William H. Shideler
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William Henry "Doc" Shideler (born July 14, 1886 in West Middletown, Ohio and died 1958 in Oxford, Ohio) was an American geologist who was founder and longtime chair of the department of geology at Miami University and was a founder of the national college fraternity, Phi Kappa Tau.
His family moved to Hamilton, Ohio, when he was quite young. In 1904 he graduated from Hamilton High School and entered Miami University in September of that year. At Miami, he was a member of the varsity track team as a distance runner and was an organizer and member of the nonfraternity intramural teams, whose activities became important to the founding of the Non-Fraternity Association, precursor to Phi Kappa Tau. "Doc"(as he was known from undergraduate days on) was a member of the Erodelphian Literary Society and chaired the Athletic Board of Control in his final year. A member of the campus Democratic Club, he was an outspoken progressive as an undergraduate.
Shideler completed his undergraduate work in three years receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree with the class of 1907. He earned his Ph. D. in geology at Cornell University in 1910 under the direction of the eminent biostratigrapher and student of Louis Agassiz, Henry Shaler Williams. Shideler was invited to join Miami beginning in 1910 as a member of the zoology faculty. In this capacity, he taught courses in general geology, paleontology, and organic evolution. He persuaded the Miami administration in 1920 to establish a geology department, which he chaired for thirty-six years.
As a paleontologist, he became an expert on the Upper Ordovician fossils and stratigraphy that are revealed in the out croppings and creek beds around Oxford, Ohio. In geology circles, Shideler was well known for his fossil collections, occasional publications, and professional activities. Scholars from around the world came to Miami to consult with him and study the specimens he collected. Though he was not a prolific writer, Shideler freely shared information and research, which led to many scholarly publications and Ph. D. theses. He amassed an outstanding collection of type specimens and Upper Ordovician materials for Miami. Thirteen species, three genera, one family, and one mountain in Antarctica were named for him as "a geologist’s way of passing a compliment," he once said.
In Phi Kappa Tau, Shideler held almost every national office, including a term as national president in 1913-14. He was instrumental in bringing the fraternity’s National Headquarters to Oxford in 1930, and the fraternity's natinonal office was within a block of his home and campus office. The Shidelers lived in a historic Oxford home that had belonged to David Swing and was later used in filming the Jodie Foster movie Little Man Tate.
He deferred his retirement from Miami three times, finally giving up the chairmanship of his department in 1956. When he retired the following year, he was the recipient of a John Hay Whitney grant to go to Hiram College to start a geology program there, much as he had done for Miami in 1920.
In 1967 Miami University named its new earth-science building William H. Shideler Hall in his memory.
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