Yearbook of the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers

Daniel D. Arreola, professor, Department of Geography, Arizona State University, attended his first APCG meeting in 1973 as a master's student at California State University Hayward. At that meeting in San Diego, he met a number of distinguished senior Pacific Coast geographers, including Carl Sauer.

Dan's first APCG paper, on the cultural landscape of the Delta Chinatown of Locke, California, was presented at the 1976 Tucson meeting, when he was a doctoral student at UCLA. Dan edited the APCG newsletter from fall 1993 through spring 1996, during which time he transformed it into a weightier and more handsome publication called Pacifica.

In 1996–97, Dan served as APCG vice president, and he moved up to the presidency the following year. In that role, he oversaw a major revision of the APCG bylaws. Dan served as chair of the Nominations Committee during 2001–02. He co-chaired the 2005 Phoenix meeting, sponsored by the geographers at Arizona State University and Mesa Community College.

Dan's intellectual contribution to the APCG has been the nearly unbroken series of papers he has presented at meetings since 1993, largely concerned with cultural landscapes of the Mexican-American border region. Dan's presidential address, as well as his presidential plenary session on regional geography, underlined his devotion to the study of places molded by rich and evolving cultures.

Beyond his own scholarly contributions, Dan has been a terrific APCG citizen by bringing many of his graduate students to meetings and engaging them and other participants in lively debate. He also has been a great field companion. In recognition of these contributions to the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers, the Awards Committee gives Daniel D. Arreola the Distinguished Service Award for 2005.