7
PRESIDENT'S LETTER
Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas
and Happy New Year. It is hard to believe a
year has rolled around since I was voted Presi-
dent of the Kansas Geological Society. I am
honored to be your president and promise to do
my best to represent all the members of the
Kansas Geological Society. If you would like
to volunteer for a committee please let me or a
board member know. Volunteers are what
make the Kansas Geological Society such a
great organization.
What can the Kansas Geological Soci-
ety do to better serve its membership? Do we
need to publish more oil and gas field studies,
maps, cross sections? Any reasonable idea will
be considered.
As all of us age towards retirement,
what is going to happen to the geological pro-
fession in Kansas? It is important for us to en-
courage young people to become geologists and
pass our knowledge on to the next generation of
geologists. Our profession is important for the
oil and gas industry, environmental industry,
government, teaching, etc. Many of our mem-
bers donate much of their time to mentoring
others, teaching, and passing their knowledge
on to the next generation. Mentoring is very
important to the survival of our profession.
Thank you all for your time and effort in this
endeavor.
In April of 1998 when Dr. Bob Walters
died, the following on mentoring flowed from
my mind to a piece of paper.
TO A MENTOR FALLEN
(In Memory of Dr. Robert F. Walters)
by Tom Hansen
A mentor has fallen.
A mentor has fallen.
A mentor to us all.
Eager to see us learn.
Always present to cheer us on.
One who encouraged.
One who taught us to discover the secrets of the
earth and life.
One who taught right from wrong.
Remember the mentor.
Remember the mentor.
Showing us that saying it is so, does not make it
so.
Proving it so, does make it so.
Time to carry forward the message of the men-
tor fallen.
Teach young and old the secrets of the earth.
Bestow them the technology to solve the earth's
secrets.
Teach them the secrets of life.
Time to carry the message of the mentor fallen
to one and all.
Live, love, and learn in memory of the mentor
fallen.
Time to be a mentor of present and future gen-
erations.
Time to carry on the work of the mentor fallen.
Respectfully,
Thomas J. Hansen