June McFarland Chronos was a geologist who loved her job – editing the AAPG BULLETIN, the publication she revered and felt an abiding respect.
Chronos retired in 1989 after 41 years on the AAPG staff, having worked closely with over a thousand geologists on the various scientific papers over her loyal career.
After graduating with a degree in geology from the University of Oklahoma, she came to work as editorial secretary, also serving as AAPG’s first librarian before being named managing editor of the BULLETIN in 1981, when the AAPG science director was Ted Beaumont, who now is AAPG president-elect.
“She was a tireless worker. She wanted the BULLETIN to be perfect, error free, which is impossible,” Beaumont said. “She always felt personally responsible for every typo.”
Last November, eight years after her death in 2003, she was still giving to the profession – through a contribution from her remaining estate.
The AAPG Foundation received a check with a note from an executor that noted that Chronos’ estate passed to her surviving sister, Virginia McFarland, who recently died. With no remaining heirs, a portion of the remaining trust estate was willed – as Chronos directed – to the AAPG Foundation.
The check was for over $70,000.
Of course, it was dedicated to the AAPG BULLETIN fund.
“June’s spirit lives on through the BULLETIN,” Beaumont said. “Much of the BULLETIN’s reputation for quality that it still enjoys is due to June’s dedication.”
June would have been happy.