Charles R. Stelck

Career Charlie Stelck was born in Edmonton, Alberta, where he grew up hunting and fishing with his father and learning wilderness survival skills. As a teenager, he spent summers working on geological field parties, and after winning a Tegler Scholarship, he enrolled at the University of Alberta. He intended to pursue a degree in chemistry and education but entered the geology program at the urging of his friend, Robert Folinsbee, obtaining a B.Sc. degree in geology in 1937 and an M.Sc. in 1941. Later, after winning a fellowship from Imperial Oil, he obtained his Ph.D. degree at Stanford University in 1951.

During World War II Dr. Stelck worked on the Canol project and for Imperial Oil, mapping the geology of the Rocky Mountain foothills from Jasper, Alberta to the Canadian Arctic by horseback, canoe, and dogsled. This work led to the discovery of additional fossil reefs that proved to be excellent petroleum reservoirs, such as the Leduc oil field. as are many fossil organisms such as the ammonite Stelckiceras liardense.

Awards 1960, elected to the Royal Society of Canada 1980, received the Centennial Award of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta 1982, received the Rutherford Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching from the University of Alberta 1982, awarded the Logan Medal by the Geological Association of Canada 1994, awarded the R.J.W. Douglas Medal by the Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists 1997, appointed Officer of the Order of Canada 2001, awarded the Stanley Slipper Medal by the Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists 2001, received the Grover Murray Distinguished Educator Award from the American Association of Petroleum Geologists 2003, awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science Degree by the University of Alberta 2005, inducted into the Canadian Petroleum Hall of Fame 2005, received the Alberta Centennial Medal 2012, received the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal