Deceased January 2, 2017
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In Memory
Charles “Skip” Cunningham, 76, of Fairfax, Va., passed away on Monday, Jan. 2, 2017. Born on Dec. 5, 1940, he was the son of Robert and Mildred Heydt. He is survived by his wife Cheryl Cunningham, his daughters Wendy Littman ’95 and Betsy Cunningham and four grandchildren.
Skip left high school in his senior year to enlist in the U.S. Coast Guard, where he served for 4 1/2 years and received his GED. Upon leaving the military, he earned an associate’s degree from Norwalk Community College and a B.A. in geology/physics from Amherst College. While at Amherst, he met Cher Cunningham, a University of Massachusetts student, and they were married on Aug. 10, 1968.
After Amherst, he continued his education, earning a M.S. in geology/chemistry from the University of Colorado and a Ph.D. in geology/chemistry from Stanford University, where he mapped the Italian Mountain intrusive complex in the central Colorado Rockies.
He left Stanford in 1973 for a teaching position at Syracuse University but was soon lured back to Colorado by the promise of sunshine and funding to do cutting-edge research at the U.S. Geological Survey.
He found a home at the USGS, where he served as a research scientist and administrator for 40 years. A prolific writer, he authored or co-authored more than 250 publications. But while he enjoyed collaborating on papers, his main love was being “in the field,” and he spent many months each year mapping precious metal deposits all over the world, including Utah, South America and China.
Skip was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease in 1999, and with his unusual ability to “make lemonade out of lemons,” he continued to travel, spend time with family, friends and colleagues and bring a smile to the faces of all those he encountered.
Cher Cunningham