A professional society, like a man, is judged by the company it keeps. In this respect the Society of Exploration Geophysicists is indeed fortunate. On this its Silver Anniversary Meeting, the Society has elected to give public recognition to three of its deserving members who have made important contributions to the development of exploration geophysics and have helped to raise the Society to its present high position in the esteem and respect of its members and of the professional world. I have the high honor to represent the Society in presenting an Honorary Life Membership to one of these three at this special 25th Anniversary meeting. The exceptional merit which this award implies is measured by the fact that in the entire history of the Society it has been granted prior to this meeting only seven times.
     Father James B. Macelwane, S. J., is a geophysicist who has gained world renown by his researches and writings and by the reflected glory of his many eminent students who have been inspired to greatness by his enthusiastic and sympathetic teaching. He has been an outstanding member of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists for twenty years. His annual surveys of geophysical education which have been published in Geophysics each year since 1950 have become classics. It is appropriate that the Society should recognize Father Macelwane's distinguished service by awarding to him the highest honor which it has in its power to bestow.
     Father Macelwane's contributions to exploration geophysics cover a wide range. Probably foremost is the long list of successful students of geophysics which he has inspired and trained. Among these are such great names as Perry Byerly and Earnest A. Hodgson. In 1925 he organized the first educational Department of Geophysics in the Western Hemisphere. In addition to this teaching, he has made important research contributions of his own and has published about 100 papers and articles, principally on seismology and meteorology. He is the author or co-author of six books on physics and geophysics. His own labors have greatly broadened the horizons of the earth sciences.
     Many honors have been conferred upon Father Macelwane. To enumerate them all would be unnecessary and tedious. Those of you who would like to check a partial listing may refer to Pages 54 and 55 in your program booklet. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and was appointed by President Eisenhower to a six-year term as a member of the National Science Board of the National Science Foundation. He has been chosen by his colleagues for offices of distinction in many scientific societies and is now serving a three-year term as president of the American Geophysical Union. He has been awarded the Bowie Medal of the AGU and several honorary Doctors degrees. He has held many important positions at St. Louis University and is now Dean of the Institute of Technology.
     Although Father Macelwane is primarily an educational administrator, he has not neglected practical matters. While a young graduate student and teacher at the University of California in Berkeley from 1921 to 1925, he was a consultant in seismic exploration to the late Frank Rieber of subsequent Sonograph fame. His tri-partite micro-seismic detector system is used by the Navy for detecting and tracking storms at sea. In common with many other geophysicists his duties take him on frequent and long trips to all parts of the world. Very appropriately his students have given him the pseudo-theological title "The Bishop of Tours." On one public occasion, he was presented with a pair of roller skates to help him keep his many appointments. He also has been called an "Earth Quaker" by colleagues who consider it humorous that a Jesuit should be a Quaker. This may, or may not have inspired the title of his popular book "When the Earth Quakes." These intimacies add to the measure of the greatness of the man.
     At many celebrations of the 50th Anniversary of Father Macelwane's entry into the Jesuit order (one of which I had the privilege to attend) were heard several expressed opinions that the Order had good reasons indeed to be proud of their distinguished member. The Society of Exploration Geophysicists also is proud to have such an illustrious name on its membership rolls.
     Father Macelwane, with a deep appreciation of the honor of acting as spokesman for the Society, I hand you this scroll certificate of Honorary Life Membership in the Society of Exploration Geophysicists as a humble token of recognition of your important contributions to our Society and to the great profession which it represents.

     Sigmund Hammer