Richard Ernest Rowland

May 21, 1934 - September 12, 2023

Richard Ernest Rowland 89, of Los Altos, Calif., passed away on September 12, 2023. He was born May 21, 1934 in Glendale, Calif., at Cedars Sinai Hospital. He was preceded in death by his father, Dewey Rowland originally of Texas and Clara Schorsch originally of Oklahoma. He was also preceded in death by his wife, Alice McKee Rowland on September 6, 2011. He was also preceded in death by his brother, William Rowland in November of 2020. He is survived by his son, Jeffrey Rowland of Los Altos, Calif.

He graduated Glendale High School in 1952 and then got his bachelor’s of science in Geology from Leland Stanford Junior University in 1956. From there he started his career in the oil industry with Marathon Oil and started working in southern California. From there he moved on to places such as Louisiana and worked with the Army Corps of Engineers and then onto Libya for other oil companies and then finally back to California. He also did some of the initial geology work for the Navajo Coal Power plant in Page, Arizona. In 1968, he started his Master’s in Environmental Geology and then graduated in 1970. He was self-employed in southern California until 1972, which is when he moved back up to the San Francisco Bay Area. He then continued to be self-employed until 1975, he then started working for the geotechnical company called Terrasearch. He worked for them until 2001, when he finally retired.

His interests included skiing, hiking, traveling, environmental causes and volunteering with places like POST, FILOLI and MidPeninsula Open Space Preserve. He also cared about political issues such as the Israeli-Palestinian issue and separation of church as state. When it came to hiking, he loved to hike in places around the Bay Area such as Black Mountain in San Mateo county and the San Mateo coast area as well as many open space areas in the south bay as well. For a long time, he took a yearly backpacking trip in the southern Sierras near Bishop, usually with his brother and childhood friend, Paul Carlton. He traveled to many countries as well as places in Asia, including; Thailand, China, Pakistan, Mongolia, India, Jordan and the 5 Stans. He traveled in Europe including Russia, England, Ireland, as well as visiting family in Germany. He also went to Antarctica twice. He skied most often in the Lake Tahoe area of the Sierra Nevada’s. But also combined his traveling and skiing with going to France, Vail Colorado, Steamboat Springs Colorado, Sun Valley Idaho and others. In his later years, he volunteered at the Nature Center at Coyote Point and as a docent at FILOLI.

There will be a memorial service on Friday, January 12th, 2024 at Crippen & Flynn Carlmont Chapel in Belmont, California at 1:00 p.m., followed by a short reception at the same chapel. At 3:30 p.m. after the memorial service there will be a short inurnment at the Christ Episcopal Church of Los Altos.