Materials are arranged in the order created during the interview process with the first file containing earlier dated items used to prepare for the interview.
Accession No. PA.2000.0048: Robert Rutford, 2000 February
[identification of item], Robert H. Rutford Oral History, SPEC.PA.56.0058, Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center Archival Program, Ohio State University
Contains audiocassettes.
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Processed by: Audrey Wimbiscus, 2020 February; Finding aid written by: Audrey Wimbiscus, Sam Devereaux, 2020 July
Robert Hoxie Rutford (1933-2019) was a geologist and geographer who conducted research in Northern Ontario and Antarctica. In 1954, he earned a Bachelor of Arts in geography from the University of Minnesota and became a Second Lieutenant in the United States Army later that year. From 1955-1956, Rutford drove tractor trains to transport people and materials across the Greenland ice sheet. He returned to the University of Minnesota in 1957 and completed a physical geography study at Sandy Lake and Sachigo Lake in Northern Ontario.
In 1959, Rutford first traveled to Antarctica to study volcanic rocks from the Jones Mountains with a group from the University of Minnesota. The group believed their research indicated that glaciations in Antarctica occurred earlier than the previously recorded date; Rutford conducted further on-site studies in 1967 that proved this theory correct. After receiving his Master of Arts in geography from the University of Minnesota in 1963, Rutford led another group which completed aerial mapping of the Ellsworth Mountains in Antarctica. Rutford then earned his Doctorate of Philosophy in geology from the University of Minnesota in 1969. He returned to Antarctica in 1970 as first the co-director, then sole director of the Ross Ice Shelf Project.
During the 1970s, Rutford was the Director of the Office of Polar Programs (OPP) for the National Science Foundation (NSF) in Washington, D.C. and Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Studies at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. From 1982-1984, he was President of the University of Texas at Dallas. During this time, he also provided scientific consulting to the United States Department of State regarding the Antarctic Treaty and was appointed as the United States delegate for the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR), which he later served as president of. Throughout his career, Rutford made more than 25 trips to Antarctica; he retired from teaching in 2007. The Rutford Ice Stream in Antarctica is named in his honor.
The Robert H. Rutford Oral History, dated 1984 and 1999-2001, contains audio recordings, administrative information, and transcripts of the interview between Rutford and former Ohio State University Polar Archivist Raimund Goerler conducted on February 15-16, 2000. This interview was a part of a series of polar oral histories sponsored by the American Polar Society and Ohio State University's Byrd Polar Research Center Archival Program, with funding from the National Science Foundation. Major topics discussed include Rutford's 25 trips to Antarctica in various capacities as a geologist and geographer, his work on the Ross Ice Shelf project, and his time as an administrator in Antarctic related offices such as the Office of Polar Programs (OPP), the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR), and the National Science Foundation (NSF).
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