Geologist Eddie McKee served as an assistant director, Board of Trustee member, and Visiting Scientist during his decades-long affiliation with MNA. His research focused on stratigraphy and sedimentation of Colorado Plateau geology, particularly in the Grand Canyon.
He also was the Head of Geology and Mineralogy at the University of Arizona in the early 1950s and would spend his summers at MNA. He usually brought students with him and they would spend the time studying the extensive geological wonders of the Colorado Plateau. During his time as MNA assistant director, the Research Center was being developed and he suggested the names of many of the outbuildings after prominent southwestern geologists like Dutton and Marcou.
He, along with Lionel F. “Major” Brady, established a broad foundation upon which succeeding MNA geologists built further research programs. He also worked as Grand Canyon National Park naturalist and in the Plate Tectonics division of the USGS in Denver. He was named as an MNA Outstanding Alumni in 1998.
Camp, Charles L., Edwin H. Colbert, Edwin D. McKee, and S. P. Welles. “A guide to the continental Triassic of northern Arizona.” Plateau, vol. 20, no. 1, 1947.
McKee, Edwin D. “Distribution of the tassel-eared squirrels.” Plateau, vol. 14, no. 1, 1941.
—. “Grand Canyon climates during the age of mammals.” Museum Notes, vol. 4, no. 10, 1932.
—. “Kanab Canyon: the trail of scientists.” Plateau, vol. 18, no. 3, 1946.
—. “Original colors preserved in fossil seashells.” Plateau, vol. 19, no. 3, 1947.
—. “Tracks that go uphill.” Plateau, vol. 16, no. 4, 1944.
McKee, Edwin D., Richard F. Wilson, William J. Breed, and Carol S. Breed, editors. Evolution of the Colorado River in Arizona: a hypothesis developed at the Symposium on Cenozoic Geology of the Colorado Plateau in Arizona, August 1964. Museum of Northern Arizona Bulletin 44, 1967.