Quake expert dead at 67; former Belleville resident

The Belleville News Democrat - Thursday, Feb 28, 2002
By Sue Britt

A former Belleville resident who became one of the country's leading experts on California earthquake faults died Friday after an eight-month fight with cancer.

Thomas McEvilly, 67, was born in East St. Louis in 1934. His family moved to Belleville, then San Diego, Calif., before returning to East St. Louis and later Belleville. He graduated from Central Catholic High School in East St. Louis in 1952.

In 1964, McEvilly graduated summa cum laude with a PhD in geophysics from St. Louis University. He then went to the University of California at Berkeley, where he cemented his reputation as an expert in seismology.

He was best known for a 15-year project with U.S. Geological Survey scientists to monitor movements on the San Andreas fault in California.

McEvilly started out as a premed student but turned to earth sciences so he could stay in scientific research while doing his work outdoors.

"He decided that would be much more fun because he could be outside," his wife, Dottie McEvilly, said.

By 1968, he was assistant director of UC Berkeley's seismographic station, and for the next 30 years he served in a variety of roles there, including as a geology department chairman and director of the earth science division at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory.

McEvilly continued to supervise graduate students after his retirement in 1994 and published more than 200 scientific papers.

A funeral Mass will be held at noon Saturday at Our Lady Queen of Peace Catholic Church in Belleville, with McEvilly's cousin, the Rev. Jack McEvilly, officiating. Burial will follow in Mount Carmel Cemetary in Belleville. The UC Berkeley department of earth and planetary science plans to create a McEvilly graduate student seismology fellowship in is honor. Those wishing to make a contribution in his honor should send them to 307 McCone Hall, University of California, Berkeley, Calif., 94720-4767.