Posted by RaiderKarl on March 16, 2001 at 08:58:31:
Skin Diver magazine’s April 2001 issue contains a fitting “in memoriam” to Mia Tegner. I will retype it below, in respect to Mia herself, and for everyone’s benefit:
“Mia Jean Tegner, a research marine biologist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, since 1969, died on January 7, 2001, in a scuba diving accident off San Diego, California. She was 53 years old.
‘We knew Mia when she was a young adult just beginning her scientific endeavors. She grew to maturity with us and spent her life at Scripps,’ said Dr. Charles F. Kennel, director of Scripps. ‘She dedicated more than 25 years of work to the ecology of the kelp beds off Point Loma in San Diego, and she developed a new and deep appreciation for this delicate, undersea rain forest. The ocean world has lost a treasure.’
An experienced diver, Tegner made more than 4,000 dives throughout the world during her 31 years at Scripps.
With colleagues Paul Dayton, Peter Edwards, and Kristin Riser, Tegner was honored with the Cooper Ecology Award in August 2000. Marking a first for research in an oceanic system, the Cooper Award honored Tegner and her research team for their investigations of the Point Loma kelp forest communities. Other recent awards included the 1998 Conservation Award from the Sonoma County Abalone Network and the 1986 University of California, San Diego, Distinguished Alumna of the Year Award.
She is survived by her husband, Eric Hanauer, of San Diego, California, a daughter, Sandi Hanauer, of Costa Mesa, California, her parents, Oly and Allie Tegner of Palos Verdes, California, and a sister, Lars Palsson of Palos Verdes, California.
Her dedication to the undersea world will be profoundly missed.”