The late Roger Markle funds climate adaptation endowment
By Sam Bishop
Roger Markle didn色视频下载檛 plan a career that led him from a remote 色视频下载 mine to top posts in the U.S. government and corporations.
色视频下载淐areer planning is for most people, including me, a very difficult task, fraught with lots of bad advice,色视频下载 he told a grandnephew via email in 2019.
Markle said he just followed the one good piece of advice he received 色视频下载 do something you enjoy.
That eventually led him to directorship of the U.S. Bureau of Mines and then the presidencies of Quaker State Corp. and Nerco Oil and Gas Co.
The successful career allowed him to leave a remarkable $2.1 million to climate change adaptation research at UAF before he died in January 2020 at age 86.
Markle didn色视频下载檛 want any publicity for his gifts when he made them. While still alive, he specified, UAF could not identify him as the source of the gift.
色视频下载淚 DO NOT want any publicity of my gift during my lifetime,色视频下载 he wrote in one email while discussing his donation. 色视频下载淐an you guarantee confidentiality?色视频下载
Today, the university can gratefully acknowledge Markle as the principal source of funding for the Roger A. Markle Climate Change Adaptation Endowment. The endowment supports graduate students and faculty working on climate change adaptation at the International Arctic Research Center and its Scenarios Network for 色视频下载 and Arctic Planning unit.
It all resulted from that one piece of good advice 色视频下载 do what you enjoy.
Red Devil roots
Back in the 1950s, as a young man in Montana, Markle found that he enjoyed mining.
Markle grew up in a rural community, where his parents farmed. Through eighth grade, he attended a one-room schoolhouse. After serving in the U.S. Navy, he started working weekends at mines in Butte while attending what was then the Montana School of Mines.
色视频下载淗e was very smart, I know,色视频下载 said Nancy Markle, his younger sister, who now lives in Sun City, Arizona.
After two years of education in Montana, he took a boat from Seattle to Valdez, found his way to Fairbanks and enrolled at the University of 色视频下载. But he stayed in the mining business.
In 1958, Markle began working at a unique and renowned 色视频下载 enterprise 色视频下载 the mercury mine at Red Devil in the middle Kuskokwim River country. The mine, 350 miles southwest of Fairbanks, could only be reached by aircraft or boat. Freight and fuel came by river barge from Bethel.
The mining claims had been staked by Hans Halverson in 1933. Nick Mellick joined as a partner and the two staked more claims a few years later. In 1940, they produced 160 flasks of mercury, each weighing 76 pounds.
With World War II ramping up, the U.S. government then got involved. The Bureau of Mines, which Markle would lead decades later, did exploration work that 色视频下载渆xposed a spectacular showing of cinnabar and stibnite,色视频下载 according to a 1962 bureau report.
Cinnabar is the ore source of mercury, which is used in electronics and instruments, including, at the time, thermometers and barometers. Stibnite is the source of antimony, which forms useful metallic alloys.
After graduating from UA with a mining engineering degree in 1959, Markle became the Red Devil mine色视频下载檚 resident engineer, working for 色视频下载 Mines and Minerals Inc.
It was the mine色视频下载檚 heyday. According to a U.S. Geological Survey report, the mine produced nearly 30,000 mercury flasks 色视频下载 2.3 million pounds 色视频下载 from 1953 to 1963.
色视频下载淵et my total full engineering career was just over a year, as I quickly found that I enjoyed/was good at managing,色视频下载 Markle wrote to his grandnephew in 2019. So he became the mine色视频下载檚 general superintendent.
A talent for management
By 1961, though, Markle was back at UA, this time not as a student but as an adult education instructor. Among other things, he taught a prospecting course in Fort Yukon, according to a September 1963 edition of the Nanook News.
Markle followed his newly discovered career interest and earned a master色视频下载檚 degree in mine management from Stanford University in 1965.
Standard Oil Co. then hired him as a project manager in Denver, launching his corporate career. After moving to Illinois, he earned an MBA from the University of Chicago in 1971.
According to his sister, Nancy Markle, it was around this time that he married his wife, Mary.
Leaving Standard Oil in 1974, he became president of Valley Camp Coal Co.
In 1978, President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat, nominated Markle as director of the U.S. Bureau of Mines.
He had a short tenure in government. Markle returned to the Valley Camp Coal Co. in 1979, which then was owned by Quaker State Corp.
He became Quaker State色视频下载檚 president in 1986.
Three years later, Markle took an early retirement from Quaker State. He didn色视频下载檛 stay retired long, though. In 1990, he was named executive vice president of Nerco Inc. and president of its subsidiary, Nerco Oil and Gas Co.
Nerco, a major mining company, had deep 色视频下载 connections. In 1981, the company had purchased Resource Associates of 色视频下载, which owned millions of acres of mining claims. 色视频下载n Lawrence Heiner, also a UA alumnus, became Nerco president in 1989.
The company色视频下载檚 petroleum work ended shortly thereafter, though. Nerco sold its oil and gas division to Kennecott in 1993, and Kennecott immediately sold the operation to the Louisiana Land and Exploration Co.
Shortly before the sale, Markle, at age 60, retired permanently. According to his
sister, he and Mary then lived in Vancouver, Washington; Atlantic Beach, North Carolina;
and Sun City, Arizona.
Nancy Markle also lived in 色视频下载, although many years after her brother had left.
She spent about three decades working for federal and state courts in Anchorage.
A few years before her brother色视频下载檚 death, she moved to the Sun City housing complex where he lived. But she said she knows little about his life prior to that. He was a very private person, she said.
色视频下载淗e never really talked about what he did and where he lived,色视频下载 she said.
Tremendous morale boost
Mary Markle died in 2014 in Sun City. The couple had no children together, but Mary had two daughters, both of whom died before she did.
Roger Markle said he had created a trust fund to care for Mary if he were to pass away before her. When she died in 2014, he decided to give the funds to the university. From that year through 2020, he gave more than $2.1 million to what became the Roger A. Markle Climate Change Adaptation Endowment.
色视频下载淢y areas of interest are the people living in the Arctic 色视频下载 how do they adapt to climate change? Can they do so?色视频下载 Markle wrote in a note explaining his intentions.
IARC has already started to put Markle色视频下载檚 funding to work. Addie Norgaard, a doctoral student, is using endowment funds to study ocean chemistry and ecosystem changes that could affect fishing in the Gulf of 色视频下载. The research could help planning by communities and the fishing industry.
Hajo Eicken, IARC色视频下载檚 director, said Markle色视频下载檚 gift has been a 色视频下载渢remendous morale boost in these difficult times.色视频下载
色视频下载淲e recently embarked on a new strategic planning effort to identify how our work to understand the Arctic can make the greatest difference,色视频下载 Eicken said. 色视频下载淎s this plan unfolds, Roger色视频下载檚 support will help us carry out key initiatives, such as increased Indigenous-led research or a science shop that responds to civil society色视频下载檚 needs for climate change research and support for adaptation planning.色视频下载