Dr. Duane F. Marble was awarded University Consortium of Geographical Information Science (UCGIS) Fellow status in recognition of his leadership, pioneering work in GIS, contributions to UCGIS, and his remarkable impact on the field of GIScience. He made an enormous contribution through his innovative, forward-looking, scientific approach to teaching and learning about GIS.

He earned three degrees from the University of Washington, and was awarded the Ph.D. in 1959. He served on the faculties of the University of Pennsylvania, Northwestern University, the State University of New York at Buffalo, and The Ohio State University. At Buffalo, he established the first formal research unit dealing with GIS and the first graduate program in geography providing a specialization in GIS.

Dr. Marble established the International Symposia on Spatial Data Handling which became one of the premier scientific meetings in the GIS area. Subsequently, he served as Chair of the IGU Commission on Geographical Data Sensing and Processing. Instructional GIS software that he created in the 1980s with colleagues Jay Sandhu and Sherry Amundson was in use by over 300 universities worldwide in the ‘90s.

During the course of his academic appointments, over seventy-five graduate students completed their degrees under his supervision with many of these later holding senior positions in academia, government, and industry. What separated Duane from many professors was his interest and involvement with his graduate students. He took an enthusiastic and supportive role as an advisor, a mentor, and a friend. His contribution to GIS education continued beyond his retirement by means of the establishment of the Marble Fund for Geographic Science (active in 2005). The Fund continues to support the William L. Garrison Award for Best Dissertation in Computational Geography and the Marble-Boyle Undergraduate Achievement Awards administered by the AAG.

Prof. Marble was instrumental in developing GIS as a strong, scientific academic endeavor and in 1993 he received an AAG Honors award for “seminal work in quantitative techniques, transportation geography, computer modeling and simulation, and for pioneering research in geographic information systems.” His leadership in the early 2000s as Chair of UCGIS’ Model Curriculum Task Force led to the widely known UCGIS GI Science and Technology Body of Knowledge. This grand effort is one of the hallmarks of the UCGIS organization. Even after retirement, his contributions to GIS education continued in his work to develop efficient, structured design methodologies for the implementation of GIS.

For later details on the accomplishments of Prof. Marble, see the obituary for Prof. Marble posted by The Ohio State University in 2022 and a memorial posted by the AAG.