Hannes E. Leetaru, a longtime, dedicated AAPG member who this month was completing his term as president of AAPG’s Division of Environmental Geosciences, died on May 31. He was 69.
An AAPG member since 1976, Leetaru had served on nearly 20 committees for AAPG, the House of Delegates and on the Advisory Council, and also was a member of the DEG, the Energy Minerals Division and the Division of Professional Affairs. He held leadership positions twice for DEG – as vice president in 2007 and president in 2022-23.
In addition, from 1999-2003 he served terms as treasurer, secretary, vice president and president of the AAPG Eastern Section, which subsequently presented him with its Outstanding Educator, Distinguished Service and Nelson Memorial awards.
“Hannes will be remembered as generous with his time and knowledge,” said Susan Nash, AAPG’s director of Innovation and Emerging Science and Technology who often worked with Leetaru on various projects. “He was always eager to listen to new ideas, open doors, and provide mentorship that changed lives for the better.”
“Hannes was such a dedicated and long-term AAPG member and volunteer,” said AAPG Executive Director David Curtiss.
Leetaru was the head of Subsurface Energy Resources at the Illinois State Geological Survey in Champaign, Ill. He previously was the Survey’s head of petroleum geology, a role he started in 2016.
He started his career as an advanced exploration geologist with Getty Oil (1978), and as senior geologist for Union Pacific Resources (1984), both in Houston. Leetaru also was senior petroleum geologist for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for more than 33 years starting in 1989.
Leetaru received his bachelor’s degree in geology from the State University of New York at Fredonia, his master’s degree in geology from Syracuse University and his doctorate in geology from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
He twice received an AAPG Certificate of Merit, and in 2012 received the A.I. Levorsen Memorial Award.
His final column as DEG president appeared in the June EXPLORER, published exactly at the time of his passing. In it, he wrote of the critical importance of carbon capture as a dynamic for both the industry and the profession, and outlined the progress and initiatives DEG took under his leadership to address the issue.
“It’s been an exciting year at the Division of Environmental Geosciences,” he wrote. “Carbon capture, utilization and storage, along with the problems and opportunities presented by orphan wells, have both been hot topics in the industry … and will continue to be the focus of the DEG.”