Richard “Dick” Warren Hedlund received both his Masters of Science and Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma (OU), Norman, Oklahoma under Dr. Leonard R. Wilson. For his masters, he collected and studied the palynology of the Sylvan Shale in central Oklahoma, completing it in 1960 entitled “Microfossils of the Sylvan Shale (Ordovician) of Oklahoma.” He continued on at OU and for his Ph.D., he collected and studied the Woodbine Formation from southeastern Oklahoma, completing it in 1962 entitled “Palynology of the Red Branch Member of the Woodbine Formation (Upper Cretaceous) in Bryan County, Oklahoma.”
Hedlund would go on to play a prominent role in the American Association of Stratigraphic Palynologists (AASP) becoming its President in 1975. Hedlund worked for Amoco Petroleum in Tulsa, Oklahoma retiring in 1999.
Many of Hedlund’s Oklahoma specimens (especially those from his thesis and dissertation) are in the L. R. Wilson Paleobotany and Micropaleontology Collection, Sam Noble Museum of Natural History, Norman, Oklahoma, United States.
In an effort to make Hedlund’s palynological and paleobotanical collections more accessible and maintain its relevancy we are making what is known about Hedlund’s legacy and collection available on the web and asking that anyone who has additional information add it in our Collection Forum or contact us to help preserve his legacy.
