Mike Holdaway
Dear Colleagues,
With sadness, we announce the passing of a metamorphic petrology legend, Michael J. Holdaway. He passed peacefully in the early morning of March 21, 2025, at the age of 89.
Mike is perhaps best known for his meticulous experiments on the Al2SiO5 system and for developing the andalusite weight loss method for determining reaction direction. His work provided experimental constraints on the triple point of the polymorphs for the first time. He also conducted field work in New Mexico on triple point rocks, in Maine, and in other areas around the world. His experiments continued throughout his career and ranged from studies in mafic to pelitic systems including cordierite and staurolite. He brought his meticulous approach to petrography, crystal chemical studies, particularly of staurolite and their thermodynamic properties (while inspiring others to study), and geothermobarometry.
After Mike retired from Southern Methodist University, a special issue of the American Mineralogist was published in Mike's honor in 2002, volume 87. The introduction to the issue, about Mike, is attached (if the MSA list serve allows attachments). I was fortunate to have worked with Mike in the prime days of metamorphic petrology and mineralogy and am grateful that he introduced me to many of the icons in the field. He made sure to bring his students to the MSA luncheons at GSA where they could expand their network and learn from the best. He also shared with me the wonders of experimental petrology, the double capsule method for buffering fO2, and welding, insisted that I determine Li by the ion microprobe in the 80s. A more complete overview of his contributions will follow.
His memorial service will be at United Church of Christ in Longmont, Colorado on May 17, 1pm MDT.
The service will be broadcast on Youtube Live, should you wish to join. The YouTube link for Mike’s memorial is:
https://www.youtube.com/live/23bcL2696Bk?si=ZxECYTXzSyMWQx9E
Mike’s obituary is found at: https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/name/michael-holdaway-obituary?pid=209041348
Sincerely,
Barb Dutrow
Barb Dutrow, Ph.D.
Gerald Cire & Lena Grand Williams Alumni Professor
Adolphe G. Gueymard Professor
Department of Geology & Geophysics
E-235 Howe-Russell Geoscience Complex
Louisiana State University
Baton Rouge, LA 70803-4101
e-mail: dutrow@lsu.edu
ph: 225-578-2525 (office)
Dear Barb,
It was with a sense of shock that I read your mail.
Both Mike and I belong to an older generation of experimental petrologists who went through an exciting period that, quoting from a review by Bernie Wood of my Geochemical Perspective volume, “was a time, 1970s when experimental petrology and thermodynamics were coming together to tell quantitative stories about rocks and I was reminded of how excited we all were by the rapid advances.” Mike’s publications, especially his seminal paper on the aluminum silicate phase diagram that baffled a large body experimentalist, as documented in the papers presented in a special international conference in1968 at Yale - I was a post-doc at Yale then -and in the follow-up special volume of AJS, are classic examples of meticulous and innovative experiments coupled with rigorous thermodynamic analysis of the results.
Mike’s Aluminum Silicate phase diagram became the benchmark for testing the success of geothermo-barometers in the calculations of P-T conditions of equilibrations of metamorphic assemblages containing one or more of the Al2SiO5 polymorphs. In a paper presented in a GSA meeting sometime in the early 1980s, I took the approach to test the validity of my formulations of garnet-biotite thermometer and GASP barometer. The results agreed perfectly with Mike’s phase diagram. And, seeing Mike in the audience, I quipped that this shows that Mike got it right. The audience broke out in laughter.
Mike was a soft spoken and graceful person and will be remembered by metamorphic petrologists much beyond our generation. And he will be missed dearly by his contemporaries.
Best wishes,
Jiba
Jibamitra Ganguly
Professor Emeritus, Department of Geosciences
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
http://www.geo.arizona.edu/Gangulhttp://www.geo.arizona.edu/Gangulyy
From: Barbara L Dutrow via MSA-talk msa-talk@minlists.org
Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2025 8:55 AM
To: MSA-Talk@minlists.org MSA-Talk@minlists.org
Cc: Mark Holdaway mark@markholdaway.com; Gregory, Robert bgregory@mail.smu.edu
Subject: [EXT] [MSA-talk] Mike Holdaway
External Email
Dear Colleagues,
With sadness, we announce the passing of a metamorphic petrology legend, Michael J. Holdaway. He passed peacefully in the early morning of March 21, 2025, at the age of 89.
Mike is perhaps best known for his meticulous experiments on the Al2SiO5 system and for developing the andalusite weight loss method for determining reaction direction. His work provided experimental constraints on the triple point of the polymorphs for the first time. He also conducted field work in New Mexico on triple point rocks, in Maine, and in other areas around the world. His experiments continued throughout his career and ranged from studies in mafic to pelitic systems including cordierite and staurolite. He brought his meticulous approach to petrography, crystal chemical studies, particularly of staurolite and their thermodynamic properties (while inspiring others to study), and geothermobarometry.
After Mike retired from Southern Methodist University, a special issue of the American Mineralogist was published in Mike's honor in 2002, volume 87. The introduction to the issue, about Mike, is attached (if the MSA list serve allows attachments). I was fortunate to have worked with Mike in the prime days of metamorphic petrology and mineralogy and am grateful that he introduced me to many of the icons in the field. He made sure to bring his students to the MSA luncheons at GSA where they could expand their network and learn from the best. He also shared with me the wonders of experimental petrology, the double capsule method for buffering fO2, and welding, insisted that I determine Li by the ion microprobe in the 80s. A more complete overview of his contributions will follow.
His memorial service will be at United Church of Christ in Longmont, Colorado on May 17, 1pm MDT.
The service will be broadcast on Youtube Live, should you wish to join. The YouTube link for Mike’s memorial is:
https://www.youtube.com/live/23bcL2696Bk?si=ZxECYTXzSyMWQx9Ehttps://www.youtube.com/live/23bcL2696Bk?si=ZxECYTXzSyMWQx9E
Mike’s obituary is found at: https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/name/michael-holdaway-obituary?pid=209041348https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/name/michael-holdaway-obituary?pid=209041348
Sincerely,
Barb Dutrow
Barb Dutrow, Ph.D.
Gerald Cire & Lena Grand Williams Alumni Professor
Adolphe G. Gueymard Professor
Department of Geology & Geophysics
E-235 Howe-Russell Geoscience Complex
Louisiana State University
Baton Rouge, LA 70803-4101
e-mail: dutrow@lsu.edu
ph: 225-578-2525 (office)
http://www.geol.lsu.edu/dutrowhttp://www.geol.lsu.edu/dutrow