James Quick:
CLASS OF 1968
Monroe High SchoolClass of 1968
Sepulveda, CA
James's Story
It has been an amazing trip, drinking tea in Bedouin tents, charging around the Polar Urals in a Russian tank, repelling down cliffs in the Italian Alps, and standing on the lips of erupting volcanoes.
After graduating from Monroe, I earned a B.S. at UCLA, an M.S. at U. of Minnesota, and a PhD at Caltech, all in geology. Following my PhD, I started a 26-year career with the USGS, which took me to more than 35 countries. Notable experiences include 6 years living in Saudi Arabia, 29 years working summers in Italy, and field work in the USSR, post USSR Russia, Yemen, Oman, Algeria, Morocco, and the Mariana Islands. Amazingly, those French classes with Madame Landis turned out to be among the most useful classes I took at Monroe...Expand for more
. After English, French is truly the lingua franca. I only wish I could have taken Italian as well. In my last four years with the USGS, I directed the Volcano Hazards program during the recent eruptions of Mount St. Helens, Anatahan (Mariana Islands), Augustine (Alaska), and Kilauea (which never stops erupting.) I left the USGS in 2007 to work for Southern Methodist University (SMU) as a professor of geology and the Associate Vice President for Research and Dean of Graduate Studies, a position I continue to hold.
Married 43 years, I currently live in Dallas, but look forward to retirement somewhere on the west coast. My daughter, Donya, who was born in Saudi Arabia, recently completed her PhD at Yale in computer science.
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