Robert Dolan (1929–2016)

Dr Robert Dolan died on Apr 24, 2016 in Charlottesville, VA, at age 87. He was Professor Emeritus at the University of Virginia (UVA). He will be remembered as a pioneer in the field of coastal geomorphology. After serving in the US Navy, Bob earned his BS from Southern Oregon College in 1955, his MS from Oregon State University in 1957, and his PhD from the Coastal Studies Institute at Louisiana State University in 1965. As part of his dissertation, Bob set up instrumentation on a pier he rented at Nags Head, NC, to measure the impact of storms. Three weeks into this project, the infamous Ash Wednesday storm of 1962 slammed into the US eastern seaboard. An excellent account of Bob's experience living on the front row of this storm and the impact it had on his life and career can be found in Ribbon of Sand: The Amazing Convergence of the Ocean and the Outer Banks by Alexander and Lazell (2000).