1. In Memoriam: Fred Schwab, Professor of Geology Emeritus

Office of Communications and Public Affairs
March 19, 2026

Fred Schwab, Washington and Lee University professor of geology emeritus, died March 15. He was 86. He taught at Washington and Lee University for 36 years.

Born on Jan. 8, 1940, in Brooklyn, N.Y., he graduated from Glens Falls High School in 1957. He went on to receive his A.B. from Dartmouth College in 1961 and his M.S. from the University of Wisconsin in 1963. He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Xi honor societies, as well as Kappa Kappa Kappa.

After receiving his Ph.D. from Harvard University, he joined Washington and Lee University as assistant professor of geology, a position he held from 1967-71. From 1971-75, he served as associate professor of geology, and he was promoted to professor of geology in 1975; he held that rank until his retirement in 2003. His teaching interests included geology, sedimentary rocks and stratigraphy, field methods and Appalachian geology, paleontology, historical geography, mineralogy and dinosaur extinctions and asteroid impacts.

Throughout his career, Schwab received multiple grants and fellowships to support his research. In 1971, he received a National Science Foundation Science Faculty Fellowship to support his work on a comparative study of the British Caledonides and North American Appalachians. From 1977-78, he spent 12 months performing sedimentological analysis of the Western (French-Italian) Alps through a North Atlantic Treaty Alliance (NATO) Senior Science Fellowship.

During his career, he served as a consulting editor for numerous books on general science as well as geological and environmental sciences, and he was a manuscript editor and reviewer of several science publications. He published more than 40 articles and presented papers across the United States, Canada and Europe. In 1996, he co-authored a book for undergraduate geology students, "Sedimentary Geology: an Introduction to Sedimentary Rocks and Stratigraphy." He also served on the editorial boards of Geology magazine and the Journal of Sedimentary Research.

Professional affiliations included the Geological Society of America, American Geological Institute, the Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists and the International Association of Sedimentologists.

Schwab is survived by his wife, Claudia, and their family.

The family is holding a celebration of life from 3 to 5 p.m. Saturday, March 21, at the Hotchkiss Alumni House on the W&L campus.