The Seaman family has made another gift to help support the mineral museum at Michigan Tech that already bears their name.
In honor of John “Jack” Seaman’s 103rd birthday, an endowment has been created to support the position of museum curator. The position will be known as the John and Phyllis Seaman Endowment for Curation of the A.E. Seaman Mineral Museum.
The museum’s current director and curator, John Jaszczak, will be the first to fill the position.
The Seamans also established a Student Support Fund for students involved with the museum in honor of Jean Petermann Kemp Zimmer ’39, who served as museum curator from 1975-86, and Jack’s sister, Jeanne Seaman Farnum, who studied geology under their father, Wyllys Seaman.
The museum was founded by Jack Seaman’s grandfather, Arthur Edmund Seaman, 120 years ago. He served as the first curator. Arthur’s son, Wyllys, was the third curator. Both attended Michigan Tech, and later taught at the university.
The museum has one of the finest selections of copper samples in the world. It curates approximately 40,000 cataloged objects, both from the Michigan Tech collection, and the University of Michigan collection.