An Earth Day speaker urged his audience of about 70 students and faculty to be more conscious of the earth and taking care of it Monday in Phipps Lecture Hall of the Physical Science Building in national observance of Earth Day.

“Earth Day is a particularly important date. Earth Day should be the spring solstice, according to the purists,” said Robert G. Corbett, lecturer of geology and geography at Illinois State University.

Corbett said in the earlier days, Earth Day would have been Sunday Oct. 23, 4004 B.C.

Corbett paid tribute to John Wesley Powell, who was known as “an intrepid explorer,” as he read from a eulogy of Powell.

Corbett traced the footsteps of one of Powell’s explorations of the Grand Canyon and explained his trials along the way.

He said Powell was raised by parents who were strong abolitionists, which later affected Powell with ridicule by his peers.

Powell was “self-taught and an avid collector who loved museum work,” Corbett said. “He was the first professor of geology and the curator of the museum in the Old Main building of Illinois State University.”

Powell was involved in anthropology at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, Corbett said.

“He was a heroic person…a wonderful person in terms of getting things done,” Corbett said.

Rachel Fountain, a senior geology major, said Corbett was very informative and it influenced her to explore places like the Grand Canyon in the future.

“I thought (the presentation) was fabulous! I wish (Corbett) would’ve gone into more detail,” said Melissa Stefos, a junior geology major and Geology Science Club president.

Fountain said Earth Day is “the conservation and preservation of our earth. It is ensuring that the resources on our earth will be preserved for future generations.”

Corbett is the vice president of the American Institute of Professional Geologists, an Illinois-licensed professional geologist, a certified professional geologist and the former chair of the Illinois State University department of geology and geography.