Halka (Pattison) Chronic
Marriages
John Chronic - 1948
Burial Details
Obituaries
Grand Junction Daily Sentinel page 5B Death Notice - April 18, 2013
Halka Chronic, 90, Grand Junction, died April 16, 2013, at Hospice
Care Center.
Services are pending with Fruita Funeral Home.
Survivors include four daughters, Felicie Williams, Betsy Greslin,
Emily Silver and Lucy Chronic.
Grand Junction Daily Sentinel page 6A - April 23, 2013
Halka Chronic of Grand Junct
i o n , C o l o r a d o p a s s e d a w a y
peacefully on April 16, 2013, surrounded
by her family.
She was born Helena Bainbridge
Pattison on February 26,
1923 to Sidney F. and Marylka
Modjeska Pattison in Tucson,
Arizona on a day when the daffodils
bloomed. She attended th e
University of Arizona, Stanford
University, and then received her
Ph.D. in Geology, focusing on
the fossils of Walnut Canyon,
Arizona, from Columbia University
in 1949. In 1948 she married
John Chronic. For the majority of
their marriage they resided in
Boulder, Colorado where they
raised four daughters. In 1985,
Halka moved to Sedona, Arizona
where she indulged her passion
for the red rocks. In 2006 she returned
to Colorado to be nearer her family.
Halka spent childhood summers in Corona del Mar, California with
her artist mother and her brother, Karl. Twice, Halka and her mother
drove cross-country to Cape Cod, Massachusetts. These happy times
were the basis for her passion for travel and sailing, and the development
of her skill as a watercolor painter.
With their home base in Boulder, she and her husband John also
traveled, spending a year at a time in Scotland, Ethiopia, Australia,
and Puerto Rico. After she and John separated she continued traveling,
going to Mexico, Norway, Poland, China, and Latin America,
and driving the Alaska Highway four times.
Her adventurous spirit had a strong impact on her career. Her
summer work with geologist Edwin McKee in the Grand Canyon
during the 1940s built the foundation for her future in geology . In
Ethiopia, Halka taught at Haile Selassie University, and when they
returned, she worked for eight years as a writer-editor at the National
Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder. When
they took their family to Sydney, Australia, she began writing geology
books. She also worked as a scientific editor for the Geological
Society of America.
In her beloved motor home she traveled independently throughout
the West to write the Roadside Geology books for Colorado, Utah ,
New Mexico, and Arizona; and three Pages of Stone books about
the geology of the western national parks and monuments. For "notable
journalistic achievement in communications contributing to
public understanding of geology", she received the Geosciences in
the Media Award in 2004 from the American Association of Petro -
leum Geologists.
Halka's strength of character, independence, and sense of humor
contributed to her incredibly creative life. In addition to being a scientist,
she was an artist and craftsperson. She painted beautif ul watercolors,
was a skilled weaver, ceramicist, needleworker, and pianist.
She taught her children and grandchildren and their friends
continually, expanding their horizons into natural history, travel,
music, art, and many other topics. She was also very involved with
hospitality for international students in Boulder. She gave great parties.
Above all she was a naturalist and a fiercely self-sufficient outdoorswoman
who can best be imagined walking the rocky arroyos
of Sedona, sailing in the Virgin Islands, painting while sitting on a
rock, or rafting the Grand Canyon.
Halka is survived by her four daughters, Emily Silver (Kevin); Felicie
Williams (Mike); Lucy Chronic (Chris Hinze), and Betsy
Greslin (Jim); her six grandchildren, Lindsay and Dylan Silver;
Amber and Wes Williams, and Betsy and Haley Hinze; her
sister-in-law, Frances Pattison, and brother-in-law, William Chronic,
and many nieces and nephews. She was predeceased by her parents;
her ex-husband, John and his parents; her brother, Karl Pattison, and
her son-in-law, Michael Williams.
In her memory, those who wish to may make a contribution may to
d o s o t o t h e N a t i o n a l P a r k s C o n s e r v a t i o n A s s o c i a t i o n ,
http://www.npca.org/.
A celebration of her life is pending in Sedona, Arizona. For details,
contact Felicie Williams at FelicieJ@aol.com. Services were entrusted
to Palisade Funeral Home.
