Dr. M. Turhan “Tury” Taner passed away Saturday, February 6, 2010, in Houston, Texas at the age of 82. Dr. Taner will be laid to rest next to his parents in Istanbul, Turkey. A memorial service will be held after his family returns from Turkey at Emerson Unitarian Church, 1900 Bering Dr. on Sunday, March 21st at 3:00 pm.
Turhan was born in Akhisar, Turkey to Izzet and Kadriye Taner. He received a Diplome Engineer in 1950 from the Technical University of Istanbul and came to the United States in 1953 to the University of Minnesota for a postgraduate program in engineering. He co-founded Scientific Computers in 1959, and in 1964 co-founded Seiscom Delta, a geophysical service company, where he served as chairman, director of research, and later, senior VP for technology. In 1980 he started Seismic Research Corporation (SRC), and in 1998 SRC merged with Petrosoft and Discovery Bay to create Rock Solid Images. Widely known within the geophysical community, Tury was the recipient of numerous accolades including the SEG’s highest award, the Maurice Ewing Medal in 1993 and The EAGE’s highest recognition, the Desiderius Erasmus Award for lifetime contribution in 2004. Tury was a pioneer, teacher, scholar, great practitioner and a household name in geophysics. During his career he authored or co-authored several groundbreaking papers on geophysical methods and contributed to the development of many technologies still in use today. In addition to his passion for creating and developing geophysical algorithms such as semblance and multitudes of other seismic attributes, he loved music, food and wine, traveling, art, and soccer, but most of all, he loved his friends and family.
Tury is survived by his loving family, including his son Jeffrey Taner and wife Andrea; daughter Jane Harris and her husband Christopher; son John Taner and his wife Julie; sister Turcan Sozeri; niece Selen Ozel and her husband Haluk; grandchildren Adam Harris, Emily Taner, Lilly Taner, Daniel Taner, Jack Taner; great-niece Beren Ozel, and great-nephew Devin Ozel.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations in honor of Dr. M. Turhan Taner be made to the National Parkinson Foundation, 1501 NW 9th Avenue, Bob Hope Road, Miami Florida 33136-1494, or online at www.parkinson.org.
19 comments:
Not surprisingly my best memories of you are having great meals and wonderful wine discussing your experiences in the world and the beauty that surrounds us. You were always gracious, witty and never were without tasty chocolates. You will be missed.
Jason Tinder
Hard to put into words the loss I feel of a dear friend and colleague of many years. You always came to the office with a smile on your face and a twinkle in your eyes. Thank you, Tury, for sharing your love of music, art, wine, Turkish food, Sammy stories, and zest for life. May you rest in peace!
My deepest condolences from Japan. First, about twenty years ago, I met you in our office in Tokyo. These several years, I often visited your office in RSI.
You were talking always with a smile and bright eyes about new technical methods and attributes.
T.Inamori
I followed in my father's footsteps to become a geophysicist. My father, Kelly McWhorter, who passed away in 1982, told me several times about how much he enjoyed a long conversation he and Tury held on an air flight, when they were sitting next to each other. Tury will be remembered for a very long time.
A great friend and mentor that will be sorely missed. Very few are so good at so much. I look forward to sharing memories of you with your friends over a good wine. You are remembered fondly.
slán go fóill Tury.
Early in my career Tury was one of my mentors not only in geophysics but his zest for life made a lasting impression on me. I will always remember that smile and twinkle in his eyes when we were together. You are deeply missed and thanks for the memories.
Ron Casso
I always observed you from a distance and knew of you through your work and publications. We did not interact much other than a friendly greet when visiting RSI for the LFP consortium. The image of you I'll carry with me is one of a gentleman - a knowledgeable man - someone respected and loved by his peers and colleagues.
Andrew Dippenaar, PetroSA, South Africa
Tury was a Gentleman in the greatest sense. We met in Paris where I was working and he was visiting. My wife and I guided him to good restaurants (we like good food too) and he thanked us by sending us to the Cafe Royal in London (frequented by the likes of Winston Churchill, Oscar Wilde and Tury Taner!). We had a wonderful evening.
Tury made Geophysical concepts sound simple and understandable and I learnt a lot from him over the years.
He will be greatly missed both professionally and as a friend. Please send my condolensces to Jeff and the whole Family.
Jim Martin
I have been honoured to meet Tury. He teaches me a lot of things. He has been one of the most important person in my working and not only, life.
Tury, I will remember you forever.
I first met Tury on a boat trip up the Bosphorus where we sat regarding the belly dancer after our meal. We struck up a conversation about wavelets and inversion, and that was the way to his heart, but it was not until we became colleagues at Rock Solid Images that our friendship blossomed. He was so helpful and innovative and we shared a common goal of the invention of new ideas in geophysical processes. We met socially over wine and cheese and talked a lot about "the creator". I will miss him dearly.
My first memorable professional encounter with Tury was over a disagreement on which color bar to use for illuminating a seismic volume. He insisted on a choice of black and white, even though a multi-colored colormap would have done the better job. We “argued” in front of the client – a friend of ours. Only later, after the meeting had ended, did Tury tell me that he was essentially color-blind from a cataract of the eye that had left him only able to discern contrast for the most part. Over the coming years he would frequently invite me to his office on Friday afternoons under what seemed to be some sort of pretense to discuss a technical topic, but he would soon steer the discussion toward philosophical and faith questions that were subsequently debated for at least an hour at the time. Most of these debates ended with the consensus that we agreed to disagree. Only later, after he had taken seriously ill, did I realize that he must have silently condoned many of these views. A few months before his death, he agreed to a bedside meeting in his home. Since salvation is predicated on faith, not on action, I quoted the two required key steps to stay in heaven from Romans 10:9. The famous twinkle in his eyes told me that he was not blind after all. This is for you, Adam.
The industry will miss this true pioneer and giant, amongst us. He gave me my first job in the industry and for the next 30 years he led the way. We are all better for having known him and his work, ideas, and his memory will last me forever. RIP Tury.
Tom Walker
I met Tury sometime in the mid 1990's when Shell joined his RSI consortium. Even though I knew of him earlier through his publications, it was a thrill to personally meet him and discuss geophysics. His knowledge of science and his ability to bring in new technologies for applications in geophysics were amazing. The world has truly lost a great geophysicist. May his family have enough strength to bear this loss.
Sandhya Devi
Farewell to a great teacher. Tury is leaving us wit the great legacy.
We, the geophysicists of the world, are reminded every day of his work
when doing velocity analysis or calculating semblance.
Condolences to the family.
John Petrovic
Chief Geophysicist
Hunt Oil Company of Canada
He was afine man
The world lost not only a great geophysicist, but a great lover of jazz and a fairly decent jazz guitarist. While at the University of Minnesota, Tury hosted a jazz radio show. Later when he consulted for us at the Amoco Research Center, we reserved our evenings to hear Tommy Crook play jazz guitar. Keep on pickin, Tury!
We are saddened by the passing of Tury. He was the role model for the phrase "gentleman and scholar". Tury will be missed greatly by the geophysical community. His contributions to the science do not end with his passing but will remain the basis for substantial future advancement.
Our sincere condolences to Jeff, Jane, John, and their families.
Sincerely,
Ray and Judy Farrell
I always enjoyed my conversations with Tury which revealed a deep understanding on many topics. His significant contributions to geophysics will live on for a long time to come.
On a more personal level Tury impressed me with his intellectual integrity and humble spirit. The twinkle in his eyes also revealed an intellectual curiosity that was obvious when topics of interest came up.
He will be missed on both an intellectual and personal level.
When I worked for CogniSeis Development in the '80s-'90s, Dr. Taner's Seismic Development Corp. was in the same building and some of his software was sold under license through CSD to our clients. Whenever I did technical training for clients and they also used SDC software I would ask Tury if he would give an overview of his products. He always assented and would spend anywhere from 2 hours to a half day with them, and I learned a lot from sitting in on some of those sessions. Also, when I got laid off in 1994 Tury wrote a glowing letter of recommendation for me to use in my future job search. I still have a copy. I will miss Doctor Taner and send sincerest condolences to his family and workmates.
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