John M. (John Maxwell) Good

Born in 1924, John M. Good — listed in library records as John Maxwell Good — wrote The Dinosaur Quarry: Dinosaur National Monument, Colorado-Utah, a National Park Service publication first issued in 1958. The book introduced readers to one of the country’s great fossil sites and reflects his gift for explaining paleontology and geology in an accessible way.

Good also built a long career with the National Park Service. According to the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, he worked at Carlsbad Caverns, Lake Mead, Dinosaur National Monument, and Yellowstone, later serving as the Park Service’s chief geologist. He went on to leadership roles at Acadia, Yosemite, and Everglades, where he was known as a committed scientist and conservation-minded park leader.

His later published work includes Interpreting the Landscapes of Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks, coauthored with Kenneth L. Pierce and published by the U.S. Geological Survey in 1996. Taken together, his books show a writer deeply interested in helping visitors understand how deep time, rock, fossil, and landscape all fit together.