Obituary Notice—George Hemingway: Thirty-Year Scripps Biological Oceanographer

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George Hemingway, May 31, 1979. Credit: Scripps Institution of Oceanography Archives

George Thomson Hemingway, a seagoing biological oceanographer and academic administrator who spent more than 30 years at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, died peacefully on Nov. 8, 2015, at his home in Nehalem, Ore., following a lengthy battle with prostate cancer. He was 75.

Hemingway served in the Scripps Marine Life Research Group (now part of the Integrative Oceanography Division) and made significant contributions to the California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations (CalCOFI), considered one of the world’s leading fisheries oceanography observing programs.

“George was a pillar during a structurally difficult period for CalCOFI,” said Dave Checkley, a Scripps Oceanography biological oceanographer and director of Scripps-CalCOFI. “His commitment and humanity helped CalCOFI endure and thrive, including fostering ties between U.S. and Mexican scientists and students studying the California Current.”

Hemingway, who retired from Scripps in 1999, is widely known for building collaborations with Mexican research institutions. His career included a two-year term as biology department chair and professor of marine sciences at Ensenada’s Autonomous University of Baja California.

George Hemingway, 1970, en route to Easter Island. Credit Elizabeth Venrick

“If I were to pick out one contribution above all others, it would be the close ties he forged between CalCOFI and our Mexican colleagues,” said Elizabeth Venrick, a Scripps research oceanographer and former director of Scripps-CalCOFI.

Hemingway also mentored undergraduate students in marine sciences as associate investigator of the Sea Grant project in partnership with San Diego State University, and served as coordinator of Scripps’s Interamericas Program.

He was honored with a medal of achievement from the San Diego Chapter of Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society.

An ordained Episcopal minister and Canon to the Dioceses of San Diego and Oregon, Hemingway presided over a number of weddings, baptisms, and memorial services for colleagues and students at Scripps and the broader UC San Diego community.

Born in Corvallis, Ore., Hemingway benefited from a broad mix of experiences as a Navy child, including time as a teenager in Italy after World War II. Following two years of service in the United States Army Artillery, Hemingway earned a bachelor’s degree in zoology and a master’s degree in biology from San Diego State University. He received a doctor of ministry from the George Fox Evangelical Seminary in Newberg, Ore.

George Hemingway (far left) aboard the research vessel Alexander Agassiz during a CalCOFI cruise.

He is survived by his wife Jean, daughter Gillian Hemingway Asch, son-in-law Jonathan Asch, grandson Aaron, siblings Lynne Cordiner, Gail Decker, Laurie Hemingway, and Ian Hemingway, and several brothers- and sisters-in-law, cousins, nieces, and nephews.

Memorial services will be held at 11 a.m. on Dec. 12 at St. David’s Episcopal Church, 5050 Milton Street, San Diego; and at 11 a.m. on Jan. 23 at St. Catherine’s Episcopal Church, 36335 Hwy 101, Nehalem, Ore.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to support fellowships for Scripps Oceanography master’s and PhD students: click here (Fund # F-1438 Mexican Marine Sciences Scholarship Fund or Fund # F-1116 Shirley Boyd Memorial Fellowship); or toward the purchase and planting of native vegetation at the God’s Valley Meadows Restoration site in Nehalem, Ore. Donations can be sent to: Lower Nehalem Watershed Council, PO Box 249, Nehalem, Ore.,97131 (Contact Alix Lee for information: 503-368-7424 or lnwc@nehalemtel.net).

Colleagues wishing to express condolences are invited to submit messages for web posting to scrippsnews@ucsd.edu.