I received some sad news the other day: Thomas A. (Tom) Prickett, died on 13 September 2007. He was en route to Tennessee with his wife Alice to visit friends and collapsed and died in Indianapolis. What a loss for those of us in the hydrologic realm!
Many of you probably didn't know Tom, who worked for the Illinois State Water Survey (ISWS) for 17 years and since 1981 at his own consulting firm, but he was one of the pioneering ground water modelers, dating back to the 1960s. He and C.G. Lonnquist developed the Prickett-Lonnquist Aquifer Simulation Model (PLASM), which was published as the now-famous Bulletin 55 of the Illinois State Water Survey in 1971:
Prickett, T.A. and C.G. Lonnquist. 1971. Selected Digital Computer Techniques for Groundwater Resources Evaluation. Illinois State Water Survey Bulletin 55, 62p. (Download a copy here)
Bev Herzog of the Illinois State Geological Survey told me that Tom and Carl did not name the code, but that someone approached Tom one day to ask a question about "PLASM". Tom had no idea what the person was talking about, but liked the acronym, and it stuck - even to the extent of adorning his license plates!
Tom's work in finite-difference (FD) ground water models set the stage for the USGS MODFLOW model, developed in the 1980s by Mike McDonald and Arlen Harbaugh, which is now the worldwide standard.
Tom and his colleagues also developed a random-walk transport model, and other models as well:
Prickett, T.A. , T. G. Naymik, and C.G. Lonnquist. 1981. A 'Random Walk' Solute Transport Model for Selected Groundwater Quality Evaluations. Illinois State Water Survey Bulletin 65, 103p. (Download a copy here)
Before computer models, Tom developed and worked with those wonderful old electrical analog aquifer models - networks of resistors (to simulate hydraulic conductvity) and capacitors (to simulate storage). Some of them are now displayed at the ISWS.
Tom also made important contributions in the field of ground water resource evaluation, aquifer test analysis, and other areas of hydrogeology. He also was an accomplished expert witness and helped others master that specialized area.
I cut my teeth on finite-difference ground water modeling by using the venerable Bulletin 55, a copy of which I still have, as a "textbook". With that, Allan Freeze's Inland Waters Branch (Canada) publication of his UC-Berkeley dissertation (Theoretical Analysis of Regional Groundwater Flow, Scientific Series No. 3), and Numerical Methods in Subsurface Hydrology by Irwin Remson, George Hornberger, and Fred Molz, the sky was the limit.
Tom was also an incredibly genial fellow with a wonderful sense of humor. I got to know him well when we both served on the board of the Association of Ground Water Scientists and Engineers in the late 1990s. I called him "Billion-Node" Prickett, because we would facetiously speculate as to the time when computer storage and computational speed would increase to the point where they would accommodate a FD model with one billion nodes. Gees, we both dreaded what the data entry would be like!
Colleague Barry Hibbs of California State University-Los Angeles sent me an anecdote that I had not heard before. Tom was at a National Ground Water Association convention, demonstrating electrical analog models (this was before the days of computer models). These things were as big as chalkboards, and covered with networks of resistors and capacitors. Tom enticed a well driller over to examine the thing, during which time he lectured the driller on how it worked. After the impromptu lecture, the driller scratched his head and said, "This is all very interesting, but how do you get it down the well?"
I also learned a very good lesson from Tom: one doesn't need advanced degrees to be brilliant and make significant contributions to one's field. I was surprised to learn that Tom's only degree was a Bachelor's in general engineering from the University of Illinois and that he had no formal training in ground water hydrology. That was a humbling revelation for someone who thought he was hot s**t with a newly-minted PhD from the U of AZ and who assumed anyone "doing hydrology" without at least a Master's degree was a semi-moron. So I realized that there was not necessarily a direct positive correlation between the number of someone's degrees and his/her knowledge. Often times the correlation was negative. And when I finally met Tom, his self-effacing nature was a welcome respite from all the hydrologic prima donnas I had encountered.
Here's a great video of his 10 October 2006 lecture on History (and thoughts on the future) of Groundwater Modeling at the Colorado School of Mines. He covers about 150 years of ground water modeling. Yeah, it's been that long.
Tom was an accomplished musician (piano, bass, and trumpet) who was offered a scholarship to Eastman upon graduation from high school.
And he loved cats.
Here is his obituary from the News-Gazette:
Thomas "Tom" Prickett, 71, of Urbana, died Thursday, September 13, 2007, at St. Vincent Hospital in Indianapolis, IN.
Funeral services will be held at 10:30 AM Monday, September 17, 2007, at Renner-Wikoff Chapel, 1900 S. Philo Road, Urbana. John Andrae will officiate. Burial will be held in Roselawn Cemetery, Champaign. Visitation will be hel;d from 4 to 7 pm Sunday evening at the funeral home.
Survivors also include two daughters and their families, Laura and Wesley Curtis of Champaign and their three children, Thomas, Sarah and Rachel, and Mary Beth and Robert Burke of Granger, Ind., and their two sons, Luke and Sean. He is also survived by two brothers, William Prickett of Peoria and Robert Prickett of Pequot Lakes, Minn.
Mr. Prickett was a member of the United States Marine Corps Reserve from 1957 until 1963. He was educated in the Pekin schools and graduated from the University of Illinois in general engineering in 1960. He was an accomplished musician and played the trumpet and bass in local dance bands in the 50's and 60's.
Mr. Prickett was a ground water hydrologist at the Illinois State Water Survey for 17 years. In 1981, he established his own consulting business, Thomas A. Prickett and Associates, and earned a global reputation as a consultant to some of the largest and most prestigious companies in the nation. Mr. Prickett was an adjunct professor of geology at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, an active member of the National Ground Water Association and belonged to many other professional societies. He authored countless articles and reports, was a sought-after speaker and guest lecturer and served as an expert witness in court. He received nearly every honorary award in his field. In 2004, he received the Alumni Award for Distinguished Service from the U of I College of Engineering. He was a member of the President's Council.
His interests included collecting antique calculators, traveling with friends, playing the piano and attending Illini football and basketball games. He will be remembered most as a unique character with an energetic personality.
Published in the News-Gazette on 9/15/2007.
There is also an online guest book you can view or sign.
I know where Tom is now, and he's undoubtedly got that billion-node ground water flow model up and running, and cajoled some people into doing data entry.
We're all going to miss you, Tom.
"We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give."-- Sir Winston Churchill
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