Alumni honor geology professor for educational tours, lectures

Kevin Pogue, professor of geology, almost feels “a little guilty” about the Faculty Award for Service recently bestowed on him by the Alumni Association. “It’s like getting an award for something you do that’s fun,” he said. “I lead field trips and give lectures, and I enjoy doing it. I don’t view it as work.”

Now in his 17th year at Whitman, Pogue’s long list of service to alumni includes everything from lecturing at Summer College sessions to attending faculty receptions to exploring the geology of the wine regions of France on a alumni trip in 2006.

What make these trips fun are the alumni, he said. “As an instructor and teacher, the most rewarding thing is to have an attentive, interested audience that is excited about being there. That has always been my experience with alumni groups.”

Whitman alumni are “so enthusiastic and inquisitive and fun to be around,” Pogue said. “The trip to France was just a blast. They kept pumping me with questions.” The France trip was “so much fun for all of us, I really want to do more,” he added.

Pogue’s current research focuses on how soil type and landscape influence the terroir of the Walla Walla Valley American Viticulture Area and the Quaternary clastic dikes of the Columbia Basin. For more about his research, see his Web site.