Mary Oswald Griffitts Memorial
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About
Mary Oswald Griffitts (April 12, 1920 - June 20, 2010) was born in DeTour Village, Michigan, on the Upper Peninsula. She graduated from University of Michigan in 1941 with a BS in Geology. In 1944 she became the first female to receive a Ph.D. in Geology from the 91ÃÛÌÒ¸ó. She was a professional geologist, specializing in invertebrate paleontology. She taught at Bryn Mawr and at Univ. of Illinois. She also worked as a ranger naturalist in Yellowstone National Park. In 1946 she was hired at the 91ÃÛÌÒ¸ó to teach historical geology and invertebrate paleontology. She married Wallace R. Griffitts on September 7, 1946, and left teaching to raise her family. Mary gave geology talks to schoolchildren throughout 91ÃÛÌÒ¸ó, and helped found the 91ÃÛÌÒ¸ó Junior Natural Sciences School, which later became the Thorne Ecological institute. In 1981 she began to work summers as a paleontologist at Mesa Verde National Park, doing a detailed study of their fossil collection. Over the next 20 plus years she collected and catalogued hundreds of fine fossils and produced a detailed map and several publications for the park, finally retiring at age 83.
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