Kirk Duncan McIntosh

Kirk Duncan McIntosh, PhD., age 59, passed away at 10:42 p.m., Thursday, June 1, 2017 at St. David’s South Austin Medical Center in Austin, Texas. Kirk was born early in the morning of January 3, 1958 in Boulder, Colorado at the Boulder Sanitarium. He was the first child born in Boulder in 1958. He is the son of Glen Elvis McIntosh, PhD, and Alice Joy Parker McIntosh. Kirk was married to Diana Chavez in 1989 and they were best friends throughout their marriage. They became proud parents of Julia in 1994 and Victor in 1997. Kirk was a loving husband, father, brother, mentor, and teacher. We were blessed with his life. Kirk enjoyed cooking, spicy food, hiking, reading, the mountains, and his career.

Kirk was a Senior Research Scientist at the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics for the last twenty-five years. Kirk received his PhD from the University of California at Santa Cruz in 1992 in Geodynamics with emphasis in tectonophysics, marine geology, and crustal structure. Kirk earned his BSc in geophysical engineering from the Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colorado, in 1980.

Throughout his career, Kirk investigated collisions between tectonic plates at locations around the world. In his early career, he studied plate collisions along the margins of Central America and provided some of the best data to date on processes that influence the development of offshore collisional margins like Central America, with applications to the NW margin of the US, Sumatra, and Japan, and the generation of major earthquakes at these locations. More recently, he focused on tectonic collisions in the South China Sea that have led to the formation of Taiwan. He made great strides in understanding the Chinese margin to fully understand the China/Luzon Arc collision that created Taiwan. Kirk was exceptionally good at developing collaborations with international partners in Taiwan and China that led to very productive relationships. He presented his research at conferences worldwide and was an annual presenter at the America Geophysical Union fall meeting in San Francisco, California for more than two decades. He authored and co-authored over 50 peer-reviewed manuscripts, mostly on tectonic collisions, that have been cited by his peers collectively over 2,300 times.

Kirk was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia in January 2015. Kirk went into remission in July 2015 and was re-diagnosed in April 2016. In August of 2016, he received a bone marrow transplant donation from his sister Susan Anita McIntosh Shepcaro, which was successful in providing nine more months to enjoy family, friends, and colleagues. During this time, he received many international visitors and was able to travel to New Zealand to initiate the next phase of his work.

Kirk is survived by his wife, Diana Chavez McIntosh, two children Julia Ariel McIntosh and Victor Enrique McIntosh, both his parents, and siblings Susan Anita McIntosh Shepcaro, Carolyn Leigh McIntosh, and Ross Cameron McIntosh.

The family would like to thank Dr. Ramakrishnan, Dr. Malik, and the staff at the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit at South Austin Hospital, and Dr. Helmer of Texas Oncology, Austin, for the dedication, support, and care.

A celebration of life service will be held on Monday, June 5, 2017 at 3:00 p.m. at Kirk’s home. Please contact the family for further information. Memorial contributions may be made to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, https://www.lls.org/.

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