BOWDOINHAM — Arthur Mekeel Hussey II, 85, of Bowdoinham, Maine died peacefully at his home on July 26, 2016, surrounded by loved ones.

Art’s life was one full of science, teaching, travel, and big, gentle smiles for friends, family and, often, complete strangers.

Art was born in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania March 9, 1931, in the shadow of the Jones & Laughlin Steel Company, where his father worked as an electrician.

Art’s family traveled to Maine in the summers to vacation at Wells Beach at his mother’s family’s cottage, Knight’s Rest. He traced his interest in geology to these summers, when he played with (and studied) the cobbles and pebbles and observed the coming and going of beach sand along the sea wall in front of the cottage. Art could be found at Knight’s Rest through many summers and after winter storms until the late 1980s.

After graduating from Wells High School, he earned a B.S. in geology and mineralogy at Pennsylvania State University in 1954, where he won the W. A. Tarr Award for scholarship in the Earth Sciences. His graduate study at Harvard was interrupted by service as a first lieutenant in the United States Air Force from 1955 to 1957. He continued his graduate study at the University of Illinois, and was awarded his Ph.D. in 1961. In his studies, he became an early adherent to the then unproven but now widely accepted theory that continents drift around the globe over time. Before coming to Bowdoin College, Art was a visiting assistant professor at Purdue University in the 1960-61 academic year. He joined the Bowdoin faculty in 1961 as a visiting assistant professor of geology, became an assistant professor in 1962, associate professor in 1966, and was promoted to full professor in 1972.

The author of scores of papers and maps on the geology of Maine, Art remained professionally active until the time of his death. Art was a lecturer and scientific consultant on many statewide geologic projects, ranging from mapping the bottom of Casco Bay to tracing seismic movements along Maine fault lines. He was a longtime member of the Geological Society of America, the New England Intercollegiate Geological Conference, and a board member of the Maine Mineral and Gem Museum in Bethel. The Geological Society of Maine was formed during an informal meeting of colleagues in Art’s barn in Bowdoinham in 1974, and he served as the organization’s first president and publications editor.

He also served as a member of the S.A.D. 75 School Board.

During the summers, through a long association with the Maine Geological Survey, he systematically mapped the bedrock of southwestern Maine from Bath to Kittery. Through his career of more than five decades, Professor Hussey published 24 detailed bedrock maps, 6 regional maps, several thematic maps, was chief compiler for the 1967 Preliminary Bedrock Geologic Map of Maine, and was one of three editors for the 1985 Bedrock Geologic Map of Maine. Including his maps, he amassed more than 120 publications based on this work.

Throughout his career, Arthur collaborated with many geologists in New England and beyond, to piece together the geologic history of the Appalachian Mountains from vestiges now rimming the North Atlantic. Much of this geology would be yet unknown but for his work.

Art took great pride in his students and their accomplishments and delighted in introducing the geology of Maine to the layman through state park guidebooks and his 2015 publication, A Guide to the Geology of Southwestern Maine.

After stepping back from full time teaching and research, Arthur indulged his passion for trains. He served as a train host on the Amtrak Downeaster and as conductor, engineer, and board member of the Maine Narrow Gauge Railway, and took many cross-country rail journeys.

Never one to shun new challenges, he became an accomplished photographer and a lay expert on flowers of southwestern Maine, embraced personal computers, scanners and digital media well after retirement and travelled widely.

Arthur is survived by his children, Arthur Hussey III, of Fairbanks, Alaska, his wife Janet Daley, Nathaniel Hussey, of Matinicus Isle, Maine, his wife Megan Owen, Mary Stride, of Topsham, Maine, and her partner, Sabir Yapparov, as well as by his former wife, Ruby Hussey, with whom he still shared a caring connection, his grandchildren, Juliana “Jules” Daley-Hussey, Lydia “Olive” Twombly-Hussey, Fiona Twombly-Hussey, Ryan Twombly-Hussey, Liam Stride and Samuel Stride, his brother, Rowland Hussey, Jr. and sister-in-law Dorothy, along with many nieces and nephews near and far.