Peter Misch Photographs, approximately 1930-1960

Peter Hans Misch was a University of Washington geologist and professor whose research spanned three continents over 50 years. He is especially well known for his research and mapping of the North Cascade mountains of Washington state.

Peter Hans Misch was born in Berlin, Germany in 1909. His father Georg was professor of philosophy at Göttingen University, and his grandfather on his mother's side was the famous German philosopher Wilhelm Dilthey. In 1932, at the age of 23, he earned his Ph.D. in Geology from Göttingen University with his investigation of the metamorphic petrology of the central Pyrenees mountains.

In 1934, Misch was asked by Willy Merkl to be the geologist for the German expedition to Nanga Parbat in the western Himalayas. Part of his research during the expedition concerned the petrology of the Himalayas. After his return to Germany, Nazi officials ordered that he surrender all of his research material to a scientist appointed by the government. Misch did not comply with the order, and instead began looking for a teaching position abroad. In 1935, he accepted the chair of structural geology at Sun Yat-Sen University in Canton, China, formerly held by Swiss geologist Arnold Heim.

Misch arrived in China in 1936, and began his studies of the Kwangtung and Kwangsi provinces. By the end of 1938 Japanese advances into south eastern China forced the university to move to Kunming, in Yunnan province. Misch and his students studied and mapped areas of Yunnan province until he left for the United States in 1946.

Misch was teaching at Stanford University when he met Professor Goodspeed of the University of Washington and discovered that they were both members of a minority of geologists who supported the theory of granitization. In 1947, Misch accepted an appointment as assistant professor at the University of Washington. While at the University of Washington, Misch became the leading authority on North Cascades geology. He wrote, published, and lectured on North Cascade geology, especially metamorphic petrology, for nearly 40 years. He created many geological maps of the North Cascades, and painted colorful and geologically detailed watercolor landscapes of many of the mountains that he studied. Misch spent nearly every summer in the mountains with his graduate students in support of their thesis research and general geological education. By the end of his time at the University of Washington, Misch had supervised the research of over 125 graduate students. He also engaged in committee work on behalf of the geology department, as well as various university clubs and associations.

Misch was also active outside of the university setting. During the 1950's, he worked with John Hazzard as a research consultant for Union Oil of California. Misch and Hazzard studied and mapped areas in and around the Great Basin that included eastern Nevada, western Utah, and southern Idaho. Misch's work with Union Oil also took him to Oklahoma where he studied and mapped the Potato Hills region of the Ouachita mountain range. Between 1974 and 1980 Misch was an advisor for the Bechtel Corporation in the proposed development of a nuclear power plant in the Skagit Valley of Washington state. Misch also served as Associate Editor for the American Association of Petroleum Geologists' Bulletin.

Peter Misch retired from the University of Washington in 1981, but continued his geological research up to the very last months of his life. He died on the 23rd of July, 1987.