Dr. Lee C. Gerhard

Dr. Lee C. Gerhard, 87, passed away peacefully on April 12, 2025, during his afternoon nap with The Masters Tournament playing in the background. The night before, he played Scrabble with his grandson Patrick and dear companion Margaret Officer, enjoyed a glass of Scotch, and baked an apple pie—a fitting farewell for a man who lived life with joy, intellect, and intention.

Born in Albion, NY, and raised on a dairy farm, Lee was a renowned geologist, author, artist, and adventurer. His distinguished career in geology spanned academia, government, and private industry. He served as State Geologist of both North Dakota and Kansas and was Director of the Kansas Geological Survey from 1987 to 1999. Earlier in his career, he held tenured faculty appointments at several universities, chaired a geology department, and consulted widely for the energy sector. He worked as a petroleum geologist and executive in the oil and gas industry and later founded his own exploration consulting firm, Gerhard and Associates. He held key roles with the American Association of Petroleum Geologists and earned numerous professional honors. In the later part of his career, he turned his focus to environmental science, sharing the life cycle of the earth and nature’s changes on a geological time scale. His parents taught him to question all dogma, test theories with data, and consider alternative explanations. He continued to do so, defending the integrity of rational science and authoring more than 200 scientific publications throughout his career.

Beyond geology, Lee was a fly fisherman, hunter, bridge player, artist, and world traveler. He also found quiet joy in watercolor painting, and for many years hand-painted his family’s Christmas cards—each one a small window into the beauty he saw in the world. True to his adventurer’s heart, Lee walked on all seven continents and dipped his toes in every ocean.

He was preceded in death by his wife, Darcy, in 2020 and is survived by his daughter, Tracy Abrams; son-in-law, Matt; and grandchildren, Meghan and Patrick, all of Franklin, Tennessee; his brother, Glen Gerhard; sister, Judy Sorce; and his cherished companion, Margaret Officer. His absence leaves a quiet in the world he loved so deeply, but his life’s work and spirit continue to resonate in the landscapes he studied, the stories he told, the art he created, and the family and friends who loved him.

A memorial celebrating Dr. Gerhard’s life will be held at Bethlehem United Methodist Church in Franklin, TN, where he was a member, a participant in the Omni Sunday School class, and had recently been commissioned as a Stephen Minister. Services will be held on Friday, May 2nd, with visitation from noon to 1:00 p.m. and the service beginning at 1:00 p.m.