Harold Rollin Wanless was born in Chicago on, December 5, 1898. His father William died in the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. After his father’s tragic death, his mother Rhoda brought him up alone. She was a nature study teacher and was an influence to his scientific endeavors. Wanless graduated from Robert Waller High School in Chicago. He then entered Princeton University on a scholarship, received the B. S. degree in 1920, and was appointed to a fellowship in the Princeton Graduate School. Wanless was a skilled photographer in addition to being a sedimentologist. His M.S. thesis contained 123 photographic plates. He also published on the geologic use of photos. He received the M.A. degree in 1921 and a Ph.D. from Princeton in 1923; his dissertation was on White River Oligocene strata of the South Dakota badlands. He came to the University of Illinois in 1923 as an instructor and rose through the ranks of associate, assistant professor, and associate professor to a professorship in 1946. He was Chairman of the Department during the academic year 1946-47. Harold Wanless was a part of academia for the rest of his life but he also was involved with other professional occupations.

The figure on the right is a portrait of Wanless that hangs in the Wanless Room located in the Computing Applications Building at UIUC.