Vincent Paul Gianella Papers

Vincent Paul Gianella was born on February 9, 1886, in Marysville, California to Vincenzo and Mary Hagan Gianella. He received a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering in 1910 and a Bachelor of Science in Mining Engineering in 1911 from Oregon State University. From 1911-1920 he worked in the mining industry in Alaska, Arizona, California, and Nevada. During that time he also married Catherine Thiele whom he met in California. They had three children: Faith, born in 1918, Catherine Agusta, born in 1919, and Vincent Paul, born in 1922.

By 1915 Gianella and his family had moved to Reno, Nevada, where he taught metallurgy at the Mackay School of Mines at the University of Nevada, Reno. While there, he also took course work toward a Master’s degree which he received in 1920. Gianella taught at the University until 1925 when he and his family left for the east coast of the United States so that he could undertake graduate studies in geology, first at Yale, and then at Columbia University. His dissertation on the geology of the Silver City and southern Comstock region of Nevada was completed in 1936; he received his Ph. D. in 1937. Meanwhile, he returned to Reno where he was a professor in the Mackay School of Mines and chair of the Department of Geology and Geography from 1935-1952 when he retired as Professor Emeritus of Geology.

Gianella also worked as the geologist for the Nevada Bureau of Mines, geologist and mineralogist for the Mining Analytical Laboratory, curator of the Mackay School of Mines Museum, and consultant in seismology in Nevada for the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. He published some forty papers on seismology, economic geology, and mineralogy. Both before and after his retirement he acted as a geological consultant to individuals and companies. He was active in professional organizations, serving as Vice-Chair and Chair of the Cordilleran Section of the Geological Society of America, on the Executive Committee of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and many others.

Gianella was also interested in history and became a recognized expert on the early exploration of the west, retracing the exact routes of many early explorers of the Great Basin, including John C. Fremont. He served as a director of the Nevada Historical Society, was a member of the Advisory Board of the Nevada Centennial Commission, and frequently spoke to civic and historical groups about his interests and research. He was also an expert beekeeper known for the quality of the honey his hives produced.

Gianella was recognized throughout Nevada for his unselfish assistance to prospectors and mine operators. He liked nothing better than to tramp the hills in the isolated Black Rock Desert country or a shady canyon in the Sierra foothills. He believed that the Great Basin was a force that had shaped the destiny of the west and enthusiastically passed along his knowledge and appreciation of that region, whether to his students, colleagues, or community. He received the Distinguished Nevadan metal in 1962 in recognition of his scientific contributions.

Dr. Gianella died in Auburn, California on July 9, 1983, at the age of 97.

For more information on his career, consult his oral history, Recollections of Geological Work in the West, the University of Nevada, and Following Western Trails (Oral History Program: University of Nevada, Reno, 1973).