Kenneth N. Weaver, who for nearly 30 years headed the Maryland Geological Survey, which named its Baltimore headquarters for him, died July 7 of complications from Alzheimer's disease at Stella Maris Hospice in Timonium.
The Jacksonville resident was 83.
Dr. Weaver, the son of Reformed Mennonite farmers, was born and raised in Lancaster County, Pa.
After graduating from East Lampeter High School in 1945, he joined the merchant marine and served aboard ships as a radio operator in the South Pacific in the fading days of World War II.
He earned a bachelor's degree in 1950 from Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster. In 1952, he earned a master's degree in geology from the Johns Hopkins University, and two years later a Ph.D. in geology, also from Hopkins.
Dr. Weaver was working as a geologist for the Bethlehem Steel Corp. and was teaching geology at Hopkins when he was drafted into the Army in 1954.
After serving for two years as an operations analyst with the Operations Research Office in Chevy Chase, he took a job as manager of the geology and quarry departments of the Medussa Portland Cement Co. in Wampum, Pa.
In 1963, Dr. Weaver moved to Jacksonville when he accepted the job as state geologist and director of the Maryland Geological Survey.
When he began his career with the state geological survey, there were two employees. By his retirement in 1992, the survey included 23 geologists, hydrogeologists, sedimentologists and geomorphologists.
The hallmark of Dr. Weaver's career was developing strong programs in environmental geology and mineral resources, geohydrology, coastal and estuarine geology, and archaeology.
"MGS tries to carry out its work as an unbiased, data-gathering agency … and can therefore take an unbiased look at the resources in Maryland," he said at the time of his retirement.
In the wake of the early 1970s energy crisis, Dr. Weaver told The Evening Sun that the state was not opposed to exploratory oil drilling offshore, "provided there is complete assurance that no environmental damage will result to the state's beaches or waterways within its 3-mile jurisdiction."
In a 1974 article in The Baltimore Sun regarding the use of coal as an energy source, Dr. Weaver wrote, "North America contains about 27 percent of the world's coal reserves so … this source is not as dependent on the changing political and diplomatic climate as are petroleum reserves."
As an advocate of coal's conversion to a clean-burning fuel, Dr. Weaver observed that "good reclamation and environmental control is costly, but must be viewed as part of the cost of producing the resource."
He added: "Although it is questionable whether coal will again be crowned 'King' of the energy resources in this country, it is very likely that it will command an increasingly larger role than it has been playing in the mix of basic energy resources."
One of his last accomplishments before retiring was overseeing the design and construction of an exposition and public rest stop at Sideling Hill along Interstate 68 in Washington County.
The genesis for what Dr. Weaver called a "geological classroom" came to him during his monthly trips to Western Maryland. He could see the hill being cut layer by layer by the state highway department builders.
"He was drawn to the impressive geology on display at the road cut and the idea was conceived to erect geological highway story boards similar to the wayside boards on I-70 road cuts west of Denver," said his high school sweetheart and wife of 60 years, the former Mary Elizabeth Hoover, a former educator.
"It was his dream," she said.
The center, which opened in 1991, exposed a "dramatic syncline that demonstrated the folding of the Appalachians during a continent-submerging plate collision in the Permian," Dr. Weaver told the American Geological Institute in 2001, when it presented him its Ian Campbell Medal.
"It's a good place to tell people about geology, people who don't know much about it from the word go," he said. "I'm really proud to have that kind of thing in the state of Maryland and overjoyed that we could pull it off and had cooperation in the state to do that."
Last year, in the wake of state budget-cutting measures, the Sideling Hill Exhibit Center was closed and its artifacts were moved to a museum in nearby Hancock.
In 1987, the survey left its Homewood campus home and moved to Bennett Hall in the 2300 block of St. Paul St., an 1889 building that earlier had been a part of the old Goucher College campus.
Dr. Weaver led the fundraising effort for the renovation of the former gymnasium that had been originally built for the Woman's College of Baltimore.
The Maryland Board of Public Works renamed Bennett Hall the Kenneth N. Weaver Building in 1994 in recognition of his leadership.
"I got to know Ken in 1963 when he was appointed director. He was the only boss I've ever known," said Emery T. Cleaves, who had served as deputy director during Dr. Weaver's tenure and succeeded him upon his retirement.
"It was a real learning experience for me working with him. He was my mentor. The fact that they named the building after Ken shows you [in] what high esteem he was held," Dr. Cleaves said.
"He was dedicated to his profession and had the right temperament for the job," he said. "He was good at educating people on the outside as to what the survey does and why it's important to have it."
Dr. Weaver enjoyed building concrete and brick patios and planting gardens on the grounds of his Jacksonville home. He was also a world traveler and had visited all 50 states.
He was a longtime member, elder and clerk of the session of the Chestnut Grove Presbyterian Church in Phoenix, Baltimore County, where funeral services were planned for 2 p.m. Saturday.
Also surviving are a son, Matt O. Weaver of Las Vegas; a daughter, Wendy Scheinberg of Jarrettsville; two brothers, Ross Weaver and Robert Weaver, both of Lancaster, Pa.; a sister, Mary Markley of Strasburg, Pa.; and two granddaughters.