Dick Holland died May 20, 2012, in Princeton. Known as the “father of modern economic geology,” Dick edited the 10-volume Treatise on Geochemistry, first published in 2004.
Born in Mannheim in 1927, he escaped from Hitler’s Germany via the Kindertrans-
port, a rescue effort for children. The reunited family moved to Kew Gardens in Queens, N.Y. Dick prepped at the Hun School, entered Princeton in 1943, and graduated with highest honors in chemistry in 1946.
Dick earned his master’s degree and Ph.D. from Columbia. In 1950 he returned to Princeton as a geology professor, where he stayed until 1972. He moved to Harvard, where he worked until his retirement in 2000.
Dick applied thermodynamics to the origin and formation of hydrothermal deposits of copper, zinc, lead, and silver. His work on the chemical evolution of the atmosphere led to a theory of the great oxidation event 2.4 billion years ago. His most important publications were The Chemistry of the Atmosphere (1978) and The Chemical Evolution of the Atmosphere and Oceans (1984).
Dick is remembered as a man of great loyalty to friends and students, a lover of wine, and an avid conversationalist. The class proudly sends its admiration of Dick to his children, Henry Lawrence, Anne, and John. Alice, his wife of 57 years, predeceased him in 2010.