Vincent Ellis McKelvey
| Vincent Ellis McKelvey | |
|---|---|
McKelvey as Director of USGS, 1971
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| Born |
April 6, 1916 Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, USA |
| Died | January 23, 1987 (aged 70) St. Cloud, Florida, USA |
| Nationality | American |
| Fields | Geology |
| Institutions | U.S. Geological Survey |
| Alma mater |
Syracuse University University of Wisconsin |
| 9th Director of the United States Geological Survey | |
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In office 1971 – 1978 |
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| Preceded by | William Thomas Pecora |
| Succeeded by | Henry William Menard |
Vincent Ellis McKelvey (April 6, 1916 – January 23, 1987) was an American geologist. He was married to Genevieve Bowman McKelvey. They had one son, Gregory McKelvey of Spokane, Washington. Dr. McKelvey was an earth scientist who spent 46 years with the United States Geological Survey. Dr. McKelvey was recognized as an international authority on deep-sea mineral deposits. From 1968 to 1982, he served as scientific adviser and senior deputy to the United States delegation to the Law of the Sea Conference of the United Nations, where fellow delegates often depended on his ability to render complex scientific issues into plain English.
He joined the Geological Survey, a branch of the Department of the Interior, in 1941. He was placed in charge of its explorations for uranium after World War II, was assistant chief geologist for economic and foreign geology by 1962 and was named senior research geologist three years later. Dr. McKelvey was named chief geologist of the Geological Survey in 1971 shortly before he became its ninth director, a post he held through 1977.
The McKelvey diagram (or box), a visual representation of how to classify a particular mineral resource based on the value of its production (economic, marginal, etc.) and the geologic certainty of its presence (measured, inferred, hypothetical, etc.), is named after him.
In 1971, after William Thomas Pecora became Under Secretary of the Interior, Chief Geologist Vincent E. McKelvey, a career scientist with the Survey since 1941, became Director. McKelvey, a graduate of Syracuse University with a doctorate from the University of Wisconsin, had served in several research and administrative capacities in the Geological Survey. He was internationally known for his studies of phosphates, had headed the Survey's program of exploration and research for the Atomic Energy Commission for several years, had been deeply involved in sometimes controversial estimates of long-range energy and mineral-resource needs, and had most recently been engaged in studies of seabed resources.
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