George G. Shor Jr., 86, the geophysicist whose studies of the ocean floor helped lay the foundation for the theory of tectonic plates and continental drift, died July 3 at his home in San Diego of complications following a series of strokes.
He helped develop the nation's fleet of ocean-going research vessels, was a principal in the abortive Project Mohole to drill a hole deep into the Earth, and played a key role in creation of the California Sea Grant program, which funds marine and coastal research.
"He mentored students ashore and at sea, but his strength was teaching people geophysics at sea," said geologist Robert L. Fisher, a professor emeritus at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, where Shor spent most of his career.
Shor joined Scripps in 1953 at the beginning of what researchers have dubbed the golden age of oceanography, in which research vessels from Scripps, Columbia University, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Cambridge University plied the oceans, trailing magnetometers and other sophisticated instruments to detect the overall structure of the ocean floor and anomalies beneath it. He began his work in the Gulf of Alaska, a region whose geologic history was little known, then led expeditions into the Indian Ocean.
During the International Geophysical Year in 1957 and 1958, he led expeditions to the southeast Pacific.
George Gershon Shor Jr. was born June 8, 1923, in New York City.
William Reedy, 72, a bar owner convicted of drunken driving in a crash that killed ex-New York Yankees, Detroit Tigers and Twins manager Billy Martin, died July 5.
Reedy had pancreatic cancer and died at his home in Milford, Mich.
Reedy was with Martin in a pickup that crashed near Martin's Binghamton, N.Y., farm on Christmas 1989. Reedy first said he'd been driving, then said he lied to protect Martin's reputation.
A jury found him guilty.
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