Skehan, James W.

James W. Skehan is professor emeritus in the Department of Geology and Geophysics at Boston College and director emeritus of Weston Observatory. The National Association of Geology Teachers named him Teacher of the Year in 1976. Skehan holds a doctorate in geology from Harvard University as well as a master's in theology from Weston College. As a Jesuit priest and geologist, he actively promotes dialogue between scientists and theologians. While studying Iceland's active geology in 1970, he officiated the first mass ever celebrated on Surtsey Volcano, a newly formed island in the North Atlantic.

Skehan fell irrevocably in love with field geology in 1946 on a trip through the red rocks, lavas, and glacial lake clays of the Connecticut Valley. Since then he has searched on several continents for clues as to how and when the mountains and ocean basins around the Atlantic evolved. When tectonic plates were identified in the 1960s, he came to understand that present-day continents were pieced together by the assembly and breakup successively of three supercontinents. Skean is the author of the Roadside Geology of Connecticut and Rhode Island. He died in 2020.