Gary was born in Eugene, OR in 1947 and grew up in southwestern Oregon.  He graduated from Coquille High School in 1965.  From 1965 until 1969, he attended the University of Rochester (U of R) in Rochester, NY and received his Bachelor of Science in Physics.  The next fall he entered the Geology program at the U of R and received a Master of Science in 1971 and a PhD in 1974, pursuing studies in high-pressure earth mantle mineral phases and strengths.  After two years as a postdoctoral student at U of R, Gary took a visiting assistant professor job at Arizona State University for the 1976-77 year where he learned and taught exploration geophysics.  In the fall of 1977, he accepted a position at what was then USL here in Lafayette as a mineralogist/geophysicist.  He has remained here, but no longer teaches mineralogy.  Currently, he concentrates on geophysics and petroleum geology and has recently become interested in applications of 3-D virtual reality to investigations in geophysics, geology and geomorphology.  He is now a full professor holding the Pioneer Production Endowed Professorship in Geology and Petroleum Engineering.

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