caption serviceyears laterwork branch commands death_place death_date birth_place allegiance awards birth_date rank image article_title name
portrait of mary sears 1943-1963 . co-founding , founding editor of the journal '' progress in oceanography editor '' of the journal '' deep-sea research '' united states navy oceanographic unit of the navy hydrographic office 1943-1946 woods hole , ma 02 september 1997 wayland , ma united states of america johannes research and navy oceanography during wwii . schmidt medal in 1946 for contributions to marine 18 july 1905 commander mary sears portrait photo.jpg mary sears -lrb- oceanographer -rrb-
 mary sears
mary sears -lrb- oceanographer -rrb-

mary sears -lrb- 1905 -- 1997 -rrb- was a commander in the united states naval reserve and a leading oceanographer .
throughout her career , she was associated with the woods hole oceanographic institution -lrb- whoi -rrb- .
few members of the staff have been more closely involved in the development of whoi than was sears .
she was present for many of the early discussions organizing the institution and acquiring its first ships , the 142-foot ketch `` atlantis '' and 40-foot coastal vessel `` asterias '' , and its first laboratory , later named the bigelow laboratory .
following mostly summer appointments in the 1930s , she served on the scientific staff as a planktonologist from 1940 to 1963 , when a new department structure was organized under director paul fye and she was named a senior scientist in the biology department , a position she held until her retirement in 1970 .
she was named a scientist emeritus in 1978 .
sears was also a long-time member of the corporation , serving as clerk of the corporation from 1947 to 1973 and as deputy clerk from 1973 to 1975 .
she was named an honorary trustee and honorary member in 1976 , rarely missing a trustee/corporation meeting .
