Robert Dow Francis Cody (1935-2019)
CODY, TUCKER, MELESHKA, HAYES
Posted By: Mark Christian
Date: 5/17/2021 at 16:53:11
Obituary From Adams Soderstrum Funeral Home, Story County, Iowa.
Robert Dow Francis Cody, age 84, of Ames, passed away on Wednesday, June 12, 2019 at Green Hills Health Care Center in Ames.
Robert was born February 23, 1935 in Oklahoma City to Joseph Francis and Frances (Tucker) Cody. He graduated from John Carroll Elementary School in May 1949 and in 1953 from Bishop McGuiness High School where he won the Scholastic Art Award and a scholarship to study at the Layton School of Art in Milwaukee, Wisconsin while taking academic classes at Marquette University. In 1955, he set sail on the Queen Mary from New York to Paris, France where he studied at the Academy de La Grande Chaumiere under the direction of the world-renowned French sculptor, Osip Zadkine.
He returned to the states and completed an undergraduate degree in geology from St. Louis University in 1960, a M.A. degree in geology from the University of Wyoming in 1962 and a Ph.D. degree in Geology from the University of Colorado in 1968.
On July 16, 1967, Robert married fellow geologist, Anita Meleshka in East Meadow, New York. Their marriage was blessed with two children: Elizabeth in 1970 and Nicholas Robert in 1973. In September 1967, Robert began teaching geology at Iowa State University where he taught classes in chemical sedimentation, clay minerology, invertebrate paleontology, mineralogy, earth materials, aqueous geochemistry and contaminant hydrogeology. He taught at an NSF Summer Field Institute for Earth Science Teachers at Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico (1970) and at the ISU Karl Vondra Field Camp in Shell, Wyoming. He served as the thesis director to 26 ISU graduate students and obtained grants to support his research and their work. Grants from the Academy of Applied Sciences (1982-2000) supported the summer work of Ames High students growing crystals and working in his laboratory.
Among the many scientific papers that he published, he and Anita co-authored 18 publications and many lectures at scientific meetings. After the International Geologic Congress in Beijing, China, they traveled to Tibet, Nepal and Thailand. They also traveled to Russia, the Republic of Georgia, Cyprus, Egypt, Israel, Morocco, Mexico, most European and South American countries, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Hawaii and throughout the United States.
Robert retired from ISU as an Emeritus Professor of Geological and Atmospheric Sciences in 2001. He was a longtime member of the Order of the Knoll. It is requested that contributions in his name be made to the student scholarship fund in Geological Sciences at ISU.
Robert was preceded in death by his parents and his older brother, Joseph (Fr. Aelred Cody O.S.B.) He is survived by his wife, Anita; daughter, Elizabeth Cody and her husband, Brian Hayes D.V.M. (ISU) of rural Kalona and their children, Lily and Robbie Hayes; and son, Nicholas Robert Cody of Chicago. He is also survived by his good friend, Fred DeLuca, of Ames.
Robert has requested that he be cremated and that his cremains be buried in the rural English River Cemetery in Keokuk County, Iowa together with the Hayes family relatives that he enjoyed many good times with. A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Monday, July 1, 2019
at St. Cecilia Catholic Church, 2900 Hoover Ave., Ames. Funeral arrangements are under the direction of Adams Funeral Home. Condolences may be left at www.adamssoderstrum.com.
http://www.adamssoderstrum.com/
Story Obituaries maintained by Mark Christian.
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