William Maurice Ewing (1906-1974) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree

William Maurice (Maurice) "Doc" Ewing

Born 12 May 1906 in Lockney, Floyd County, Texas, United States of America

Son of Floyd Ford Ewing and Hope E. (Hamilton) Ewing

Brother of Ethel Ewing, Lucy (Ewing) Clawson, Hope Rowena (Ewing) Peoples, Floyd Ford Ewing, Floyd Ford Ewing, Robert Henry Ewing and John Isaac Ewing

Husband of Margaret Sloan (Kidder) Ewing — married 19 Feb 1944 in Greenwich, Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States

[children unknown]

Died 4 May 1974 at age 67 in Galveston, Texas, United States of America

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Keith Cook

[send private message]

Profile last modified 9 Nov 2022 | Created 11 Jul 2020

This page has been accessed 630 times.

Biography

Maurice Ewing is Notable.

This profile is part of the Ewing Name Study.

Maurice Ewing was a Texan.

William Maurice Ewing was born on May 12, 1906, in Lockney, Floyd County, Texas, to Floyd Ford Ewing and Hope Hamilton Ewing ^[1]^[2]^[3].

In 1910, Maurice (age 3 - name as listed on the census and from reading other sources, he was mostly referred to as Maurice) lived on Poplar Street, in Lockney, with his father Floyd (age 30 - worked as a hardware salesman), his mother Hope (age27) and his sister Ethel (age 1)^[4].

In 1920, William M. (age 13) lived in Lockney, with his father Floyd (age 41 - worked as a manager, it's not clear what type), his mother Hope E. (age 37), his sister Ethel E. (age 11), his sister Lucy L. (age 9), his sister Hope R. (age 7) and his brother Floyd F. (age 4)^[5].

William attended Rice Institute (currently known as Rice University [[1]]) in Houston, Texas and received a B.A. in 1926; an M.A. in 1927 and a Ph.D. in 1931 and also served as a Teaching Fellow from 1926 to 1929^[6]^[7]^[8].

Between 1929 and 1930, William taught physics, at University of Pittsburgh [[2]], in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania^[9]^[10].

From 1930 to 1944, William taught physics, geology and geophysics at Lehigh University [[3]], in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania^[11]^[12].

Between the years of 1940 and 1946, William went on leave, from Lehigh and Columbia and worked as a research associate at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute [[4]], in Woods Hole, Massachusetts for national defense projects^[13]^[14].

During World War II, in the Spring of 1944, William and J. Worzel discovered the SOFAR (SOund Fixing And Ranging) Channel [[5]]^[15]^[16].

In 1947, William attained Professor status at Columbia and taught geology^[17].

From 1949 to 1972, William served as the first director at Columbia's Lamont Geological Observatory^[18]^[19].

In 1959, William was named Higgins Professor of Geology at Columbia^[20]^[21].

And then from 1944 to 1972, William taught geology at Columbia University [[6]], in Manhattan, New York^[22]^[23].

William led more than fifty ocean-floor expeditions and developed many oceanographic instruments, that are used today in oceanography; for instance the deep-sea camera^[24]^[25].

William also proved, using earthquake seismology instruments, that oceans were layered, thus giving the term plate tectonics^[26]^[27].

In June of 1972, William was named head of the Division of Earth and Planetary Sciences in the Marine Biomedical Institute of the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, Texas^[28]^[29]^[30].

William published over 300 papers and served on several editorial boards^[31]^[32].

William was elected to the National Academy of Sciences [[7]], as well as many other academies in other countries^[33]^[34].

President Richard M. Nixon presented William with the National Medal of Science. William also received the Vetlsen Award from Columbia University; the Navy's Distinguished Service Award; the Royal Astronomical Society gold medal award; the National Academy of Science Agassiz Medal; Rice University's Medal of Honor; the Geological Society of London's Wollaston Medal; two medals, the Day Medal and the Penrose Medal, from the Geological Society of America; the American Geophysical Union Bowie Medal, the American Association of Petroleum Geologists Sidney Powers Medal and the Swedish Society Vega Medal^[35]^[36]^[37].

On April 28, 1974, William suffered a cerebral hemorrhage, in Galveston, Texas^[38].

William Maurice Ewing (age 67) passed away on May 4, 1974, at John Sealy Hospital, in Galveston, Texas and was buried on May 8, 1974, in Rockland Cemetery, in Sparkill, Rockland County, New York [[8]] ^[39]^[40]^[41].

Sources

Is Maurice your ancestor? Please don't go away!

contact

the profile manager, or

ask our community of genealogists a question.

William Maurice Ewing (1906 - 1974)

Biography

Sources