on many leadership roles including interim Dean (1986-1989).
Christopher leaves behind an impressive publication record of over 350 publications with over 6,000 citations in total. Whilst the main theme of his research was palaeomagnetism, he published on a wide range of geophysical areas from geodesy, sea-level change planetary tectonics. He published at least one paper a year from 1964 until 2009 and published his last paper in July 2021, a personal view on plate tectonics (Harrison, 2021). Christopher had been involved in the development of this paradigm-shifting theory at the beginning of his career and it is fitting that he returned to give an account of its development at the end of his career.
Chris was also a prolific educator having served as the principal advisor for over 30 MSc and PhD students, many of whom later became important researchers and educators. During his career, Chris, Martha and their family were more than generous, opening their home to foreign students during festive events such as Christmas and Thanksgiving, holding legendary defence parties at their house in the deepest jungles of Coconut Grove, parties that more than often ended up in the swimming pool. Their generous hospitality was very much a feature of their combined backgrounds – both Russell and Helen Raitt in San Diego and Robin and Margaret in Oxford, although their styles very different, were renowned for their hospitality to students and fellow academics. He also organized numerous canoe trips throughout the Everglades and South Florida for the Department and visitors. On these trips to the Everglades he seemed to enjoy canoeing in close proximity to the alligators to impress (usually scare) his visitors. Late on in his life he rediscovered a passion for climbing Scottish peaks with his two brothers, unfortunately too late to be able to bag all the Munros. But I think Christopher’s favourite pastime was chatting about science, politics or the latest bit of gossip with friends, colleagues and family. Chris leaves behind his wife Martha, two children Ariel and Ewen, and grandchildren, Rowan, Helen, Phoebe, Rosie. They, his extended family in the UK and his colleagues will miss him greatly.
Christopher right with two brothers John (centre) and Michael (left).
Harrison, C. G. A., 2021, Plate tectonics and Earth’s magnetism: a personal viewpoint: La Rivista del Nuovo Cimento, v. 44, no. 12, p. 641-664.
Harrison, C. G. A., and Funnell, B. M., 1964, Relationship of Palæomagnetic Reversals and Micropalaeontology in Two Late Cænozoic Cores from the Pacific Ocean: Nature, v. 204, no. 4958, p. 566-566.