Markes E. Johnson is the Charles L. MacMillan Professor of Natural Science, Emeritus, at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, where he taught courses in historical geology, paleontology, and stratigraphy in the Geosciences Department over a 35-year career. His undergraduate education in geology concluded with a BA degree (1971) from the University of Iowa and his advanced training in paleoecology culminated with a PhD degree (1977) through the Department of Geophysical Sciences at the University of Chicago. With 25 years of field experience in Baja California, Johnson has been a semi-annual visitor to the frontier states of Mexico where he habitually led field courses and supervised thesis projects for students from Williams College. He is an authority on the geology of ancient shorelines and the evolution of inter-tidal life through geologic time based on studies conducted around the world from Western Australia to China’s Inner Mongolia to the fringe of Arctic lands across Siberia, Norway, and Canada, as well as comparatively young island groups such as the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean and the Cape Verdes in the North Atlantic. Whether on explorations near or far away, this traveler has always been drawn back to the wild islands in the western Gulf of California and their associated peninsular shores. The author lives with his spouse, Gudveig Baarli, in Williamstown, Massachusetts, where they maintain an active and mutually supportive schedule of ongoing research and writing projects.