NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUBLISHED

In 1987, Wesley Wehr, a paleobotanist (and dear friend) who specialized in the fossil plants of the Okanagan Highlands of British Columbia and Republic, Washington published a paper with Jack Wolfe on Middle Eocene dicotyledonous plants from Republic. 

In it, they named a new species of early Eocene fossil linden leaf for Kirk Johnson, now Director of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, but then a young man with a keen eye for fossils. 

The species is Tilia johnsoni and it lives now at the Burke Museum in Seattle, Washington.

Kirk had found the leaf at the corner lot fossil site in Republic, Washington and generously given it to Wehr and Wolfe. 

The duo named the specimen for Kirk both because of his generosity and because he was someone they much admired. Me, too!

Palaeontological Lecture Series:  

Kirk Johnson is one of the speakers we will be hosting via Zoom later this year. Visit www.fossiltalksandfieldtrips.com

In the early 2000s, Wes Wehr was working on his last book, The Accidental Collector: Art, Fossils, and Friendship. In it, he weaves together all of the polite mentions briefly noted in his published papers into their larger stories and contexts. His tale in meeting Kirk is included. 

Wes was an extraordinary human being and delightful orator who knew how to tell a good story. Ours were over dinner and in the field, cherished because they are now lost in time. He could thrill you with a tale or tidbit about art, history, music or fossils.  

Photo: A single leaf from the extinct Tilia johnsoni. 49 million years old, Klondike Mountain Formation, Republic, Washington. Stonerose Interpretive Center Collections; Kevmin.