Materials are arranged in the order created during the interview process with the first file containing administrative materials created before, during, and after the interview.
Accession No. PA.2000.0050: Wilford F. Weeks, 2000 April
[identification of item], Wilford F. Weeks Oral History, SPEC.PA.56.0059, Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center Archival Program, Ohio State University
Contains audiocassettes.
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Processed by: Audrey Wimbiscus, 2020 March; Finding aid written by: Audrey Wimbiscus, Sam Devereaux, 2020 August
Wilford Frank Weeks (1929-2017) was a geologist and oceanographer who received his Bachelor of Science in 1951, and his Master of Science in geology in 1953, both from the University of Illinois. In 1955, he was called to active duty as a Research and Development Officer in the United States Air Force and was assigned to the Joint Services Sea Ice Physics Program at Hopedale Station in Labrador, Canada. Weeks briefly returned to Illinois the following year and received his Doctor of Philosophy in Geochemistry from the University of Chicago before he was sent to Thule Air Base in Greenland to study structure and vertical grain distribution in sea ice. He was discharged from the Air Force in 1957. Following his discharge, Weeks taught earth sciences at Washington University and Dartmouth College, and conducted sea ice research with the Snow, Ice, and Permafrost Research Establishment (SIPRE), the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL), and the Humble Oil Company.
Throughout the 1970s, Weeks studied coastal pressure ridges in Barrow, Alaska through the Arctic Ice Dynamics Joint Experiment (AIDJEX) and the surface roughness of ice with the Outer Continental Shelf Environmental Assessment Program (OCSEAP). He made his first trip to Antarctica in 1980, and studied platelet ice in McMurdo Sound. From 1986 until his retirement in 1996, Weeks was the Chief Scientist at the Alaskan Synthetic Aperture Radar Facility in Fairbanks, Alaska and taught at the University of Alaska. During the 1990s, Weeks returned to Antarctica twice and collected sea ice samples from McMurdo Sound and the Ross Sea. In 2010, his book “On Sea Ice” was published. Throughout his career, Weeks wrote over 300 papers and received numerous honors and awards.
The Wilford F. Weeks Oral History, dated 2000 to 2001, contains audio recordings, administrative information, and transcripts of the interview between Weeks and Brian Shoemaker of the American Polar Society conducted on April 17, 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 Weeks' career studying glacial, sea, and river ice in various places around the globe, especially in the polar regions, achievements of the different scientific programs and research he was involved in, and personal remembrances of his scientific colleagues.