Prior, Jean Cutler
Dates
- Existence: 1940-
Biography
Jean Ellen Cutler was born in 1940 to Martha (Perry) Adams Cutler and Thomas Edward Cutler. She graduated from North High School in Akron, Ohio, in 1958 and then entered Purdue University and obtained a B.A. in Geology and Political Science. She continued her education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and graduated in 1964 with a master's degree in physical geology. That same year she married Stanley Prior. In 1965, the couple moved to Iowa City and she began what was to be a long career at the Iowa Geological Survey.
At the Iowa Geological Survey, Prior worked as a research geologist and was promoted in 1986 to senior research geologist. Throughout her distinguished career she gave educational presentations and lectures, led field trips, and corresponded with geology enthusiasts. She also produced many publications including text books, guide books, pamphlets, and scholarly and popular articles. Prior also edited Iowa Geology from 1984 to 2002. Her publications cover a range of geology topics including the Loess Hills, glaciations in Iowa, 1868 Iowa landscape drawings of Orestes St. John, and the history of the Iowa Geological Survey. All of these achievements and activities are reflected in the collection.
In addition to her work at the Iowa Geological Survey, Prior belonged to many geological organizations and held various leadership positions throughout her career. One of the earliest organizations she joined was the Geological Society of Iowa in 1965. She became newsletter editor in 1968, and president of the organization in 1978. She was also active in the Iowa Academy of Science as a member of the board of directors in 1982, and the public information committee in 1986, and as president in 1993. She was appointed by the Governor to the Iowa State Preserves Advisory Board in 1983, and was a member of the Mines of Spain Scientific and Historic Advisory Committee.
Prior retired from the Iowa Geological survey in 2003, but in her retirement continued to work on writing projects with her husband James Sandrock, whom she married in 2003.