Charles R. Stelck

Charles Richard Stelck, OC, FRSC (born 1917) is an award-winning Canadian petroleum geologist, paleontologist, stratigrapher and emeritus professor. His research has yielded many large oil and gas finds in western Canada.

Stelck was born in Edmonton, Alberta. As a teenager he worked on summer geological field parties.

With the help of a Tegler Scholarship, Stelck attended the University of Alberta. He switched into the geology program when his friend, Robert Folinsbee, convinced him that it was an exciting field. He obtained a BSc (1937) and a MSc degree (1941). He moved to California and obtained his PhD degree at Stanford University.

Career

In the early 1940s, he took a position at the University of Alberta. While there he hypothesized that coral reefs had once lived in what is now the Arctic. He further hypothesized that this would mean there would be oil there now. There has been speculation that his hypothesis was not a stretch given the fact that the Norman Wells had been discovered in the early 1920s and oil seeps had been reported along the river for centuries. The explanation was not yet clear, however, since the theory of continental drift had yet to be proposed.

Stelck observed reef material while conducting geological research in a mountainous region near Norman Wells, Northwest Territories with a dog team. The first recorded observation of these materials were made in 1914 by Dr. T.O. Bosworth, whose 69-page report on his expedition along the Mackenzie River led directly to the discovery of the Norman Wells oilfield.^[1]

Stelck applied his knowledge to find if reefs had existed in Alberta. He worked with his students to develop an understanding of western Canada’s sedimentary basin and the Leduc oilfields, which demonstrated that Devonian reefs existed in Alberta and could make excellent reservoirs. Many of Stelck's former students were part of the gathering oil boom, including; Doug Layer (Leduc No. 1), and Arne Rudolph Nielsen and Tony Mason (Pembina oil field-the largest pool of oil in Canada).

Asteroid (187680) Stelck is named in his honour.

Accolades

• 1960, elected to the Royal Society of Canada
• 1972, awarded the Logan Medal by the Geological Association of Canada
• 1994, awarded the R. J. W. Douglas Medal by the Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists
• 1997, appointed Officer of the Order of Canada
• 2003, awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science Degree by the University of Alberta
• 2005, inducted into the Canadian Petroleum Hall of Fame

Cited publications

• Stelck, C. R., 1950. Cenomanian-Albaian Forminifera of western Canada. Ph.D. School of Mineral Sciences (Geology), Stanford University, 207 pp.

References

1. ^ T.O. Bosworth, "Report on the prospect of obtaining oil in the region of the Mackenzie River, Great Slave Lake, Slave River and Athabasca River," 1914; document available at Glenbow Archives, Calgary

• Biographies & Histories of Palynology
• University of Alberta Tribute
• University of Alberta Honorary degree
• Geology profs helped shape province's fortunes
• Canadian Petroleum Hall of Fame
• Oil Industry Honours Pioneering Geologist
• ‘’The Roughneck’’- Inductees to Hall of Fame

External links

• University of Alberta Staff
• University of Alberta Convocation Address

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Name	Stelck, Charles Richard
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Date of birth	1917
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