Kurt von Gehlen got his first experience with science as a young drafted anti-aircraft gunner defending Kiel in the later stages of the war, where he was fascinated by the mechanical computers used to trace the path of enemy bombers.
His graduate studies were supervised by Hans Schneiderhöhn, who introduced ore microscopy into earth science during his World War I isolation in southwestern Africa, now Namibia.
Now living close to the Bavarian part of the Bohemian Mountains, von Gehlen had to split his geologic interest between the Black Forest and Upper Palatinate, both of which are windows into the Moldanubian belt of the Variscan orogeny.
As a consequence, he was appointed by the University of Frankfurt as full professor of the new Institute of Petrology, Geochemistry and the study of Ore Deposits in 1966, situated in a (today fortunately) preserved 1902 historic stately home at Senckenberganlage 28.
His effectiveness covered a state of inactivity on behalf of his tenured senior staff assistants, which he had selected on the basis of personal friendship rather than scientific potential, a permissible and not uncommon practice at the time.
These research programs covered subjects as mineral raw materials, the Afar Depression of Ethiopia, stratified sulfide deposits, the Rhenish Massif, and the continental deep drilling in Bavaria.
Many people understand the sense of sharing and responsibility needed to make wise but often unpopular decisions, which keep research open for innovations and progress with a minimum level of bureaucracy.
In this position he addressed the participants of the 1986 annual meeting at Mainz with a status report about the genesis of Pb-Zn-F-Ba mineralizations in southwestern Germany, a return to the objects of his early research.
His administrative workload and stress of additionally managing a department in the centre of the highly political atmosphere at Frankfurt University during the late 60s did not improve the frail condition of his health.