John Prucha, vice chancellor emeritus and professor of geology emeritus at Syracuse University, died Oct. 22, 2012. He was 88.
Prucha received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Wisconsin in 1945 and 1946, respectively. He then earned a Ph.D. in geology from Princeton in 1950. From 1949 to 1951, he was an instructor and then an assistant professor at Rutgers.
He was a senior geologist with the New York State Geological Survey from 1951 to 1956. From 1956 to 1963, he was a research geologist with the Shell Development Co. Prucha then became professor of geology at Syracuse, serving also as department chair from 1963 to 1970, when he was appointed dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. He became vice chancellor for academic affairs in 1972.
Vice chancellor until 1985, he then returned to the geology faculty and was again department chair in 1988-89. Prucha retired in 1990, and continued as a geological consultant. Author of more than 30 publications, he co-authored Kinnickinnic Years (1993). He was a trustee of LeMoyne College and a director of the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse.
Prucha is survived by Mary, his wife of 64 years; 10 children; 27 grandchildren; and 13 great-grandchildren.
Graduate memorials are prepared by the APGA.