A California Sycamore tree will be planted in honor of Glenoaks Canyon Resident of the Year Clarence Hall on Monday, December 13, 2010 at 10:00am. The tree will be planted at the Scholl Canyon Golf and Tennis Complex near the tennis courts.

Dr. Clarence Hall has achieved a world-wide reputation as a UCLA professor of paleontology and geology. The study of earthquake faults is one of Dr. Hall’s specialties.

Clarence Hall is a true multi-decade native of Glenoaks Canyon.  When Clarence was born, he was brought from the hospital to a home in the 1900 block of Glenoaks Blvd.  The house is now gone.  It was taken by the 2 Freeway.  While he was still a young boy, Clarence’s parents moved the family up the Canyon to a beautiful house they built at the corner of Ashburton and Hollister Terrace.

Clarence went to Glenoaks Elementary School followed by Wilson Junior High School and Glendale High School and then enrolled at Glendale Community College. Clarence went on to Stanford University where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree, a Masters of Science, and a Ph.D., all in the field of geology.   In 1956 he was selected for the position of Assistant Professor at UCLA in the Department of Earth and Space Sciences.  He has been at UCLA ever since, serving as Chairman of the Department of Geology, Chairman of the Department of Earth and Space Sciences, and Dean of the Division of Physical Sciences at UCLA.  Clarence also served as Director of the White Mountain Research Station in California, where the oldest trees in the world live and are studied.

Clarence has performed geological mapping in many parts of California and in the Brooks Range of Alaska and the Pyrenees of France.  He has researched the major fault systems of California.  He has done important work in paleontology as well as geology.  Clarence has published more than 70 scientific studies on geology and on the plants and animals that existed hundreds of millions of years ago.

Recently Clarence provided, for the benefit of GOCHA ,expert testimony on the geological stability of property that was being considered for development in our canyon.

His latest project is revising his 500-plus-page textbook entitled Introduction to the Geology of Southern California and Its Native Plants.  You can order the first edition of this book at amazon.com or at Barnes and Noble.  It is invaluable if you enjoy exploring our state and learning why the land looks the way it does.  Clarence is currently teaching a course about the geology, plants, and animals of California, which involves overnight field trips to Yosemite Valley and Death Valley among other highlights.

We are proud of the extraordinary service our native son, Dr. Clarence Hall, has given to the scientific world at large, to the scientific understanding of the land we know as California, to UCLA, and to our own small canyon.