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Mary C. Rabbitt, a retired geophysicist, administrator, and research historian
with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), died at her home in Washington, D.C.,
on Aug. 8, at 87.
Mary Priscilla Collins (Rabbitt) was born into "a politically aware Boston
Irish family," but grew up in nearby Canton. At Radcliffe, Mary chose geology.
As Harvard’s policy then barred Radcliffe students from all classes at
Harvard, Esper Larsen put Mary in his office so she could hear his petrology
lectures through the open door to the adjacent hall. In 1937 Mary earned a Bachelor
of Arts degree in geological sciences (magna cum laude) and published in the
Seismological Society of America’s Bulletin her initial article (on local
earthquakes in New England). She continued her education as a teaching fellow
and research assistant to Perry Byerly at the University of California at Berkeley.
In 1939, Mary returned to Cambridge to be a teaching fellow at Radcliffe for
Harvard’s Kirtley Mather and then Assistant Seismologist to Don Leet, the
director of Harvard’s Seismograph Station and co-editor of its Bulletin.
Detailed from Leet’s office during part of World War II, she worked on
nuclear and other explosion seismology at the Oak Ridge Observatory in Tennessee
and with the Office of Scientific Research and Development. After the war’s
end, Mary traveled to Japan to aid the Allies’ group that inventoried and
interviewed Japanese scientists.
In November 1947, Mary married John Charles ("Jack") Rabbitt, a geologist
with the USGS in Washington, D.C., since 1942, and a newly minted Harvard Ph.D.
She joined the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey’s Seismology Branch in Washington
in 1948, the year Jack became Chief of the USGS Geochemistry and Petrology Branch’s
Trace Elements Section.
In 1949, Mary transferred to the USGS as Geophysicist-in-charge of the Geophysics
Branch’s Geophysical Abstracts Unit, responsible for the quarterly publication
Geophysical Abstracts. Between 1950 and 1957, she also served as the Branch’s
Assistant Chief. During those and later years, she aided Branch Chief James
Balsley in establishing the Rock Magnetics and other projects that combined
applied and basic studies in contributing significantly to a better understanding
of magnetic-ore deposits, the geologic time scale, global tectonics, and the
behavior of rocks and soils under varying temperatures and (or) pressures. Mary
also advised Balsley when he served (1970-1979) as Assistant Director for Research
and Land Resources.
After Jack Rabbitt died in 1957, Mary succeeded him as the Geologic Division’s
Staff Assistant for Publications. Mary’s reforms revitalized and improved
the review and editing process for both USGS serials and out-of-house publications,
but they did not endear her to all her colleagues.
In 1966, Director William Pecora appointed Mary his staff assistant, principally
"to research background material for, and help prepare, speeches and position
papers." Pecora also encouraged Mary, "when you have time, [to] start
looking into Survey history." For the USGS 75th anniversary in 1954, she
and Jack had published in Science a brief narrative of USGS history. Mary’s
new historical research led to a preliminary analysis (1969) of the career of
Director John Powell, as part of the 100th anniversary of his team’s initial
exploration of the Green and Colorado Rivers, and a brief history (1974) of
the agency. After retiring in 1978, she completed a three-volume history and
assessment (1979, 1980, 1986) of the public lands, federal earth-science and
mapping policies, and the development of mineral resources in the United States
from its founding to 1939.
The Geological Society of America’s History of Geology Award (1984) and
the Department of the Interior’s Distinguished Service Award (1988) honored
Mary’s accomplishments, but also looked forward to what she would continue
to do in providing honest and useful research in the history of the earth sciences.
She described the methods, trials, and joys of her studies while responding
to USGS Director Dallas Peck’s citation for her GSA award. In 1989 she
published an updated short history of the USGS. Mary’s career exemplifies
what mentoring, ability, and ambition could accomplish for scholarship and the
taxpayers, long before the advent of "affirmative action" and "diversity."
Mary was a Fellow of the Geological Society of America and a member of the American
Geophysical Union, the Seismological Society of America (whose Earthquake Notes
she edited between 1948 and 1950), and the Society of Exploration Geophysicists.
A niece, Patricia M. Ieradi, and two nephews, John A. Collins III and Michael
J. Collins, survive her.
For nearly 50 years an active parishioner of the Cathedral of St. Matthew the
Apostle, Mary also directed the Cathedral’s ministry of lectors and wrote
scripture reflections for its Sunday Bulletin. Bringing her professional standards
to her spiritual home, Mary insisted that her charges understand the gospels
so that they could proclaim rather than just read them. On Sep. 3 St. Matthew’s
held a funeral mass in her memory, one that began with Bach’s Sheep May
Safely Graze and closed with a hymn set to the theme of the final movement of
Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (the Ode to Joy). Mary asked that any gifts
made in her honor be sent to the Cathedral’s Restoration Fund (1725 Rhode
Island Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036).
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