Dr. G. Richard “Dick” Marzolf, 82, a former professor at Kansas State University and scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey died at The Village of Orchard Ridge (TVOR) in Winchester, VA on February 1, 2018.
Dick was born to Dr. Stanley S. and Helen Marie (Gooding) Marzolf in Columbus, OH, in 1935. He leaves behind his wife of almost 60 years, Eileen F. (Bradley) Marzolf, two sons, Dr. Erich (Dr. Catherine) Marzolf of Gainesville, FL and Carl (Julie Aquavia) Marzolf of Waukesha, WI, his brother, Dr. John (Dr. Alicia) Marzolf of Carbondale, IL, and his brother-in-law William (Paula) Bradley of Albuquerque, NM. Dick was grandfather to Nicholas, Raleigh, NC; Aliah, Seattle, WA; Quinn, Winona, MN; Avery, Milwaukee, WI; and Kiefer, Waukesha, WI; and uncle to Zachary (deceased), Los Angeles, CA; Miguela, Seattle, WA; and Sahuaro, Athens, OH.
Dick was a 1957 graduate of Wittenberg University in Springfield, OH where he met his future wife, Eileen, a 1958 graduate. He earned his Ph.D. in Limnology from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI in 1961. Dick spent 26 years at Kansas State University in Manhattan, KS as an acclaimed teacher and researcher. He was instrumental in initiating the Konza Prairie Biological Station as part of the Long-Term Ecological Research Program and conducted research on local reservoirs and rivers. He was a member of the Water Science and Technology Board at the National Academy of Sciences and active in the Ecological Society of America, American Society of Limnology and Oceanography, Societas Internationalis Limnologiae, and North American Benthological Society. His desire to explore led to summer research trips to Colorado, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, and Oregon and international research to the Middle East, Siberia, and India. Except for the foreign trips, his family accompanied him on these adventures.
He joined the U.S. Geological Survey in 1991, in Denver, CO, where he worked on western reservoirs and the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon and then in Reston, VA, where he was Chief of the Eastern Region Branch of the National Research Program until his retirement in 2004. He remained interested in water quality in retirement as a board member of the Friends of the Shenandoah River.
He spent his leisure time busy in his custom woodworking shop where he produced family heirlooms, including three canoes, two cradles, and a dollhouse. Dick was an avid reader, especially of history; bird watcher; and teller of “Dad” jokes. No autumn Saturday was complete without hearing “Hail to the Victors” and he was thrilled to watch his beloved Cubs win the World Series. He enjoyed traveling the American Southwest adding to his collection of Two Grey Hills weavings. He passed his love of water onto his family as both Erich and Carl are avid boaters and fishermen, and Erich and grandson Nicholas are aquatic ecologists. Through his family and the large academic and professional community he mentored, his legacy flows on.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests contributions to the Parkinson’s Foundation, The Nature Conservancy, or an organization supporting your local watershed, such as the Friends of the Shenandoah River.