Henry W. Roehler was born in Fairmont on Nov. 26, 1928, the son of Carrie (Reinke) Roehler and William (Bill) Roehler. He grew up at the sheriff’s residence, while his father was sheriff of Martin County. He attended Central School and Fairmont High School. In 1947 he graduated from Fairmont High School, where he enjoyed playing football. A few days after graduation he joined the U.S. Army and was assigned to Headquarters Company, 5th Division, at Fort Jackson, S.C. In 1949, he attended Gustavus Adolphus College. In 1950, he was recalled to the U.S. Army and served in the medical corps in Japan treating Korean War wounded. In 1952, he attended the University of Wyoming, where he received a BS Degree in 1954 and an MA Degree in 1958 in geology. Between 1954 and 1964, he worked as an oil and gas exploration geologist and district geologist for Mountain Fuel Supply Company in Rock Springs, Wyo. In 1958, he married Salley Johnson in Rock Springs. From 1964 to 1966, he did oil shale research for the Bureau of Mines in Laramie, Wyo. In 1966, he joined the U.S. Geological Survey in Denver, Colo. In 1992, he retired from the U.S. Geological Survey and moved back to Fairmont, where he resided until his death.

Henry became an Eagle Scout, 1944. In 1945, he was a canoe guide for the Boy Scouts in the Boundary Waters area along the U.S.-Canadian Border. In 1953, he collected and later mounted the skeleton of Mesohippus, a two-foot-tall, three-toed, 30-million-year-old ancestor of the modern horse. The skeleton is on display at the University of Wyoming Geological Museum. Elected to Sigma Xi (science honorary) in 1956. Received the A. I. Leverson Award for the best paper presented at the 1979 annual meeting of American Association of Petroleum Geologists. He was listed in Who’s Who in the American West in 1982 and included in Personalities of America in 1983. He was an authority on the geology of southwest Wyoming and northwest Colorado, where he mapped the geology of extensive areas and explored for oil and gas, oil shale, coal, zeolites, and other mineral deposits. He named and described 11 new Eocene (50-million-year-old) geologic formations. In 1978 and 1984, he explored for and discovered vast coal resources on the North Slope of Alaska. During his career, he lectured to a number of geologic societies and to students at the University of California and the University of Wyoming. He published 91 technical papers and 13 books on various geologic subjects. His publications are listed on the internet and can be found in several foreign countries and most university libraries. An internet overview of his publications lists “153 works in 413 publications with 15,846 library listings.” His extensive fossil collections are located at the Smithsonian Institution, the University of Wyoming, and Gustavus Adolphus College.

He is survived by his wife Salley, daughter Susan Lesser, three grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren, and numerous nieces and nephews. He was the sole survivor of his immediate family.

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