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As a student at UC Santa Cruz, Margi Rusmore was the youngest member of the first American Women’s Himalayan Expedition, which climbed the 10th-highest mountain in the world in November 1978. “There was a lot of buzz” around the expedition, Rusmore recalls—a New York Times headline read, “Himalayan Scaling Called an Inspiration to Women”—“and I realized early on that I don't take well to talking about myself. Some people are good at it—I’m not.”

Despite her aversion to attention, Rusmore sat down with Occidental magazine recently to reflect on her 40 years at the College—a boom time for geology marked by the completion of the Hameetman Science Center in 2003, the creation of the California Environmental Semester (“best thing ever,” she says), and a marked increase in the number of women Ph.D.s nationwide—a number of whom have come through Rusmore's classroom.

She’s still motivated by the same thing that has always motivated her—“I’m just curious”—as well as a sense of duty on the part of senior scientists “to make sure that the data are available for the next generation.”

Rusmore’s path to geology began with a single, transformative moment during a class field trip to Point Lobos State Natural Reserve. Wandering alone, tasked with mapping the rocks, “I found something that I thought was interesting. It was a little fault, and I didn’t know if I was supposed to do something with it.”

She called over her professor, who reaffirmed her discovery. “I’ve been here a bunch of times,” he told her, “and I’ve never seen it before.” And in that instant, everything changed. “I thought, ‘OK, I could make a contribution in this field,’” she says. When she completed her doctorate studies at the University of Washington, “Maybe 14 percent of the Ph.D.s in Earth sciences went to women.”

In 1985, when Rusmore was wrapping up her graduate studies, husband Scott Bogue was a postdoc in the UW Department of Geological Sciences. (The couple met at UC Santa Cruz.) “We were applying for jobs around and about,” she says, but the academic job market was soft. One enticing corporate offer did materialize—a well-funded research position at a prestigious oil company in Texas. “They had big toys and big money,” Rusmore recalls, “but we couldn’t bring ourselves to do it. We have many friends that do great work for oil companies, but moving to Houston was just too much for us.”

A potential solution emerged at Occidental, which advertised two teaching openings in the Geology Department. Before the application deadline had even passed, the College filled one of the slots. Geology Professor and department chair Jim Woodhead floated the idea of a one-year shared adjunct position to the couple. “So, we took this one-year position as visiting adjuncts,” Rusmore says—and even before they arrived, the position was expanded to one and a half people. “Scott and I came down here and made ourselves indispensable, I guess,” she adds with a laugh. “We basically came and stayed.”

Of her many contributions to SA���ʴ�ý, Rusmore takes particular pride in the 2003 completion of the Hameetman Science Center, which houses the Geology and Physics departments. “I co-wrote every corporate and foundation proposal, and I really enjoyed that aspect of the work. Prior to that project, I’d only written NSF proposals—and scientific proposals are a really different thing. I enjoyed talking with our scientists about what they do and the importance of what they’re asking for, and then translating that into language that would be important to a foundation. It was the first time I really thought about how you present science to the outside. It changed how I looked at my own teaching.”

The structure itself—a science center built for humans—embodies the inclusive principles of Project Kaleidoscope, a STEM initiative of the American Association of Colleges and Universities. Hameetman was designed to be welcoming, ditching the “double-hung corridor” model in favor of clustered offices, shared labs, and vibrant gathering spaces that foster interaction. “If the first message they get from a building is that they’re not welcome,” Rusmore notes, “then you’re just setting the wrong foot forward.”         

As a structural geologist, Rusmore studies the evolution and growth of continental margins, with a particular focus on the mountain ranges of the western portion of the North American continent. Her work has gained her international renown in geological circles, and in 2019 she was named the inaugural Michael G. Gibby ’68 and Barbara J. Gibby ’68 Professor of Science at Occidental. In making the announcement, Barbara Gibby, a religion and psychology double major at SA���ʴ�ý and a pioneer in public school special education, praised Rusmore for having “all the hallmarks of an SA���ʴ�ý professor: intelligent, accomplished, challenging, engaged and engaging, and always approachable.”

Rusmore learned of the honor at a faculty reception during a side conversation with Wendy Sternberg, SA���ʴ�ý’s vice president for academic affairs and dean of the College at the time. The honor caught her completely off guard. “When she told me, I teared up,” Rusmore admits. “I told Wendy, ‘There are very few people or things that have made me cry as an adult.’

“It was very meaningful,” she adds, “and the Gibbys are great people. The College wanted to have a lunch here as the initiation, and I enjoyed talking to them both a lot. It’s meant a lot. And an endowed professorship means a lot to the College because it helps with our continuing faculty support.”

At a reception for retiring faculty in May, Darren Larsen, associate professor of geology and department chair, called Rusmore as “the very bedrock of our department,” adding, “She just doesn’t fit the stereotype of the classic emeritus professor in retirement. Just the other day, I was walking up Fiji Hill with my dog, Tippi, and we saw Margi charging full stride uphill by the ball field on her daily walk home. It took everything I had to catch up with her without breaking into a run.”

With Larsen and his colleagues—including Assistant Professors Lydia Harmon, Natasha Sekhon, and Nikki Seymour—Rusmore is leaving the department in a position of strength. “Look at these people we’ve hired,” she says. “They’re fantastic.”

In 2021, Bogue retired from Occidental as a professor and colleague in the Geology Department. What has Rusmore learned about retirement from him? “Oh, Scott’s happy as a clam. Retirement’s great. That’s what I’ve learned,” she replies with a smile. But like her husband, “I love doing research and have several ongoing projects that I’ll be continuing to do. I’m retiring from Occidental, but I’m not retiring from science.”

Rusmore remains an editor for the American Geophysical Union’s Tectonics, one of the top peer-reviewed journals in the field. She also is writing a new National Science Foundation proposal this summer (“not through Occidental,” she quickly adds—“I don’t want to give anybody heart attacks”). And she’s working with the Geological Survey of Canada to archive her rocks, complete with a publishable database.

In addition, she says, “I’m also curating rocks into the Occidental collection where they serve a purpose for teaching and along with their scientific framework. That’s the tidying up aspect of my work. It’s like organizing that sock drawer that you always think you’re going to do.

“I don’t think there’s any place else like Occidental,” Rusmore says. “The combination that made it such a good place for me was the passion about the mission, the teaching, and the academic scholarship that keeps everybody’s minds humming here—and I think part of that is being in L.A. There’s a hive mind hum in Los Angeles that I think we tap into here in some ways. I may have found as much happiness or satisfaction at a different place, but I just can’t really imagine it.”

Erin Campbell ’92: The helicopter had flown for an hour over ice fields pierced by bony mountain peaks, with no sign of human habitation. When it landed, the helicopter deposited Margi Rusmore and me with a small mound of gear and flew away, not to return for weeks. This was my first trip anywhere as remote as the Canadian Coast Mountains, and I began to question the wisdom of this job as Margi’s field assistant. But Margi took one look at me, got out the camp stove, and made us tea. Then everything was all right.

Margi’s leadership in the field, the office, and the classroom was inspirational. There seemed to be nothing she could not do. At age 20, she was a world-class mountaineer, having participated in the first U.S. ascent and first all-women’s ascent of Annapurna in the Himalayas as the youngest member of the team. Throughout her life, Margi has carried a strong air of confidence and capability that is communicated to her students.

Dr. Rusmore set an example for students of perseverance and dedication, but at the same time joy and enthusiasm both at work and in her personal life. In academics, it can be difficult to find a mentor who has both a successful career and family life, but Margi showed that it can be done and done well.

In addition to her excellent teaching and mentorship, Margi has a strong international reputation for the large body of work she has contributed in the Earth sciences. She is a widely recognized expert in structural geology in British Columbia, and has been for decades. One night while we were doing fieldwork in the Coast Mountains, we turned on the radio for entertainment. Sometimes we might hear a logging camp in the area ordering groceries. This night members of the Canadian Geological Survey were on the radio, puzzling over a geologic question. Margi broke into the conversation and introduced herself, and the Canadian geologists were thrilled; the expert was there to answer their questions in the field.

Dr. Rusmore has motivated and guided hundreds if not thousands of students, but I can truly say that she illuminated the path that I have followed. She set a strong example of fearlessness, enthusiasm, commitment, and delight in geology and beyond, and for that I am forever grateful.

A geology major at Occidental (with a minor in mathematics), Campbell has served as Wyoming state geologist and director of the Wyoming State Geological Survey since 2017. She has a Ph.D. in geology from the University of Wyoming, where she specialized in structural geology with a secondary emphasis in geophysics.

Annika Dechert ’19: On my first day of classes at Occidental, I walked into Hameetman Science Center, Room 105, and was greeted by a chipper yet down-to-business geology professor who immediately jumped into the syllabus and our first lecture. Professor Margi Rusmore made her high expectations clear as we dove into plate tectonics, and I quickly realized that the joke that geologists only like to play with (and lick) rocks was vastly incorrect.

When I had difficulty understanding an early lab, I went to office hours for help. After a few minutes of discussing the assignment, Professor Rusmore asked me a simple yet profound question: “How are you doing?” She was the first person on campus to check in on me, an 18-year-old girl who had just moved to Los Angeles from small-town Wyoming. During this conversation, she offered to be my academic advisor until I declared a major, but it didn’t take long for me to realize that I had already found both my major and the perfect advisor.

The following semester, I officially declared a geology major and bought my first hiking boots. Margi declared that I could no longer call her Professor Rusmore; she also offered me an on-campus research position and opened a door for my future. Her curiosity, deep questions, and tenacity formed my foundation in geology.

Even after graduation, Margi has continued her mentorship, showcasing her dedication to her students. Not only has she offered expertise, such as helping me navigate the tricky water of being the only woman on fieldwork camping trips, but she is also the first person to cheer me on throughout my career and personal life. Margi has set the gold standard of mentorship, passing on her enthusiasm, perseverance, and curiosity. I am forever grateful for her guidance and friendship.

A geology/Earth science major at SA���ʴ�ý, Dechert completed her Ph.D. at the University of Oregon in the Department of Earth Science in June.  She is currently a postdoctoral scholar at UC Berkeley, working with Assistant Professor Penny Wieser on magma storage conditions of silicic Cascades Volcanoes.

Kirsten Menking ’90: I went to Occidental with the intention of majoring in either psychology or geology. I took an introductory geology class my freshman year and never thought about psychology as a major again. The lab was taught by a dynamic young professor, Margi Rusmore, who was only 29 at the time.

As a budding young female scientist, I was instantly hooked by Margi, whose labs opened my eyes to the world around me, to the millions of years of history encoded in the spectacular rock formations around the L.A. Basin, history that she taught me to read through careful examination of the minerals and structures they contained. As I went on to take her courses in introductory field mapping, structural geology, and advanced field mapping, she introduced me to geological fieldwork. As someone who thoroughly enjoyed camping and being out in nature but who had grown up in the flatlands of Kansas, I was thrilled by the realization that I could have a career in which I got to hike in the mountains for a living! What could be better than that?

Sometime in my sophomore year, Margi received a grant to fund her research in British Columbia. She invited me to work with her that summer, which turned out to be utterly life-changing. Since I didn’t have much experience mountaineering, she enrolled me in the Sierra Club’s Basic Mountaineering Training Course, where I learned how to use crampons and an ice ax to navigate icy slopes and how to use ropes for safety.

At the start of the summer, we drove up I-5 with five weeks’ worth of food packed into what we hoped were bear-proof metal canisters and set out on an incredible adventure as we were helicoptered into our first field site, a glacier high above tree line in the Coast Mountains. We would spend the next several weeks taking samples and mapping the bedrock to unravel the geologic history of the area, which is a story of multiple volcanic mountain chains slamming into North America hundreds of millions of years ago. We were surrounded by some of the most spectacular scenery I have ever seen, with glaciers descending in towering ice falls between sharp spines of rock.

While I learned how to walk on ice and scree in some of the highest mountains (upwards of 13,000 feet) I had yet encountered, Margi gradually revealed to me that she had been the youngest member of an all-women’s expedition to Annapurna (26,545 feet) in the Himalayas while a college student like me! I was in total awe and just wanted to be her.

I jumped at the chance to work with her again the next summer, this time for seven weeks. In addition to the geological knowledge and skills I learned from her, my time with Margi also imparted important non-academic skills in wilderness survival, like how to determine how much food a person needs to remain happy and healthy while climbing mountains all day, how to manage fear and discomfort (we had a near-miss with a grizzly bear and my tent blew away, leaving me to sleep in a rain-soaked sleeping bag until the helicopter pilot could fetch us and take us to warmth), and how to maintain a cheerful attitude (or at least try) during times of adversity (we had to go on half-rations at times when rain and clouds prevented the pilot from bringing us new food stocks).

By the end of my time at SA���ʴ�ý, I was completely certain that I wanted to go on to an academic career. Margi assisted me in this quest as well by suggesting that I reach out to a friend of hers from graduate school who had recently started teaching at UC Santa Cruz. He went on to become my Ph.D. advisor, and the rest is history.

While my serious mountaineering days are long over, I still look to Margi’s example as I work with my own students in the classroom at Vassar College, my academic home for 28 years now. Her academic rigor, fairness, fantastic organization, and sense of humor are all things I’ve strived to emulate, and I know that I speak for so many students when I say that she played a pivotal role in shaping the person I am today. I wish her all the best for an active, enjoyable, and well-deserved retirement!

A geology major at SA���ʴ�ý, Menking is professor of Earth Science on the Althea Ward Clark Chair and Chair of the Department of Earth Science and Geography at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

Top photo: Rusmore stands above Icefall Point, west of Mount Waddington in British Columbia, Canada. (Photo by Robinson Cecil)