Ralph D. Wyckoff who is about to be admitted to Honorary Membership to the Society of Exploration Geophysicists merits this distinction for many reasons. He has been interested in and contributed significantly to many developments which lie in the domain of this Society. He has been a pioneer among pioneers.
     Wyckoff was born in a small town on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, December 10, 1987. He received a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering at Michigan State University in 1920. Following his graduation he served briefly as an instructor in electrical engineering at his alma mater, as electrical engineer at Lansing Electric Company, mechanical engineer at Ford Motor Company, and as a physicist in the Electrical Instruments Section of the U.S. Bureau of Standards, attesting the versatility which characterized all his later activities.
     In 1925 Wyckoff joined Marland Oil Company and became an important member of what is believed to have been the first geophysical department to be established by an oil company. His first assignment was to develop the then available gravity pendulum equipment, previously used for geodetic purposes, into a convenient and effective means for gravity exploration. This development was resumed at laboratories of Gulf Research & Development Company when Wyckoff joined that organization at year-end of 1928. The objective was attained brilliantly and, although quickly superseded by the gravimeter in exploration programs, remains to this day among the best if not the best tool for establishing bench-marks for a global gravity map.
     During the period 1931-1935 Wyckoff was chief of the Physics Division of Gulf Research & Development Company (GR&DC). Two important projects engaging the attention of the division during this time were pioneering researches in what is now known as reservoir engineering and the development of a portable precision gravimeter. The resulting instrument was among the earliest to be used in extensive field operations, with numerous discoveries to its credit, notably of salt domes in Mississippi and Burgan, Kuwait, world's largest oil field.
     From 1936 to 1939 Wyckoff served GR&DC in Houston as coordinator of geophysical field operations for Gulf's Houston Division, a period of extensive field operations in the general Gulf Coast area. In late 1939 he returned to the Gulf Research Center at Harmarville where he served as staff geophysicist until 1945. This period included World War II during which the Gulf Laboratories engaged in research and development projects under the auspices of the National Defense Research Committee. In most of these Wyckoff played a prominent and, in some cases, a decisive role. Among these developments were the radio steerable bombs known as Azon and Razon, of which the former was the only bomb of this type actually used by the armed services in their operations of World War II. Another development of this period was a magnetic airborne submarine detector which was quickly adapted to serve as an airborne magnetometer. This instrument was a truly revolutionary development among geophysical prospecting techniques.
     In 1945 GR&DC established a new Division of Geophysical Research and Development and Ralph Wyckoff was appointed its first director, a position he held until his recent retirement. Whatever he did, Wyckoff was always basically interested in the instruments involved. He realized that, almost universally, the progress in any field is critically dependent on the advances which can be made in the instruments available to its workers. The new division was made to order for him. Over the years it produced many instruments for getting more and better data from field operations and for deriving more and better information from the field data provided. In part, the instruments developed represented a form of automation. They covered data processing and data display. They went far beyond the field of geophysics and eventually the division served the entire laboratory complex and some of the operating divisions with their instrumentation problems.
     As early as 1914 Wyckoff was the holder of an Amateur Radio Operator's license. He recalls contacting, from Lansing, Michigan, the amateur station of Dr. Conrad, at the Westinghouse Research Lab in Pittsburgh, before the latter converted his station to broadcast service on 1920 (the world's first broadcasting station, KDKA). With this background, it was only natural that he should be interested in the frequency allocation needs of the geophysical services from the very beginning. A radio facilities committee was established in the early years of SEG of which Wyckoff was a member and chairman for many years. When, later, other branches of the oil industry developed needs for radio communication, the American Petroleum Institute established a similar committee with which the SEG cooperated, and which it later joined. Wyckoff was successively chairman of the API central committee in 1956 and 1957 and chairman from 1958 to 1960. Under his chairmanship there was produced a comprehensive report on the geophysical uses of radio designed to acquaint the Federal Communication Commission with the nature and importance of such operations and the need of specific and dependable frequency allocations. In this matter, Wyckoff rendered an outstanding service to his profession and this Society.
     The man being honored served the Society in many other ways. He served a three-year term (1939-1942) as Editor of its journal, Geophysics, and he also served as Vice-President (1942-1943) and President (1943-1944). In 1958 he was the Society's representative to the National Research Council of the National Academy of Science.
     Wyckoff retired from his position at GR&DC at the close of 1962. He has since become Research Professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh. Among other things, he has been occupied with equipping a geophysical observatory and is now gathering data on the free modes of vibration of the earth.
     This citation can cover little more than the high spots of an illustrious career in geophysics. The awarding of Honorary Membership to Ralph D. Wyckoff is a token of admiration and respect that he has won from his fellow members for his talent and his very considerable accomplishments.

     E. A. Eckhardt, and delivered by Sigmund I. Hammer