![]() I was very lucky to have had the opportunity to be so involved in constructing the theory. This was a special time in the history of the Earth sciences, which has not been repeated. I went from being an unknown postdoc who was younger than most US graduate students, to someone who was invited as a guest speaker, with all fares paid, to major international conferences. Frankel (2012) has now published a detailed account of the relevant events, which changed my career almost overnight. Though ours was the first paper on this subject to be published, shortly before this happened I discovered that Jason Morgan had priority and I tried (unsuccessfully) to delay its publication. I wrote and published the first paper on the subject with Bob Parker ( McKenzie & Parker 1967) fifty years ago, during my first year as a postdoc when I was twenty-five. I have written elsewhere ( McKenzie 2001) about my experience of being involved in the construction of the theory of plate tectonics at the start of my career. ![]() The second, from the Royal Society of London, was to write something to save whoever writes my obituary from having to do a lot of work, a request which made me feel very old. The first, from Annual Reviews, was to write an account of my career. Unlike most papers I have written this one results from two unusual requests. ![]()
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