Three longtime stalwarts of the AAPG Foundation – a passionate trio representing more than a century of service, support and leadership – have been chosen to receive its top honors for 2025.
The honorees – all boasting not only engagement but also award-winning success for their contributions to the geosciences as well as the Foundation – are:
- Larry L. Jones, retired president and CEO at Spartan Petroleum Corp. in Houston, is this year’s recipient of the L. Austin Weeks Memorial Medal, the Foundation’s highest honor, given in recognition of extraordinary service and philanthropy to advance the Foundation’s mission.
- David C. Curtiss, president of DKC Strategies in Oklahoma City, and a former longtime executive director of both AAPG as well as the Foundation, is this year’s recipient of the Chairman’s Award, given in recognition of his extraordinary contributions and service to the Foundation.
- Rebecca Dodge, retired in Midland, Texas, after a long career as an associate professor at Midwestern State University and an impactful role in geoscience education at all levels, is this year’s recipient of the Foundation Trustees Associates’ Service Award.
All will be recognized and celebrated during the Foundation Chairman’s Reception at this year’s IMAGE event, set Aug. 25-28 in Houston.
“It always gives us pleasure to applaud those who have given so much of themselves, and for so long, to the Foundation,” said Foundation Chair Jim McGhay, “and this year we’re honoring three people who have made huge impacts on the geosciences – not just today, but in ways that will be felt for years to come.
“The Foundation is not only stronger, but also more influential and impactful to a broader audience because of their efforts.”
Jones: A Career of Service
Larry Jones, who received the Foundation’s Chairman’s Award in 2023, has provided decades of service, energy and leadership in a variety of roles for both the Foundation and the Association.
For the Foundation, he became a Trustee Associate in 2007 and a Member of the Corporation in 2016. He then was a Foundation Trustee from 2016-22 – and in retiring he stepped down from more than a generation of accomplishments.
An AAPG honorary member since 2019, a partial list of his leadership roles include:
- A longtime member of the House of Delegates, he served as HoD chair in 2006-07, making him part of the AAPG Executive Committee and a member of numerous committees.
- A member of the DPA leadership council
- Secretary-Treasurer for the Trustee Associates in 2013-15, then vice chair for the TAs in 2015-16
- Trustees vice chair for 2019-23
- Also an Honorary Member of the House of Delegates, plus recipient of AAPG’s Distinguished Service Award
Curtiss: Focused on the Future
David Curtiss was executive director of both AAPG and the Foundation for more than 13 years, from 2011-24. An AAPG member since 1997, in his leadership role he oversaw and led the modernization and technical advances for both entities.
That responsibility included successfully steering both entities through the COVID-19 pandemic, which involved innovative approaches to unique challenges.
“I have always been proud to serve as executive director of the Foundation,” Curtiss said when he announced his decision to step away. “The Foundation’s mission, its many successes, its resources to deploy to advance our science and profession – they have energized me.”
Curtiss holds a bachelor’s degree in geology from Wheaton College, Wheaton, Ill., a master’s degree in Earth resources management from the University of South Carolina and a master’s in business administration from the University of Utah.
Before working for AAPG he was manager of international strategy and development, and senior adviser to the director of the Energy and Geoscience Institute at the University of Utah.
Immediately prior to coming to Tulsa he worked in Washington, D.C., as director of AAPG’s Geoscience and Energy Office for nearly four years, after serving as deputy director of the office since its inception in 2005.
He continues to be an integral part of the Foundation in a consulting and advisory role, and as a Trustee Associate.
“The AAPG Foundation continues to evolve, and it’s in the middle of a generational change right now,” Curtiss said. “Our challenge now is to connect with the next generation of geoscientists – many of whom enjoyed support from the Foundation – and instill in them a desire to follow the lead of their predecessors.”
Curtiss has received a DPA Special Award, and an AAPG Certificate of Merit.
Dodge: Teaching the Teachers
Rebecca Dodge has been active in leadership roles throughout her 50-year career as an AAPG member, including her recent stint (2022-24) on the AAPG Executive Committee as vice president of sections.
Her AAPG activity record stretches over four printed pages, and she has received 11 awards for service and technical excellence, including both the Distinguished Service (2010) and Honorary Member (2015) awards.
A huge part of her legacy, however, centers on her innovative and measuredly effective approaches in geoscience education – indirectly for students, but very directly in creating courses and techniques that are helping to train new generations of geoscience teachers.
As a celebrated volunteer in AAPG’s Visiting Geoscientist Program, she personally helped, guided and inspired hundreds of college-level geoscientists. Later in her career, however, as a geology professor at Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas, she designed and developed an online workshop that taught high school teachers the skills needed to teach geoscience standards required by the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS).
That course, offered through the American College of Education, provided teachers with specific geoscience information about class content, teaching methods and engagement activities.
She developed the course, she said, because better teaching at the high school level would lead to more geoscience students at the university level – and in the profession.
That experience eventually led (in 2019) to an AAPG Foundation-funded “teach the teacher” course, once again designed to provide teachers with more geoscience-centered knowledge and skills.
The results? Based on comparison of pre-course and post-course tests, the teachers showed a dramatic increase in geoscience knowledge and teaching skills.
The initiative continues with Foundation support.