This page created 7-8-02 by Sara Donaldson
Last revised 8-1-02
© 2002, Nowell Donovan
Maintained by Sara Donaldson

The History of Professor Joseph Prestwich

Back home in Fort Worth, I enlisted the help of my good friend, the TCU librarian Bob Seal. I knew he liked mysteries and, sure enough, given his proficiency with electronic retrieval systems, in just a few minutes he discovered that Professor Joseph Prestwich had indeed existed and had in fact written copiously, in particular a two volume work, entitled simply “Geology”. This book had appeared in 1886 when Prestwich was Professor of Geology at the University of Oxford. So Prestwich was a teacher - which explained the dedication of his correspondence: the “Geoneophytes” were his pupils (inferentially, sturdy young men from the playing fields of British Public Schools.)

Then, a strange and somewhat spooky twist of Fate; a parcel of old books from my great aunt Millicent arrived (she does this sort of thing periodically). Amongst some Kipling’s and a fourth edition of Boswell’s Hebridean Journal was a badly battered copy of Volume one of Prestwich’s “Geology”, subtitled “Chemical and Physical”. It was printed by the Clarendon Press and informed me that Prestwich had an M.A. degree and had been a Fellow of both the Royal and Geological Societies. He was also a Correspondent of the Institute of France. So, a distinguished academic emerged from the historical gloom.

As I carefully skimmed the book (it really is in terrible condition), I recognized many of the drawings and realized that Prestwich had first intended his text to be a series of discrete letters, perhaps based on his lectures, quite an imaginative pedagogical approach. I assume that someone, perhaps his publisher, had talked him into writing a more conventional tome.

As I now felt as though I was being driven by some active presence, I realized that I had to see that Prestwich’s original correspondence should see the light of day. I chatted with several people including Sherrie Reynolds in the Education Department and Vice Chancellor Larry Adams. Sherrie and I have a general agreement about the importance of “magic” as an integral component of effective communication, while Larry has always valued the concept of off campus learning in special places. In the end I decided to publish, as an initial offering, just a few of the letters to supplement two programs that I currently offer in Scotland: “TCU in Scotland - the Search for Genius” and “Environmental Stewardship - the Skye Experience.” The intent is to provide some background to various knowledge-based and philosophical emphases that are particular to these programs and the audience is the true “geoneophyte”, i.e., a person who has had little or no exposure to rock fondling. I have appended some notes to each letter to enhance context, but the basis of work remains the original letters. I take great pleasure in dedicating this effort both to the memory of Professor Joseph Prestwich and to two likely Scots lads, Norman Drummond and Ian Chisholm, both of whom need to appreciate the profound and fundamental significance of rocks in their lives.