Richard Chorley

Richard John Chorley
Born 4 September 1927
Minehead, Somerset, England
Died 12 May 2002 (aged 74)
Cambridge, England
Fields Geomorphology, quantitative geography and Progressing Geography

Richard John Chorley (4 September 1927 – 12 May 2002) was a leading figure in the late 20th century for his work in quantitative geography, and played an instrumental role in bringing in the use of systems theory to geography. He is buried at the Parish of the Ascension Burial Ground in Cambridge. He married Rosemary More in 1965 and they had one son and one daughter.

Early education

Chorley was born in Minehead, Somerset in an area known as the West Country, with roots in Exmoor and the Vale of Taunton Deane. He was a product of a local primary school and Minehead Grammar School. Later on, Chorley began studying Geomorphology as an undergraduate at the School of Geography at Oxford, where he went up to Exeter College after service with the Royal Engineers. Here he was greatly influenced by R.P. Beckinsale, who advised Chorley to go on to graduate study in the United States. He made a transatlantic move in 1951 as a Fulbright Scholar to Columbia University where he was a graduate student in the Geology Department and explored the quantitative approach to land form evolution.

Career development

In 1957, Chorley's academic career at Columbia, and subsequently Brown University, was interrupted by the need to return to Britain for family reasons. He was soon appointed a Demonstrator at Cambridge University and proceeded to move rapidly up the university hierarchy with a readership in 1970 and ad hominem chair in 1974. Cambridge provided the launching pad for Chorley's revolutionary ideas. He rejected the prevailing paradigm of the Davisian cycles of erosion and sought to replace these with a quantitative model-based paradigm with an emphasis on General Systems Theory and numerical modelling.

Cambridge contained a strong group in physical geography with colleagues that encouraged Chorley's ideas. It also provided a good environment for him to conduct his experiments. Chorley produced volumes of scientific papers in physical geography that codified his approach and allowed him to ask new questions about earth surface processes and ways they can be studied. Central to these was the concept of system dynamics, and his production of Physical Geography: A Systems Approach (1971) and Environmental Systems (1978) that influenced a generation of scholars. Chorley's studies ranged into climatology and hydrology where he cooperated with Colorado meteorologist Roger Barry on the text, Atmosphere, Weather and Climate (1968). Many of his writings were jointly authored or edited, including Water, Earth and Man (1969). In addition, Chorley launched in 1964 the first of a series of text on The History of the Study of Landforms. Two further volumes were published in 1973 and 1991. At the time of Chorley's death, Volume 4 was nearing completion.

Progress in Geography

Instead of confining himself to physical geography, Chorley took a broad approach to change in geography as a whole. He did this first through a series of annual summer conferences held at Madingley Hall near Cambridge, where his lectures helped form a basis of a series of volumes (notably Models in Geography, 1967) that influenced the discipline. The second was by founding an annual series, "Progress in Geography", later converted into two influential quarterly journals, in which changes over the whole discipline could be recorded and assessed.[1][2]

Death

He died at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, on 12 May 2002 following a heart attack and was buried in Cambridge's Ascension Parish Burial Ground on the 21st; he was survived by his wife, Rosemary, and their two children.

Education and career

Awards and honours

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Prof. Dr. Richard John Chorley (1927–2002)". Retrieved 1 May 2007.
  2. ↑ Obituary in The Independent "Professor Richard John Chorley". Retrieved 1 May 2007.

External links