Anyone who spent time at sea with Fred Spiess came to understand his superb capabilities as an expedition leader and his effectiveness as a mentor of young scientists. His quiet style of directing operations masked the thoroughness with which he not only had planned for the activities to come but also for contingencies that might arise. As a result, most of his cruises not only achieved the goals stated in the funding proposal but, in many cases, a lot more. The key to Fred’s accomplishments as an ocean scientist was his ability to not only recognize the problems that needed to be investigated but also to design and develop new observation systems where existing technologies were inadequate for the task at hand. Throughout his career, Fred continued to “push the envelope” when it came to new ways to observe, map, and understand processes operating on the floor of the deep ocean.

Normark, W.R., and B.P. Luyendyk. 2006. In memory of Fred Noel Spiess (1919–2006): A tribute. Oceanography 19(4):10–11, https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2006.30.

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