Name Katharine Fowler-Billings Role Geologist | Died December 17, 1997 | |
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Katharine (Kay) Fowler Billings (1902 – December 17, 1997) was an accomplished naturalist and geologist, married to Marland Pratt Billings who she met at Harvard while he was junior faculty.
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She was raised in Boston, studied at Bryn Mawr College, and received further geological training in the Rocky Mountains. She received a PhD from Columbia University. Her "publication record ... includes fundamental geological descriptions of large areas in Wyoming, Sierra Leone, and New Hampshire."
She was an environmental activist in New England.
She was an Honorary Fellow of the New Hampshire Geological Society.
The Marland Pratt Billings and Katharine Fowler-Billings Fund for Research in New England Geology was established to honor the contributions to "the study of the geology of New England" by Fowler-Billings and her husband.
Katharine Fowler Billings died December 17, 1997, in Peterborough, New Hampshire. She was 95.
Early life
As a young girl from age 7 to her college days Katharine spent every August living with a widow in Randolph, New Hampshire. Kay suffered from hay fever which her doctor recommended would get better if she visited the White Mountains. This led her into finding a great attachment to nature and questioning aspects of it. Kay always wanted to answer, Why there were mountains, why rocks were formed and why the mountains differed so much from one coast to the other.
Works
The geologists who worked at the White Mountains found that the dense vegetation made it almost impossible for their work to be conducted. The Billings investigated all the streams studying the outcropping and exposed rocks. They mapped out Mount Washington which gave us a great understanding how the complex structural geology of the White Mountains.
A partial list of books:
Honorary Achievements
The Billings Fund was established in 1996 just a year before Katharine's death to honor the hard work of the Billings. This fund was established to encourage fieldwork and research through Grant Programs.