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Peter Misch

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Sink hole in lower Challenger Glacier, north slope of Mt. Challenger

Peter Hans Misch was a University of Washington geologist and professor whose research spanned three continents over 50 years. He is especially well known for his research and mapping of the North Cascade mountains of Washington state. Misch was born in Berlin, Germany in 1909. In 1932, at the age of 23, he earned his Ph.D. in Geology from Göttingen University with his investigation of the metamorphic petrology of the central Pyrenees mountains.

In 1934, Misch was asked by Willy Merkl to be the geologist for the German expedition to Nanga Parbat in the western Himalayas. Part of his work during the expedition concerned researching the petrology of the Himalayas. After his return to Germany, Nazi officials ordered that he surrender all his research to the government. Misch did not comply with the order, and instead began looking for a teaching position abroad. In 1935, he accepted the chair of structural geology at Sun Yat-Sen University in Canton, China. Misch and his students studied and mapped areas of Yunnan province until he left for the United States in 1946.

Misch was teaching at Stanford University when he met Professor Goodspeed of the University of Washington and discovered that they were both members of a minority of geologists who supported the theory of granitization. In 1947, Misch accepted an appointment as assistant professor at the University of Washington. While at the university, Misch became the leading authority on North Cascades geology which had been mapped only superficially prior to his arrival on the scene. During his tenure he engaged in on-going projects to map the geology of the range, supported by grants from the GSA (Geological Society of America). Summers were spent in the mountains engaged in exploratory climbing and rock specimen collecting, often on field trips with his graduate students in support of their thesis research. He wrote, published, and lectured extensively on North Cascade geology, especially metamorphic petrology, for nearly 40 years. By the end of his time at the University of Washington, Misch had supervised the research of over 125 graduate students.

Misch was also active outside of the university setting. During the 1950's, he worked as a research consultant for Union Oil of California mapping areas in Oklahoma and around the Great Basin that included eastern Nevada, western Utah, and southern Idaho. He was an advisor for the Bechtel Corporation in the proposed development of a nuclear power plant in the Skagit Valley of Washington state.

Peter Misch retired from the University of Washington in 1981 but continued his geological research up to the very last months of his life. He died on July 23, 1987.

Some images from Misch's collection.