Hubert Lloyd Barnes (94) of State College, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Geochemistry at the Pennsylvania State University, died August 3, 2022, at Windy Hill Village, Philipsburg, Pennsylvania. His daughter Catherine was at his bedside.
Professor Barnes was a scientist, a scholar, a loving husband, father, and grandfather; and a generous and loyal friend. He was proud of his family and of their achievements. Hu was also proud of his ancestry; he liked to think of himself as a "canny Scot", the kind of friend who somehow is there to offer support before you are even aware of your need for help. He loved the outdoors, skiing, and football (he played on his high school football team), and almost never missed a Penn State home game. He loved classical music, especially Baroque chamber music and opera.  He studied violin as a young man. Most of all, he was fascinated by the complex chemistry of the earth and its resources.
He enjoyed travel. Together, he and his wife Mary visited nearly every part of the world except Antarctica, sometimes at considerable sacrifice of their personal comfort. While on a field trip to the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia, they waited for mechanics to put their helicopter together before flying to a research site: the flight was a leap of faith.
Hu was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts, grew up in the Boston area, and earned a BS in Geology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1950). While at MIT, he met Mary Westergaard (PhD, PSU 1966). Hu and Mary married in 1950.  He was employed as Mining Geologist with the Peru Mining Company in New Mexico from 1950-52, then earned a PhD in Economic Geology at Columbia University (1958). After a postdoctoral fellowship at the Geophysical Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, DC, he joined the faculty of Penn State as Assistant Professor of Geochemistry (1960-63), Associate Professor (1963-66), Professor (1966-1990), and Distinguished Professor of Geochemistry (1990-1997); he became Distinguished Professor Emeritus in 1998. Hu was also Director of the Penn State Ore Deposits Research Section (1969-1997); he was made an Honorary Penn State Alumnus in 2016.
Dr. Barnes was author or co-author of more than 150 publications in professional journals; he was awarded five U.S. Patents, wrote and edited six books, and supervised nine MS students, thirty-two PhD students, and twenty-one post-doctoral fellows.
His research on sulfide minerals and the geochemistry of hydrothermal ore deposits has been honored in the U.S. and internationally. He held a Guggenheim Fellowship at the Geochemical Institute, University of Göttingen (1966-67); served as a U.S. National Exchange Scientist at the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences (1974); and was a Nobel Symposium Lecturer at Karlskoda, Sweden (1979). He was a founding organizer of the Goldschmidt Conferences (1988) that today attract more than 10,000 geochemists from all over the world. He delivered invited lectures and held lectureships at universities in Australia, Canada, China, Germany, India, Japan, South Africa, and Scotland and Wales.
He was a member or fellow of all major U.S. geochemical and economic geology professional organizations. He was awarded the Penrose Medal of the Society of Economic Geologists, their highest award (2002), as well as the Distinguished Service Award of the Geochemical Society (2003). He served as an advisor or consultant to many government, professional, and commercial organizations.
Hu was predeceased by his son, Roy M. Barnes (1951-2010), and by his wife, Dr. Mary W. Barnes, in 2017. He is survived by his daughter Catherine Barnes and her partner Nathan Engle, of Bloomington, Indiana; and by his daughter-in-law, Susan Barnes, and granddaughters Lindsey Barnes and Lacey Barnes Arrington, and her husband William Arrington, as well as two great-grandchildren, all of Boulder, Colorado.
Hu Barnes was all of these things: a scientist, a scholar, and an educator.  He was also, and most importantly, a man of grace and honor. Without him, the world will be a little bit darker place.
A memorial celebration of Dr. Barnes's life is planned in September. An online guestbook may be signed and condolences left for the family at www.hakygeorgianafh.com. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be sent to the Penn State Department of Geosciences or the School of Music