How The West Was Won!

A native of Baytown in East Texas, Satterfield spent five years as an exploration geologist for Marathon Oil Company before earning his Ph.D. at Rice University and spending seven years teaching geology at San Jacinto College North – all in Houston. But the call of the west could not be ignored, and ASU was the perfect destination.

“I was looking for a teaching-oriented university farther west with better geological features nearby,” Satterfield. “As a geology student, I had already started going to places that were farther west. We would drive from Houston to Big Bend for field trips, but that was a 12-hour drive, which meant we couldn’t go very often.”

“Also, my wife, Alison, and I didn’t want to go north,” he added. “We wanted to avoid snow. We had never been to San Angelo until I interviewed at ASU, but we took the chance.”

When Satterfield arrived at ASU in 2003, the Department of Physics only offered two introductory geology courses. Along with the department chair, Dr. Andy Wallace, and former colleague Dr. James Ward, he built the program into a full Bachelor of Science degree in what is now the Department of Physics and Geosciences. A key component of that growth was the introduction of geology field trips, undergraduate research and, ultimately, summer Field Camp.

Field Camp is a five-week summer excursion to the west for senior geoscience majors, during which they explore, measure rock types, make maps, construct cross sections showing subsurface geology and write reports on geologic history. The first camp was in 2013, and this year will be the fifth.

“We do it every other year,” Satterfield said. “Only a baby being born and COVID got in the way. It’s such an involved process of doing a five-week field trip, but the students need the time in Field Camp to practice the skills that we’re teaching them. So every other year works fine.”

“Field Camp is the single best way to apply the geology that the students have learned in the classroom and on other shorter field trips.”

“The years students need to go to a field camp when we’re not doing one, they go all over the place,” he added. “Like one of my recent graduates, Ashton Dirner, who is one of our Field Camp instructors this year; she went to a field camp with the University of Alaska-Fairbanks. She even had to learn to use a shotgun to scare off grizzly bears!”

Though the itinerary is slightly different every time, Satterfield has favorite areas to take the 10-15 students who participate in each Field Camp, including sites in Big Bend National Park, the Chisos, Davis and Guadalupe Mountains, the Colorado Plateau in New Mexico, and caves and active gold-mining areas in Nevada.

“Field Camp is the single best way to apply the geology that the students have learned in the classroom and on other shorter field trips,” Satterfield said. “And since they are with us for an extended period, they get extended practice in what they’ve learned.”

The students also enjoy Field Camp so much that some of them can’t stay away.

“Many of our graduates come back to be instructors in our Field Camp, including Taylor Newton, Harrison Richardson and Ryan Sonntag this year,” Satterfield said. “What better opportunity for our graduates who are doing well, than to mentor our students and get them started in establishing a network that can lead to future jobs, as well as top graduate schools?”

In 2017, the Field Camp program got a tremendous boost when friends of ASU, Trey and Linda Berry, established the Berry Geology Field Camp Endowment to support it. The endowment has since grown to nearly $100,000.

“When they first approached me about establishing the endowment, they wanted my opinion on the best way to benefit our program,” Satterfield said. “It’s our education in the field. There is no better preparation for graduate school or careers. Plus, Field Camp is a capstone course that students only take once, but they remember it for the rest of their lives.”

To show their appreciation for how he has utilized their gift, the Berrys earlier this year asked that the endowment be renamed the Dr. Joseph Satterfield Geology Field Camp Endowment.

“I’m really honored by [the Dr. Joseph Satterfield Geology Field Camp Endowment]. I can’t think of anything more meaningful regarding what I’ve done at ASU and with our students.”

“I still sometimes call it the Berry Endowment, but I’m getting used to the new name,” Satterfield said. “I’m really honored by it. I can’t think of anything more meaningful regarding what I’ve done at ASU and with our students. I’m also very pleased to be associated with the Berry Family in this way – their gift to me.”

Satterfield has also been honored by his peers, earning several ASU President’s Awards for Faculty Excellence, a West Texas Distinguished Educator Award from the Southwest Section of the American Association of Petroleum Geologist (AAPG), and a Professorial Award for Excellence in Teaching of Natural Resources and Earth Sciences from the AAPG Foundation.

Sadly, this year’s Field Camp was Satterfield’s last as he has announced his retirement and already been conferred the title of Professor of Geology Emeritus by the Texas Tech University System Board of Regents. But he can still be found around campus as he works to complete various research projects he started over the years with his students – and to get them published.

“That will get our names and ASU’s name out there by having our work in geoscience journals,” he said. “Even in this year’s Field Camp, we tied up some loose ends that will go into a map to be published by the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology.”

Heading west has proven to be a life-changing move for Satterfield, as has his decision to make Angelo State his base of operations.

“I tell people at least once a month that this has been my dream job.”

“The single most worthwhile thing I do is talking individually with students,” Satterfield said. “It could be that the classes, field trips and everything else are just to get to the point where I can have those really rewarding and sometimes really heart-to-heart conversations that, I’m pretty sure, make a difference in their lives.

“I tell people at least once a month that this has been my dream job.”