Richard Bøgvad, 1897-1952

Abstract

Richard Bøgvad, a Fellow of the Arctic Institute since December 1950, died suddenly from a heart attack on 7 August 1952 when on a mountain trip near Ivigtut in south Greenland. Sidney Richard Emil Bøgvad was born in Frederiksberg, Copenhagen, on 21 November 1897. In 1924 he began his lifelong association with the Kryolitselskabet Øresund A/S (the Cryolite Company in Copenhagen, then called Øresunds chemiske Fabriker) in a clerical position. He was generously permitted to spend part of his time on studies at the University of Copenhagen, and received his degree in 1931. Even before his graduation he had been employed in research at the company's laboratory, and in 1929 he was sent to northeast Greenland to investigate a reported occurrence of cryolite. Various circumstances forced the expedition to winter in the Arctic, and Bøgvad took the opportunity to carry out geological field work in little-known areas of northeast Greenland. After 1931 Bøgvad, who later became Chief Geologist at the Cryolite Company, spent practically every summer in southwest Greenland examining the cryolite at Ivigtut and searching for new deposits in the vicinity. Bøgvad was one of the few Danish geologists who was connected with the mining industry, and it was therefore both natural and fortunate that he should take part in the founding of Grønlands geologiske Undersøgelse (Geological Survey of Greenland) in 1946. Later he became one of the geological advisers to the company which is now exploring the lead deposits at Mestersvig in east Greenland. The small mining industry on the Faroe Islands has also profited from Bøgvad's advice. As well as being an able and conscientious economic geologist, Bøgvad was deeply interested in pure science. This led him to take part in Dr. Knud Rasmussen's Sixth and Seventh Thule expeditions to southeast Greenland, in the summers of 1932 and 1933, respectively. Bøgvad published a large number of articles on new minerals, most of them from the cryolite deposit, and on geological subjects of a more general character. Richard Bøgvad will always be remembered for his upright character and for the high quality of his work.