Colorado's Hallet Peak and
Dream Lake. (Photograph by
Dawn Reed and David Gates,
U.S. Geological Survey.)

DEDICATION

This volume of the U.S. Geological Survey Yearbook is special, the first we have ever dedicated to an individual. While we were preparing this report, Vincent E. McKelvey, eminent scientist and former Director of the Geological Survey, died. Because of his deep devotion not only to his science but also to the agency and to the public that he served, we dedicate the 1986 Yearbook to Vince's memory.

In any organization, there are always those individuals who stand out as exemplary workers whose contributions remain long after their daily presence has ended. Vince was one of those people. He brought more to his time as Director than just his dedication to the science of geology; he brought a rich understanding of what the Geological Survey was all about. He held firm to the principle that the Survey's role is that of an impartial fact-finding agency that makes its results available to decisionmakers. He impressed upon us the need to pay close attention to national issues and to discerning and developing the earth-science information that addresses those concerns.

In one of his last public statements, Vince delivered a sobering reminder to earth scientists and our colleagues in private industry and at all levels of government: "Ten years ago, during the Nation's Bicentennial celebration, we first described the challenge to find the mineral and energy resources to build a second America in the next several decades. That challenge is still with us: we will have to find and develop in the next few decades the same amount of mineral and energy resources that we consumed in our first 200 years." To build a second America, the Nation must have results of scientific research and investigations that are readily available and readily usable.

Vince understood that the way in which the results of basic research and scientific investigations are presented can be as important as the result themselves, that how and how soon we make those results available can be as critical as the science we develop to produce those results. The earth-science information upon which we base our reputation for responsive public service must be communicated effectively. That need to communicate and to be responsive to the Nation we serve is a tremendous responsibility and one that we need to remember in dealing with