John Willis Ambrose

John Willis Ambrose, also known as J. Willis Ambrose, was a Canadian geologist and academic who was born in Pincher Creek, Alberta, Canada, in 1904. He was the son of a merchant and shipper, and grew up in southwestern Alberta. He studied at Stanford University and Yale University, where he received a degree in law and economics. He joined the Geological Survey of Canada in 1931, and conducted research on the regional metamorphism and deformation of the Precambrian rocks in the Canadian Shield near Flin Flon, Manitoba. He also worked on the geology of the Rocky Mountains, the Arctic Islands, and the Appalachians. He became the first President of the Geological Association of Canada in 1947, and served as a Special Lecturer at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, from 1945 to 1948. He then moved to Kingston and joined Queen's full-time, where he taught geology and mineralogy until his retirement in 1973. He was the head of the geology department from 1962 to 1968, and the interim director of the Queen's University Centre for Resource Studies from 1973 to 1974. He was also the editor of the Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences. He died in Kingston in 1974 at the age of 69. He was remembered as one of the most distinguished and dedicated Canadian geologists of the 20th century, and a legend in the Canadian earth science community. He was honoured by the Geological Association of Canada with the Ambrose Medal, which is awarded annually to an individual for sustained dedicated service to the Canadian earth science community.