Marion Isabelle Whitney

Whitney was born and raised in Austin, Texas,{{Cite news |date=1916-04-08 |title=Far Off Texas Adds to Fund |pages=7 |work=Star-Gazette |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/star-gazette-far-off-texas-adds-to-fund/137480838/ |access-date=2023-12-27 |via=Newspapers.com}} the daughter of Francis Luther Whitney and Grace Pellet Whitney. Her father was a paleontology professor. She earned a bachelor's degree in geology from the University of Texas at Austin in 1930, then stayed to complete a master's degree in 1931, with a thesis titled "Fauna of the Glen Rose Formation".Whitney, M. I. (1931). Fauna of the Glen Rose formation (Master's thesis, University of Texas at Austin). In 1937, she became the first woman to earn a Ph.D. from the geology department at Texas.Kortsha, Monica. [https://www.jsg.utexas.edu/news/2017/11/10881/ "Women in UT Geology"] Texas Geosciences (November 20, 2017).{{Cite journal |last1=Milliken |first1=Kitty L. |last2=Eustice |first2=Rachel A. |date=1995-05-01 |title=Historical Data on Graduate-Level Participation of Women in a Large Geoscience Department |journal=Journal of Geological Education |language=en |volume=43 |issue=3 |pages=221–226 |doi=10.5408/0022-1368-43.3.221 |issn=0022-1368|doi-access=free |bibcode=1995JGeoE..43..221M }}

Whitney was a schoolteacher in Texas in the 1930s.{{Cite news |last=Galvin |first=Lois Hale |date=1953-07-07 |title=With Volcano, Author also 'Born' |pages=6 |work=The Austin American |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-austin-american-with-volcano-author/137479658/ |access-date=2023-12-27 |via=Newspapers.com}} She taught at Kansas State Teachers' College from 1937 to 1942, at Kilgore Junior College from 1942 to 1946,{{Cite news |date=1945-02-25 |title=Garden Club Members Give Supper for Husbands; Miss M. Whitney Gives Illustrated Talk on Mexico |pages=9 |work=The Kilgore News Herald |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-kilgore-news-herald-garden-club-memb/137481241/ |access-date=2023-12-27 |via=Newspapers.com}} at Texas Christian University from 1946 to 1951,{{Cite news |date=1953-06-07 |title=Author of Book on Volcano Arrives Here to Visit Friends; Dr. Marion Isabelle Whitney |pages=33 |work=Fort Worth Star-Telegram |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/fort-worth-star-telegram-author-of-book/137479047/ |access-date=2023-12-27 |via=Newspapers.com}} at Arkansas Polytechnic College from 1952, at Louisiana Tech University from 1955,{{Cite news |date=1955-09-02 |title=37 New Staff Members Employed at La. Tech |pages=12 |work=The Times |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-times-37-new-staff-members-employed/137481105/ |access-date=2023-12-27 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news |date=1957-01-18 |title=Unusual Geological Specimens at Tech |pages=2 |work=The Monroe News-Star |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-monroe-news-star-unusual-geological/137481310/ |access-date=2023-12-27 |via=Newspapers.com}} and at Central Michigan University from 1961 to her retirement in 1981.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ea9CC4lCicQC&dq=Marion+Isabelle+Whitney+Michigan&pg=PA2695 |title=American Men of Science: A Biographical Directory |date=1949 |publisher=Bowker |page=2695|language=en}} She was head of the geology department at Arkansas Polytechnic College in the 1950s. She gained full professor status in 1971.

In addition to her academic publications, Whitney wrote a novel for young readers, Juan of Parícutin (1953), based on her travels to see the volcano Parícutin in Michoacán, Mexico. She wrote a second children's book about an opossum she raised.

• "Some Zone Marker Fossils of the Glen Rose Formation of Central Texas" (1952){{Cite journal |last=Whitney |first=Marion Isabelle |date=1952 |title=Some Zone Marker Fossils of the Glen Rose Formation of Central Texas |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1299772 |journal=Journal of Paleontology |volume=26 |issue=1 |pages=65–73 |jstor=1299772 |issn=0022-3360}}
• "Some New Pelecypoda from the Glen Rose Formation of Texas" (1952){{Cite journal |last=Whitney |first=Marion |date=1952 |title=Some New Pelecypoda from the Glen Rose Formation of Texas |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1299869 |journal=Journal of Paleontology |volume=26 |issue=5 |pages=697–707 |jstor=1299869 |issn=0022-3360}}
• Juan of Parícutin (1953){{Cite book |last=Whitney |first=Marion Isabelle |url=http://archive.org/details/juanofparcutin00whit |title=Juan of Parícutin |date=1953 |publisher=Austin, Tex., Steck Co |others=Internet Archive}}
• "Echinoids of the Glen Rose Limestone of Texas" (1966, with Lewis Burnett Kellum){{Cite web |last1=Whitney |first1=Marion Isabelle |last2=Kellum |first2=Lewis B. |date=1965 |title=Echinoids of the Glen Rose Limestone of Texas |url=https://scholarly.cmich.edu/?a=d&d=CMUFac1965-01.1.1&e=-------en-10--1--txt-txIN%7CtxAU%7CtxTI-------- |access-date=2023-12-27 |website=Central Michigan University Scholarly & Creative Works}}

Whitney died in 1998, at the age of 87, in Mount Pleasant, Michigan. There is a collection of her papers in the library at Central Michigan University.{{Cite web |title=Marion Isabelle Whitney Papers, 1952, 1999, and undated |url=https://findingaids.lib.umich.edu/catalog/ehll--whitneym |access-date=2023-12-27 |website= - Central Michigan University Clarke Historical Library, University of Michigan Finding Aids |language=en}}

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Category:1911 births

Category:1998 deaths

Category:Scientists from Austin, Texas

Category:American women geologists

Category:20th-century American women writers

Category:University of Texas at Austin alumni

Category:Arkansas Tech University faculty

Category:Louisiana Tech University faculty

Category:Central Michigan University faculty

Category:Kansas State University faculty

Category:Texas Christian University faculty