[meteorite-list] Martin Prinz - An obituary

From: MARSROX_at_aol.com <MARSROX_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:41:53 2004
Message-ID: <17.fb08617.2782412b_at_aol.com>

I note in the "out of the area" death notices of my 01/01/01 local newspaper
today that our colleague Martin Prinz has died of unlisted causes at the age
of 69 in Manhasset, N.Y. Apparently he died on December 16. Many of us have
had some contact with him as he was the curator of the American Museum
National History meteorite collection.

For my next feature in Meteorite!, among the papers I have on my desk this
moment is his "The Chassigny meteorite: a cumulate dunite..." co-authored
with RJ Floran et al., absolutely the best paper written on the subject as of
that date, prior to any assumed Mars origins. His interests led him to
prodigiously produce an extensive body of thoroughly researched, important
meteoritical work.

The newspaper obit mentions as his greatest "claim-to-fame" his moving of the
Cape York "Ahnighito" meteorite originally retrieved by Admiral Robert E.
Peary from an obscure corner of the Planetarium to a place of prominence in
the AMNH that made it the museum's centerpiece. To me his place in history
will be marked by his research in meteoritics, research that has helped us
all understand the special genesis of those rocks in our collections.

Kevin Kichinka
Received on Mon 01 Jan 2001 03:23:07 PM PST