Johanna (Titmus) and Robert Titus
About twenty-five years ago, two soon-to-be married scientists moved to Freehold. Not only did Robert & Johanna Titus lend their talents to various organizations but they would change the way we readers would see our surrounding landscapes. They are known as the “Catskill Geologists” not only in the Greenville area but also across the Catskill Mountains, the Hudson Valley, and even across the digital planet.
They both were born in Paterson NJ, he in 1946 and she in 1952. Both were raised in Hawthorne NJ. Robert and Johanna had met through mutual friends in the 1960s before each went their separate ways.
Johanna graduated from Ramapo College (NJ) and from Fairleigh Dickinson University (MS, molecular biology). She was employed as an instructor at Passaic County Community College, Maria College, and finally, for seventeen years at SUNY Dutchess in the Biology Department.
Robert graduated from Rutgers University (1968) and Boston University (1972 – MA Geology, and 1974 – PhD Geology. He was employed by Hartwick College for 43 years, retiring as Senior Full Professor of the Geology Department.
Robert & Johanna reunited in 1998 and were married in 2000, the same year as their move to Freehold. In 2012, they began collaborating, writing and presenting programs about the geological history and art history of the Catskills and Greater Hudson Valley. Robert had been doing so since 1991. One feature of their presentations is Robert slowly waving his out-stretched arm, daring his audience to imagine 15,000 years ago when a mile or two of glaciers might be pressing down on them. Or, again, he waves his magical arm, asking them to feel the depths of an ocean thousands of feet above them some 385 million years ago in the Devonian Age. An abrupt chortle WHAWH!! startles the crowd when he announces some fantastic geological event.
The two of them have written four books together:
· The Hudson Valley in the Ice Age – 2012, Black Dome Press
· The Catskills, A Geologic Guide – 2016, Expanded Edition Purple Mt. Press
· The Catskills in the Ice Age – 2019, 3rd Edition, Purple Mt. Press, Black Dome Press
· The Hudson River Schools of Art and Their Ice Age Origins – 2024, Purple Mt. Press
In this same time, Robert and Johanna have done hundreds of public lectures and PowerPoint presentations, along with multiple podcasts, hikes and Hudson Valley Rambles, all throughout the Catskills and Hudson Valley. They even had a radio show on WIOX in Roxbury. They have made appearances on local television several times.
In addition, Johanna has been an active member of the Mountain Top Historical Society as member of the Board of Directors, and Program Chair. She has also written articles for several regional publications, presented at the Olga Santora Lecture, the Justine Hommel Memorial Lecture, and has highlighted the biographies of several area African Americans.
Robert sports a multi-bulleted list of accomplishments. He has now written and published over a thousand articles in Kaatskill Life Magazine, The Register Star chain of newspapers, The Mountain Eagle, The Woodstock Times, The Greenville Press, and the Tri-County Historical Review.
Add to that his work with local preserves: The Woodstock Land Conservancy, The Columbia Land Conservancy, Opus 40, Spiral House, The Hoyt Preserve, Clermont, and Olana. Add to that his work with local civic groups: Greenville Local History Group, The Greene County Historical Society, The Mountain Top Arboretum, and The Catskill Center. Add to that a half-dozen projects and his professional paleontology and geology résumé.
Robert & Johanna, thank you for bringing acclaim to our area and for sharing so generously of your talents for the last quarter century.