After having prominently served the oil industry in different parts of the world for more than 30 years, Dr. Stainforth retired from Creole Petroleum Corporation in August of this year. His departure from Venezuela will be sincerely deplored by the local geologists and micropaleontologists in particular, whose activities he has reported for the past seven years as correspondent for Venezuela for Micropaleontology.
As a consequence of his extensive studies of the microfaunas and stratigraphy of tropical America he very early recognized and pioneered the potential of planktonic foraminifera as ideal tools for worldwide correlation of Mesozoic and Tertiary strata. His many important papers and talks on this subject have had a lasting impact on much of the Tertiary stratigraphical work carried out by micropaleontologists over the last two decades. Scores of students and colleagues have sought his advice which he has always given freely and undoubtedly will be doing so in the future, since it seems highly unlikely that Dr. Stainforth will completely abandon his interest in micropaleontology and its application to stratigraphy. We, the geologists and micropaleontologists, shall certainly miss his presence here in Venezuela and wish him well after he moves to his new home in Victoria, B.C., Canada.