Tributes to Bruce Bolt

Mansour Niazi

Prof. Bruce Bolt Left A Legacy Hard To Match

I have had the privilege of knowing Professor Bruce Bolt, Beverley and their children since their arrival in Berkeley in 1963. Bruce was my professor, my colleague, my mentor, and my friend.

In August of 1963 Bruce and Beverly honored Fereshteh and I by attending our wedding. (Since at the time the IUGG was in session on the UC campus not only did many of my Professors such as Perry Byerly, John Verhoogen attend our wedding but so did overseas IUGG participants such as Sir Harold and Lady Jeffreys honor us by their presence). When Bruce joined the UC faculty, Thomas Turcotte and I were the two Ph.D. students conducting research in seismology for our dissertations under the direction of Professor Perry Byerly. Upon his arrival, Byerly asked Bruce to supervise Tom in his research and he accepted. Thus Tom turned out to be Bruce's first Ph.D. student at Berkeley. Bruce went on to supervise more than 30 Ph D dissertations at UC. I was fortunate to participate in his first year seminars, which, as others have pointed out, were highly structured and informative.

Within a year of his arrival Byerly also turned over the directorship of the Seismographic Stations at UC to Bruce's capable hands. Later in 1967, Bruce invited me to join him as an associate seismologist at the Seismographic Stations. The position was vacated by Cinna Lomnitz who had accepted an academic tenure in Mexico. At the time I was teaching at Pahlevi University in Shiraz, Iran. I gladly accepted the position which was initially cosponsored by the Department of Geology and Geophysics. The Department’s support was for my teaching John Verhoogen’s undergraduate geophysics course while he was on an Academy of Science lecture tour. On our way back to Berkeley from Iran my wife and our two children, Kaveh and Jaleh, were delighted to meet Bruce, Beverly, Robert and Jillian in Zurich during the IUGG meeting, an occasion that helped to further cement our intimate and rewarding friendship with the Bolts.

During my work at the Seismographic Stations, I found Bruce to be extremely friendly and inspirational. He encouraged his students to read daily seismograms and to look for unexpected signals. Some of these features occasionally were brought up in our weekly meetings. These meetings were regularly held at 9 a.m. every Monday with the participation of the technical staff and the graduate students (in Seismology). The late Professor Tom McEvilly and Professor Lane Johnson often took part. Each person briefly touched upon the progress of the task at hand during the previous week and the future plan. The weekly meetings served a great purpose of having everyone at-speed with the state of ongoing projects. My family and I had a memorable two-year stay in Berkeley embarking on a number of picnics and weekend field trips with the Bolts. On several occasions I accompanied Bruce as he sailed his beloved yacht on the San Francisco Bay. A number of distinguished visitors such as Professors Takeshi Mikumo, and Augustus Udias spent their sabbaticals at the Seismographic Stations during this period.

When the time came to return to Iran, Bruce was most gracious. Our departure coincided with the IASPEI meeting in Madrid, where our families spent a pleasant fortnight together. Fereshteh occasionally helped Beverley take care of Helen who was an infant at the time. One of the highlights of this trip was a tour of the Spanish countryside together with the Bolts. Father Augustus Udias gave us a guided tour of Segovia in his automobile and graciously pointed out the historical and cultural points of interest on the way. I can vividly picture three of us, Bruce, Father Udias, and myself, standing on the rooftop of Segovia's Alcazar, marveling at the vast panorama of the Castilian countryside. In 1978, with Iran in revolutionary turmoil, I called Bruce several times, usually in the middle of the night. At that time I had no control over the timing of my calls abroad. One had to give the phone number of interest to a central operator who would call back when the connection was secured. I was terribly uncomfortable to wake him up in the middle of the night, but the situation was desperate. Bruce never complained, despite what must have been a grave inconvenience. At the time Tom McEvilly was the chairman of the Department, and he was equally eager to help. Together, they formulated a joint invitation from the Seismographic Station and the Department, which helped tremendously in securing a visa for my family and me.

Since my return, we kept in touch professionally as well as socially. We met every couple of months for lunch, discussing science and politics. Beverley and Bruce visited us at home for dinner on several occasions and we were able to reciprocate these visits. We attended the wedding ceremonies of Jillian, Robert, Helen and Margaret, and the Bolts were able to attend our children’s weddings. In 1984 for nearly six months we met weekly to discuss the organization and logistics of the centennial celebration of the Seismographic Stations. Bruce was very excited to bring together the entire seismology alumni, some of whom he had not met. Beside Bruce, the organizing committee included Joe Liteheiser and David Brillinger and myself. My wife and I were regretfully not able to attend Bruce's 75th Birthday gala. When I called him to offer our congratulations and to explain the reason for our absence, Bruce accepted my apology with his usual generosity with the proviso that we meet for lunch soon. Unfortunately, his busy schedule with many trips abroad did not provide me the chance to keep this last luncheon appointment.

Throughout my long association with Bruce, I found him a tireless and inspiring colleague, and a superb advisor and friend. He was extremely proud of his children and grandchildren. He kept his contact with his student's and tirelessly supported their contribution to the field of seismology and engineering. By virtue of his many books and hundreds of technical articles and his public services through media and earthquake hazard reduction legislation advocacy Bruce left a legacy that is hard to match. He will be missed dearly.

Bruce Bolt | Tributes |

Berkeley Seismological Lab
215 McCone Hall, UC Berkeley
Berkeley CA 94720-4760
www@seismo.berkeley.edu