Daniel E. (Dan) Nedland was born on September 11, 1947, the second
son of Victor E. and Elizabeth Irene (Howard) Nedland. He passed away
on March 23, 2021, at the age of seventy-three, at the hospital in
Oberlin. He had a more than seventeen-year battle with multiple
myeloma, a cancer of the blood.
Dan grew up in Ladysmith, WI, in a family of six boys: Jack, Dan,
Fred, Paul, Sam, and Joe. He graduated from Ladysmith High School in
1965. He attended the University of Wisconsin in Superior, graduating
in 1969 with a B.S. Degree in Geology. He attended the University of
Wisconsin in Madison, receiving a M.S. Degree in Geology in 1971. He
studied at Rice University in Houston, TX, for his doctorate in Geology
from 1972 through 1974. He taught geology at Wellesley College in
Wellesley, MA, in 1974 and 1975. He then worked briefly in a research
lab in Pittsburgh, PA, and Houston, TX, before joining Atlantic
Richfield Oil and Gas Company (ARCO) in Anchorage, AK, in 1976. He
worked for ARCO for more than twenty years in technical and management
positions, for both domestic and international operations. He managed
ARCO exploration programs in New Zealand and was Chief Geologist for
ARCO Azerbaijan, as well as living in Jakarta while working for ARCO
Indonesia. He joined Gaffney, Cline & Associates, a U.K. based
consulting firm, in 1997, moving with his family to Singapore. There he
advised international clients throughout Europe and Asia on exploration
play development, basin evaluation, and acquisition and divestiture
analysis.
Dan is remembered by his professional colleagues for his deep and
broad understanding of complex plate tectonic systems, particularly the
motion and structural development of strike-slip fault systems, in
addition to his extensive geologic field work, from the Brooks Range in
northern Alaska, to the Lofoten Islands above the Artic Circle in
Norway, to the Ouachita Mountains of Oklahoma, to the Yukon Territory in
northern Canada, to Isla Mujeres off the Yucatan Peninsula. He is also
remembered for his love of teaching. Dan had a wonderful zest for life
and loved to travel, travelling to five of seven continents, and living
in three. He was a 4-H leader for the geology project at the state
level, and a 4-H judge at the Kansas State Fair for geology exhibits.
He loved helping young people develop the same love of rocks that he
had. Dan was a school board member for USD 294 and gave geology
presentations at Oberlin Elementary School.
Dan met his wife, Rhonda May, while they both worked for ARCO, after
he was transferred to Tulsa. They married on January 15, 1983, in
Oberlin, KS. They had three children that were the lights of his life:
Cameron (Rebecca), Hunter (Rhiannon), and Elizabeth (Braden Fischer).
Dan is survived by his wife, Rhonda May, three children, and two
grandchildren, Liam Nedland and Brogan Nedland, as well as a multitude
of extended family and friends. He is predeceased by his parents,
brother Paul, sister-in-law Carol Nedland, and a nephew, Jeff Nedland.
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