Denis Felton
Lower Grand Coulee Chapter President I was born and raised in Spokane, WA, where I spent many years during high school and college working part time at a plant nursery. My secondary education combines a mixture of machine shop studies, natural resources, general studies and one year in criminal justice at EWU and the Law Enforcement academy. In the summer of 1983, I was hired as a park aide at the Liberty Lake Regional Park with Spokane County. In 1986 I was hired as a park aide at Riverside State Park in Spokane, and after being introduced to the Park Ranger position I was hooked. The winter of 1987, I attended the Parks Law Enforcement academy in Everett, WA, a requirement to become a Ranger. Following the academy, I landed a seasonal Park Ranger position with the National Park Service and spent the next 3 years working on the Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area as a Law Enforcement Ranger. In 1990, I returned to Washington State Parks at Riverside State Park as a Park Ranger and in the spring of 2004, I was promoted to the Park Manager of Sun Lakes / Dry Falls State Park. In 2012, I became the Area Manager of the Coulee Corridor Area State Parks where I became involved with the Coulee Corridor Consortium (Coulee Corridor National Scenic Byway group). I also became involved with the Lower Grand Coulee Chapter of the Ice Age Floods Institute (IAFI), where I currently serve as the president of the Chapter. This May will mark 18 years for me in the Coulee Corridor Area State Parks and I still love going to work every day. I married my beautiful wife Carrie, a Home Healthcare Aide in 1988, and we have 2 adult children, Christine, 29, and Katie, 27. I also stay busy as a volunteer firefighter for Grant County Fire District 7 and am active as the Vice President and Chief Shop Steward of our Parks Statewide Local Union.
Consuelo Larrabee
As a child, riding on the old pre-1-90 road from Spokane to Seattle through such flat & uninteresting country was so boring…until I learned how that land was formed! Wow! “Flat & Boring” no more! I am a member of the Wenatchee Erratics and the Cheney-Spokane chapters, and a member-at-large of the IAFI Board. I co-authored the content for the information panels in the Riverfront Park Ice Age Floods Playground in Spokane. And I proselytize the Floods story everywhere I go! I found great satisfaction and stimulation in my career teaching deaf children. I particularly like puppies, baseball and bright, sunny days, and I advocate passionately for animal rights, human rights, and the arts.
Dale Lehman
Puget Lobe Chapter President The geologic landscape east of the Cascades has always fascinated me. I was introduced to the Ice Age Floods story by Mike Folsom, Dale Stradling and Gene Kiver while I was an undergraduate at Eastern Washington University. Since that time, I have made a personal commitment to sharing the story with other people, beginning with my own 101 students and continuing after retirement with my involvement with the Puget Lobe Chapter of IAFI.
Jane Walpole
IAFI Director I was blessed to be raised in the San Joaquin Valley when water was plentiful and the air was clean. On a good day, I could stand in my driveway and see the Sierra Nevada range to the East, and the Coast Range to the west. On weekends the family would pile into our VW Beetle and drive drive for hours through the mountains. Mom loved geology, and would tell us what she knew about the rock formations we drove by. Geology was in my blood by the time I entered college. I took science courses the first three years of college at Fresno State. I couldn’t get enough Biology and Geology, so I decided to do a double major and choose a career path later on. Family plans changed, and we moved to Portland. Field trips were no longer as much fun because the rocks were buried under vegetation, and it was usually wet and cold. So, I changed course, and seven years later became a dentist. I loved my career, but never lost my passion for geology,. Decades later, I am able to spend time studying the Missoula Floods with a great group of like minded geology enthusiasts. I love telling children about the geology of the North West, and hope to write a book that will inspire them to explore this fascinating corner of the world.
Brent Cunderla
Brent Cunderla: Technical Committee Member While I was in Portland, Oregon, I began my career as a geologist with the Department of the Interior (USDI) Bureau of Land Management (BLM). In 1988 BLM transferred me to the Wenatchee Field Office as the Area Geologist where I stayed until retiring in 2015. Being located in Wenatchee allowed close proximity to explore features of the late Pleistocene glacial geology, particularly the Ice Age Floods features, especially the Channeled Scabland of eastern Washington. I worked with the National Park Service and Ice Age Floods Institute on the designation of the “Ice Age Floods-National Geologic Trail” which was authorized as a NPS unit in March 2009. I continue to give numerous talks and lead field trips to educate the public emphasizing the Geology of the Columbia Basin, Ice Age Floods, Channeled Scabland, and glacial geology of the Waterville Plateau.
Ken Lacy
IAFI Board Member Emeritus Geology has always interested me but I didn’t pursue it because life led me in a different direction, and I got a business degree at the U of WA. In the ’90’s, my wife and I often came over to the Gorge Amphitheater for concerts, and on the way home from a James Taylor concert one day, along Highway 28, we saw a view of the Columbia we couldn’t resist. We had no idea what the cliffs and Crescent Bar were all about. Just that it was beautiful, and there were no houses along the cliff taking advantage of that view! We bought the best acre, built a house, and at the Quincy Farmer Consumer Awareness Days fall festival in 2000, met Charlie Mason who was giving geology tours for the festival. And we were hooked! We became founding members and officers of the Wenatchee Valley Erratics, the first chapter of the Ice Age Floods Institute. I learned everything I could from Charlie, shared his enthusiasm, and eventually took over many of his tours. We now share that enthusiasm with as many as we can. We’ve even had an international group for dinner in 2016 who were researching the Drumheller Channels for the landing of the 2020 Mars Landrover for NASA! And we still wake up to that beautiful view of the Columbia River, basalt cliffs, and the West Bar Giant Current Ripples every morning. Only NOW we know what they are!
Gene Kiver
IAFI Director, ExComm & TechComm Member I received my BS from Case-Western Reserve and my Doctorate at the Univ. of Wyoming where I studied alpine glaciation in the Medicine Bow Mountains of Colorado and Wyoming, and I taught geology at Eastern Washington Univ. for 34 years. My Cheney home is located on a pendant bar in the midst of the Cheney-Palouse Scabland Tract. I attended the early formative meetings of the IAFI in Spokane with a number of geologists and representatives from various agencies and organizations that recognized that the Ice Age Floods story should be more broadly known by the general public. From these meetings a non-profit group called the Ice Age Floods Institute (IAFI) was established to encourage support for the National Park Service to take the major role in telling the story of the Ice Age floods. I joined the fledgling organization in the early years and have served on its Board for many years. With the assistance of the President of EWU Steve Jordan, and especially his wife Ruth, the establishment of the Cheney-Palouse Chapter, which later became the Cheney-Spokane Chapter, was formed. I now spend most of my time living in Anacortes where the Puget Ice Lobe smothered the west side of the state. I return several times a year to my Cheney house on the pendant bar. Ironically, the chaotic conditions that formed the pendant bar have now led to a place of tranquility.
Jim Shelden
Glacial Lake Missoula Chapter President, TechComm Member I was raised in the western United States, the second son of a USGS topographical surveyor and a cow girl from Chilly Flats Idaho. Moved twice a year attending many schools in many places. I attended college at the University of Idaho getting a BS in Geology. Go Vandals I’ve worked as an Engineering Geologist on stability landslides, logging roads soil lab and geophysics. Also as a Government Minerals Specialist for the BLM then the Forest Service on mineral law, permits regulation and environmental requirements, as well as Coal, Oil and Gas, Clays, and hard rock placer. I moved into management supervising lands and minerals specialists. My last job was Regional Geologist for Region 1 of the Forest Service’s geology program for caves, groundwater, paleontology, and I supervised the national training of the Geology Minerals Program for the Forest Service. I retired in 2009
Tony Lewis
Coeur du Deluge Chapter President I have a BS from West Chester State College, a MS from Oregon State University and a PhD from the University of Kansas. Most of my professional career was in the Department of Geography and Anthropology at Louisiana State University where I retired as Professor Emeritus in 2008. Shortly after my wife Barbara and I moved to North Idaho in 2008, my daughter, Sharon, introduced me to the Ice Age Floods Institute and to Sylvia White, the President of the local IAFI chapter (Coeur du Deluge). How could I not be interested in such a topic, such a group? After several years, Sylvia needed a VP and asked me to serve. I agreed, and six months later she moved to pursue career opportunities. Consequently, I assumed the role as, and later was elected as, chapter president. I had the pleasure of working with Roy Breckenridge, truly an expert on the Ice Age Floods and Geology of Idaho, and one of Roy’s students, Dean Garwood. Field trips with both of them were enlightening as they freely shared their knowledge with me and so many others. Although, I consider myself a neophyte when it comes to knowledge of the Ice Age Floods, I try to continue to conduct/arrange field trips and talks on the Ice Age Floods following their tradition.
Norm Smyers
IAFI Director Emeritus I was one of the founding members of the Ice Age Floods Institute. I was Glacial Lake Missoula Chapter President for two-years. I worked as a geologist for the U.S. National Forest Service (Custer NF, Lolo NF, Siuslaw NF and Inyo NF) and the Bureau of Land Management (Winnemucca, NV and Montrose, CO). I’m retired and living in Missoula, MT.