Orrin H. Pilkey (Missoula ’53)
Posted: April 30, 2025
Orrin, 90, died December 13, 2024, in Durham, N.C. He was born September 19, 1934, in Manhattan, N.Y., and graduated from Columbia H.S., Richland, Washington, in 1952. He received his bachelor’s in Geology from Washington State, his master’s in Geology from the University of Montana and his Ph.D. in Marine Geology from Florida State University. Orrin was active in the Army for six months and served for eight years as a reserve officer in the Corps of Engineers being discharged as a Captain in 1968.
He taught at the University of Georgia Marine Institute and Duke University 1965-99 as a Professor of Geology. Orrin made about 45 research cruises in deep sea studies and co-authored 47 books and produced 250 technical papers. A building at the Duke University Marine Lab in named after Orrin. He retired in 1999 and was living in Durham, N.C.
Orrin jumped at Missoula 1953, 55 and at Grangeville 1954. His younger brother, Walter, jumped at Missoula 1955-56 and they once jumped the same stick on a fire from the DC-3. “Before my three seasons with the smokejumpers, I was a ground pounder in Umpqua N.F., Oregon, for two years in a crew made up entirely of 16-year-olds. I learned to respect those who walked into fires, often exhausted upon arrival which, of course, was the whole point of jumping.”
Orrin was one of the best-known coastal biologists in the world. His scholarly direction, originally deep-sea geology, changed with the 1969 destruction of his parent’s home in Mississippi from Hurricane Camille. He shifted his research to studies of shorelines and beaches.
