Lill, Gordon G.

Gordon G. Lill (1918-1996) was a geophysicist who worked as an oceanographer for the Office of Naval Research after World War II, Lockheed Aircraft Corporation in the early 1960s, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) from 1970 until he retired. During 1949-1950, he conducted mineralogical surveys in West Africa. At the request of the National Science Foundation, in 1964, he became director of Project Mohole, a pure science endeavor to drill a hole 35,000 feet to the earth's mantle in the Pacific Ocean to learn more of the earth's composition and origin. Once Congress denied continued funding of the project, Lill briefly returned to Lockheed as a senior science advisor before becoming deputy director of NOAA.

Marine Geologist. Head Geophysics Branch, U.S. Office of Naval Researach, 1947-1959; research advisor, Lockheed Aircraft Corp., 1960-1964 and 1966-1970; director, Project Mohole, National Science Foundation, 1964-1966; dep. director, National Ocean Survey, National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Admin., 1970-1979.

Gordon G. Lill, born 1918, was a geophysicist by training and an oceanographer by experience. Once he received his bachelor’s degree in geology from Kansas State University, he joined the Naval Reserves prior to American involvement in World War II. His geologic education earned him a training position at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. Working briefly in the Panama Canal Zone experimenting with bathythermographs to help further underwater sonar technology, he then was transferred to the Atlantic Fleet Force Bureau of Ships in Norfolk, Virginia. After World War II, Lill returned to Kansas State for a master’s in Sedimentary Petrology, then set off in 1949 to Western Africa with fellow geological scientists he met during the war to conduct mineralogical surveys until 1950. He next worked for the Office of Naval Research, in Washington D.C., funding educational institutions across the United States to develop oceanographic and earth science research programs. During this time he was Chairman of the United States Committee on Oceanography for the International Geophysical Year, a professional organization that fostered international research of the oceans to promote science and industry related projects.

Lill became an advisor to Lockheed Aircraft Corporation in Burbank, California, in 1960 to lead the company in the new research oceanography was contributing to the fields of engineering and naval defense. While at Lockheed, he was appointed to the California Advisory Commission on Marine and Coastal Resources and later became Vice Chairman of the Commission. He left Lockheed in 1964 for two years to become director of Project Mohole at the request of the National Science Foundation. Mohole was a pure science project to drill a hole 35,000 feet to the earth’s mantle to find out more of the earth’s composition and origin. Lill and other scientists originally conceived of the idea while he still worked at the Office of Naval Research. Data supported drilling in the Pacific Ocean where the earth’s mantle was elevated and covered by less sediment, but the site also required extensive technology to create a stationary platform for drilling in the deep ocean.

Congress stopped funding the Project Mohole in 1966 but not until test sites were already worked and extensive engineering technology created for shallow water sedimentary drilling. Lill returned to Lockheed until 1970 when he again took a government position as Deputy Director of the National Ocean Survey Branch of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, another scientific research program that evolved into the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA. He remained in this position until he retired. Lill died in 1996 in Santa Barbara, California.