1995 President Clay Kelleher

I am a lifelong Oregonian, born in Portland in 1946. I became very interested in physical geography at age 10, but focused on mathematics both at Grant High School and Oregon State University. At OSU I met Barbara Underwood, and we married in June 1968. I earned a BS in August 1968, but am officially listed with the class of 1969.

1995 - CLAY KELLEHER

The principal hobby of my youth was chess.  I took this quite seriously, playing mostly against adults and finishing in second place in both the 1963 and 1964 Oregon Championship tournaments.

I barely avoided the Vietnam-era draft by joining the US Navy. I was assigned to the "Data Processing" specialty due to the many computer courses I had taken in pursuit of my math degree. My first and only assignment while in the Navy was at the Pentagon in the office of then-Commander Grace Murray Hopper. The mission was to promote use of the programming language COBOL throughout the Navy.  I wrote much of the software used to verify the accuracy of COBOL compilers and served on a COBOL subcommittee of the American National Standards Institute.

In spite of good job offers in the DC area, I had an intense desire to return to Oregon and upon discharge in 1973 accepted a COBOL programming job at Portland Public Schools, then in 1976 with Standard Insurance Company. Standard had a flexible work policy that allowed me to take classes at PSU, where I got a BS in Geology in 1990. My goal had been to begin a second career but I never made the transition because it would have necessitated a significant pay cut. From 1997 to early 2000 I programmed for the Oregon Senior & Disabled Services Division. I began working as a programmer for Multnomah Education Service District in 2000, and plan to retire in 2017.

I discovered GSOC at a seminar I attended in 1986 and learned that their twice-monthly luncheon meetings were held in the building where I worked. I held the chairmanship of the luncheon programs in 1991 through 1993 and was surprised to be awarded a GSOC Fellowship at the 1993 banquet. I accepted nomination for the Vice Presidency for 1994, after being told that the principal duty was to "introduce speakers for the Friday evening programs". That sounded easy enough.  Surprise! I became President in 1995.  My President's Field Trip was headquartered in Vernonia and covered the geology of the Coast Range from Cascade Head to Astoria.  I accepted a second Vice Presidency in 2003 followed by the Presidency in 2004. I regret there was no President's Field Trip that year.

Though I have never practiced geology professionally I have come to appreciate that "Geology is Everywhere", my way of expressing that a person can usually find something of geologic interest wherever he or she takes time to observe, even in a big city.