Husband of Berrie Pearl Horton.
_______________________________________

Geological Leader Dies

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Alonzo “Lon” Hancock, 77, Oregon geologist for whom Camp Hancock, the geology center for Eastern and Central Oregon was named, died Thursday following a stroke.

Mr. Hancock was born in Harrison, Ark., but had lived in Portland since 1910. Since his retirement as a letter carrier for the Post Office in 1944, he had devoted all of his time to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, of which he was a life director, and to his hobby of paleontology.

Although an amateur by academic standards, Mr. Hancock was known as the dean of the Northwest’s fossil hunters, and his discoveries in the Clarno cliffs of the John Day country reshaped scientific thinking about the ancient Oregon country.

His collection of more than 10,000 fossils and artifacts has been willed to OMSI.

Mr. Hancock was a member of Sunnyside Masonic Lodge, Maccabees, Oregon Agate and Mineral Society, Geological Society of the Oregon Country, and the Archaeological Society.

He is survived by the widow, Berrie; a son, Harry Horton Hancock of Enumclaw, Wash.; four daughters, Mrs. Michael Larimore of Portland, Mrs. Berrie Vane DeHaven of Folsom, Pa.; Mrs. Glenna Kramer of San Mateo, Calif., and Mrs. Helen Morey of Weiser, Idaho; two sisters, Mrs. Beulah McGraw of Portland and Mrs. Nevada Bollom of Kimberley; and three brothers, Clayton of Puyallup, Wash., Monroe of Salmon River, Idaho, and Albert of Dayville.

Funeral will be at 10 a.m. Saturday at Holman & Son Chapel. Interment will be private.

A memorial room at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry will be established in honor of Mr. Hancock, the museum director, Loren McKinley, announced Thursday night. It is suggested that any remembrance to Mr. Hancock be in the form of contributions to the Memorial Room Fund.

[The Oregonian, Portland, Oregon, Friday, May 19, 1961, page 16]