I was interested in Geology as a kid. I used to ride my bike to the library to take out books to read about geology and archeology. I can distinctly remember reading the book, “All About The Ice Age.” How fitting to end up down here in the Ice Age capital. Somehow, probably my mother, got me to write letters to all the Bureau of Economic Geology offices for many of the states and asked them to send me samples of some of the important rocks from their states. Many of them did just that, postage was cheap back then.

My real interest started the summer of 8th grade when I took a summer class at the local high school. I was hooked from then on – constantly hunting for rocks in the Philadelphia area, as well as on my Boy Scout camping trips and family vacations. I was the only scout in the Valley Forge Council at the time to have ever completed the geology merit badge. One summer my parents made the mistake of planning a vacation in the Whiteface Mountains of New York where I located an outcrop of shell fossils in shale. Our car may have been one of the first lowriders due to my new fossil collection. We took a vacation to Montreal, Canada for Expo “67 where I caught a giant sunfish in a lake and found a great book of biotite mica that I brought home. I had the rock polisher running all the time, joined a gem and mineral club, and learned how to make cabs. You know, you can make some really cheap gifts that look great and high school girls go nuts over, I don’t do that any more (the girls part).

I started college at St. Joe’s in Philadelphia as a chemistry major with the idea of getting my Master’s in geology. What I found out later was that all those kids were all Pre-med – way too smart for me, so I enrolled at Penn State and finished my degree in 1977. In college I took a 1credit class that taught me how to facet stones and liked the instructor enough to signup to do a little research on the color of opals for him on the SEM and TEM microscope.

My dad was a plumber, and he had me work with him to realize one thing – plumbing is a _ _ _ _ _ _ job. So, I always remember that the worst day as a geologist is better than the best day as a plumber, although you don’t get paid as much.

Alan Costello
Geologist