Personal

INTRODUCTION The Malcolm P. Weiss papers were donated to the University Archives in April 1989 by Malcolm Weiss, with additions in subsequent years.  Literary rights in all materials not under copyright are dedicated to the public. There are no restrictions on access to the collection. SCOPE AND CONTENT The papers in this collection document the career of Malcolm P. Weiss from 1944 to 1994.  The collection is organized into three series: personal papers (1944-1994), teaching career (1952-1994), and professional organizations, research papers and projects (1952-1991). Papers in series one include personal correspondence and academic records.  Series two includes departmental administrative records and classes taught at Ohio State (1952-1967), departmental administrative records and classes taught at NIU (1967-1988), records of University committees at NIU (1974-1988), and letters of recommendation written for colleagues and students (1954-1990), and graduate student files (1973-1994). Series three is comprised of Weiss’ activities with various professional organizations, correspondence with colleagues, research notes, maps, and papers (both published and unpublished). For additional information on aspects of Weiss’ career and activities, researchers should consult the following: College of Liberal Arts and Sciences records, Presidents’ Papers, Provost’s Papers, and the Campus Development series on buildings (Davis Hall). BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Malcolm P. Weiss was born June 28, 1921 in Washington, D.C.  After attending McKinley Tech in Washington from 1935 to 1938, he served as a Lieutenant in the armed forces for several years during World War II.  Weiss married Ruth H. Penny from Sayrille, New York.  They had four children; Rolfe (1944), Malcolm (1946), Mary (1948), and Carolyn (1952). Weiss received his college education at the University of Minnesota; B.A. in personnel management (1946), M.S. in geology (1950), and Ph.D. in geology (1953).  He held several different faculty positions in the Geology Department of Ohio State University from 1952 to 1967.  In 1967, he accepted an offer from Northern Illinois University to become chairman of their developing Geology Department.  The former Earth Science Department was dividing into separate geology and geography departments, a process which wasn’t formally completed until 1969. As chair of the department, Weiss expanded the existing curriculum for both undergraduate and graduate students in geology.  Three unusual undergraduate courses, planetary and space science (GEOL103), introduction to oceanography (GEOL104), and environmental geology (GEOL105) were added by Weiss, each of which satisfied the general education requirement in pure sciences. Weiss recruited new, highly qualified staff members and created graduate assistantships to help support the advanced students in the department.  He sponsored annual series of guest geologists’ lectures and workshops.  Weiss involved NIU geology students in summer field work classes in cooperation with Ohio State University, teaching classes himself in Utah and South Dakota.  He persuaded NIU administrators to purchase cars and vans to transport the students and teachers to the field sites.  This began the university service of providing vehicles for faculty and staff business in addition to administrative business.  Enrollment in the department boomed as Weiss changed the emphasis in instruction from preparing science teachers to preparing professional geologists to work in the field. Weiss and Dr. Lloyd Black, chair of the Geography Department, administered a 1.65 million dollar government grant to remodel Davis Hall and purchase new scientific equipment.  Remodeling of the science building took five years, and was completed in 1972.  Weiss submitted the first proposal for a doctoral degree in geology, which was withdrawn from IBHE consideration by NIU in November 1969.  The IBHE approved a much revised version of this proposal in 1979.  The first Ph.D.’s in geology from NIU graduated in 1987.  Weiss stepped down from the position of department head in 1972 and continued to teach in the department until his retirement in 1988. Weiss pursued his own research as a stratigrapher and sedimentary petrologist throughout his career.  He worked on several projects which were ongoing over many years: U.S. Geologic Survey projects in Utah and Ohio, surveying and mapping of the Cincinnatian area of the Ohio Valley, surveying and mapping the Chichiriviche area of Venezuela, and surveying and mapping the island of Antigua in the West Indies.  He taught field seminars for the National Science Foundation in Florida and the Bahamas from 1968 to 1974.  In addition, Weiss was active in the Geological Society of America, the Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists, and the American Association of Petroleum Geologists.