Duane F. Marble

Duane F. Marble (December 10, 1931 – February 22, 2022) was an American geographer known for his significant contributions to quantitative geography and geographic information science (GIScience). Marble had a 40-year career as a professor at multiple institutions, retiring from the Ohio State University and holding a courtesy appointment as Professor of Geosciences at Oregon State University afterward. His early work was highly influential in computer cartography and is regarded as a significant contributor to the quantitative revolution in geography. His work on constructing a "Model Curricula" in GIScience is listed as the starting foundation built upon by the Geographic Information Science and Technology Body of Knowledge.

Marble earned three degrees in geography from the University of Washington: his B.S., his M.A. in 1956, and his Ph.D. in 1959. Here, he worked as a Ph.D. student under the influential quantitative geographer William Garrison. Like many of Garrison's graduate students, including Waldo Tobler and Arthur Getis, Marble went on to a prominent career in spatial analysis, GIScience, and quantitative geography.

Marbles 40 year long academic career included positions at multiple universities, including Northwestern University, the University of Pennsylvania, University at Buffalo, The Ohio State University, University of Oregon. During his early career, he made great contributions to establishing the discipline of GIScience, computer cartography. His co-edited publication Spatial Analysis: a Reader in Statistical Geography is regarded as one of the founding documents in the quantitative revolution in geography. Among other things, this publication is one of the earliest uses of the term "spatial autocorrelation," a central concept in spatial analysis. Because of this publication and others, he is considered a significant figure in quantitative geography, with the American Association of Geographers Marble Fund Award for Innovative Master’s Research in Quantitative Geography named in his honor.

Later in his career, he was instrumental in establishing Geographic information science as a discipline and worked to develop educational material and curriculum. While at the University at Buffalo, Marbles established the first GIScience research unit. His work on the "Model Curricula" is credited in the GIS&T body of knowledge as the starting point for that body of work. After retirement, Marbles worked to promote computer science and quantitative knowledge in geography to combat his concerns that geographers were losing understanding of what happened behind the GUI of their Geographic information systems. This led to him to help establish the AAG Marble Fund to promote quantitative geography and computer science research.

Marble published several peer-reviewed journals and book chapters during their career.

They have authored, or served as an volume editor, for numerous books including:

GIS Master Bibliography

In 1991, Marble began work compiling a master bibliography for GIS related scholarly material. In 1999, this bibliography was merged with the Esri GIS Bibliography, with Esri serving as the curator.

• University Consortium for Geographic Information Science Fellowship, 2011

• University Consortium for Geographic Information Science Education Award, 2007

• American Association of Geographers Honors Award, 1993

• In 2010, Michael DeMers of New Mexico State University established the "Duane Marble Award for GIS Design and Education Research" to recognize the work of Marble in GIScience, GIS design, and GIS curriculum development. The award is available to NMSU geography Masters student whose thesis involves either novel GIS methods or GIS education.

Marble established the Marble Fund for Geographic Science in 2005 with the help of Esri CEO Jack Dangermond. This fund exists to promote exposure to computer science concepts in geography undergraduate and graduate students through awards for GIScience research, each named for prominent quantitative geographers, including Marble's PhD advisor William Garrison. These awards include:

• Marble-Boyle Undergraduate Achievement Award, American Association of Geographers
• Marble Fund Award for Innovative Master's Research in Quantitative Geography, American Association of Geographers
• William L. Garrison Award for Best Dissertation in Computational Geography

Marble was married to Jacquelynne Marble for 65 years. They had four children and two grandchildren.