Thomas R. LaFehr, now the Society's youngest Honorary Member, has earned his new distinction by outstanding contributions to geophysical technology and to geophysical education, as well as by his productive involvement over many years in professional affairs.
     Although Tom's entire career has been concentrated in areas of geophysics such as gravity and magnetics that have been put to much less extensive use in the oil industry than has seismic reflection, few geophysicists have done so much to keep these areas viable and to demonstrate their importance as tools for oil and mineral exploration.
     His technical contributions have indeed been diverse. Early in his career he recognized that potential methods have their greatest value when they supplement seismic data. He showed how gravity and magnetic data, properly integrated with seismic information, could yield geologic interpretations that could not be extracted from seismic data alone, and he devised new techniques for carrying out such integration. He was also a pioneer in the development of shipborne gravity systems and in the analysis of data from such systems with computer techniques that would correct errors that previously limited their usefulness. Early in his career he devised a three-dimensional modeling technique that made it possible to compute the shape and density distribution of subsurface bodies. His most recent contributions have been in the development and application of borehole gravity instruments. He has developed interpretive techniques for locating previously undetected gas sands from data thus obtained.
     At the University of California, Tom's interest in the earth sciences was stimulated by teachers such as Jean Verhoogen and Perry Byerly. Upon graduation in 1958, he went to Colorado School of Mines for a master's degree and held two SEG Scholarships while he was there. He is surely the first SEG Honorary Member to have received such support.
     While at Mines, Tom worked for the USGS. He received his Ph.D. from Stanford in 1964.
     Tom then accepted an offer from Gravity Meter Exploration Co. In 1969, he became associate professor at Colorado School of Mines. Shortly afterward he saw the value of establishing his own sources of data for his classes and, along with several associates, founded Edcon, a consulting firm involved with acquiring and interpreting gravity and magnetic data. The company grew rapidly, and in 1975 he changed his status at Mines to adjunct professor so that he could spend more time with Edcon as president. Since then, the company has expanded its original range of activity into new fields such as borehole geophysics (particularly borehole gravity) and electrical prospecting.
     For several years Tom has been working on a textbook which should fill a distinct gap in geophysical literature. It will cover potential field interpretation at a more advanced level than in presently available books, as well as new topics such as navigation systems for helicopters.
     Along with his other activities Tom has been extraordinarily active in SEG affairs. He has won the Society's Best Presentation Award three times (one while he was still a student) and was the Editor of Geophysics in 1972-73. During the past three years, he has directed the Society Speakers' Club, which arranges for geophysicists traveling overseas to lecture to groups, such as universities, on geophysical topics. Twenty-five lectures have been presented thus far. He is also a popular instructor in AAPG and other continuing education courses.
     Friendly and easily approachable, Tom has been most effective in the indoctrination of seismically oriented geophysicists on the significance of non-seismic geophysical methods in exploration. Few geophysicists have done so much for their profession in so many ways. His contributions have been so great at such an early age, it is hard to think of any limits to what he is likely to accomplish in the future.

     M. B. Dobrin