Arthur Gibbs Sylvester was born, raised, and educated in southern California. After earning his BA in liberal arts at Pomona College and PhD in geology at UCLA, he joined a team of Shell Development Company research geologists to study the tectonic history of the Pacific margin of the United States. UC Santa Barbara lured him from Shell to teach courses in structural geology, field geology, and petrology. He led more than 300 field trips in southern California for student, industrial, and professional geologists. After retiring from active teaching in 2003, he and Libby O'Black Gans coauthored Roadside Geology of Southern California.
