A simple trip with his dad to a mining site sparked a lifelong journey for Douglas Pride.
Born and raised in Wisconsin, Pride spent much of his youth tagging alongside his father, a field man for a Wisconsin mining company. Pride learned much along the way, but one day he learned more than he expected.
“I was off playing in the rocks, and I started listening in on my father’s conversation. He was talking about how he had discovered a lead deposit, and I thought to myself, ‘How cool is that?'” Pride said. “That’s when I knew I wanted to pursue my career in geology.”
At the University of Wisconsin, Pride started a major in anthropology, thinking he was majoring in geology. A little clarifying and six years later, Pride graduated with a bachelor’s and master’s in geology. He went on to earn his doctorate in geology at the University of Illinois, where he taught for four years before becoming a Buckeye.
Pride has been at Ohio State for 31 years, he is involved in research and teaching in economic geology with an emphasis on mineral exploration, integrating data that range from postage stamps to continents. He occasionally teaches graduate geology courses and speaks at seminars, but his focus areas are 100- and 200-level geological science courses. He is also in the process of developing a new geology course – Geology and National Parks – for fall and spring quarter.
Pride has directed more than 30 masters and doctoral students in such places as Antarctica, Mexico, and Saudi Arabia, but he has focused on the western United States with more than half of the projects in the state of Colorado.
“Six or seven years ago I was on a geological trip in Colorado,” he said. “It was probably one of the most interesting places I’ve been because we were exploring for copper, molybdenum and gold.”
More than $750,000 in private funds have been spent recently by Pride and a colleague for core drilling and geophysical exploration on the copper-molybdenum-gold prospect at Red Cone Peak, located near the Continental Divide in central Colorado.
“Red Cone Peak has good potential, but we’re having trouble because people just don’t like mining these days,” Pride said. “I hate to say it, but the environmental impacts of mining have been studied so much that no one wants to do it anymore. Everyone would rather mine somewhere else, but we use so many resources here. It is something people don’t take very seriously, but Red Cone Peak really does have considerable potential for us.”
Matthew Saltzman, assistant professor of geology, is a friend and colleague of Pride. He said he talks frequently with Pride about his work.
“I have had nothing but good experiences with Pride,” Saltzman said. “I talk to him a lot about his work in Colorado, and I’m very happy about the work he has done here.”
Along with his current project in Colorado, Pride has worked on projects in the Antarctic peninsula and China.
On a 120-foot research vessel called The Hero, Pride has conducted resource evaluations off the islands of Antarctica and has given talks in China.
“Working in the Antarctic peninsula was really cool, but the place I probably enjoyed visiting the most was China,” he said. “I was with 25 people for three weeks. We spoke at seminars in Beijing about mineral exploration, and there is so much to see and do there.”
Pride said he does not visit these exotic places without taking time to enjoy the culture. He also said he enjoys traveling, meeting natives and visiting historic sites.
“I visited the Great Wall when I was in China, and we saw where the wall was left unfinished,” Pride said. “All of my colleagues were stuffing the unlaid bricks into their bags, but I took a brick, walked it to where the wall was unfinished and added it. It was just a little symbolic act of my own.”
Pride has also had the chance during his time off to ride a hoover up the Yangzi River to the Three Gorges Damn. He has had the chance to visit Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City.
Pride has a daughter enrolled at OSU and a son who is an alumnus.
He said he does not plan on retiring anytime soon.
“I can’t expect to make a discovery, but I sure do hope for it,” Pride said. “If I had already made a discovery, you think I’d be here? I’d be trout fishing on a beach somewhere.”
