[meteorite-list] Richard Norton

From: MeteorHntr at aol.com <MeteorHntr_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 27 May 2009 20:23:31 EDT
Message-ID: <ce0.4b3d4f44.374f3383_at_aol.com>

Bernd and all,

I just sold a little piece of Murchison today on Ebay. Just another day
in the life of a meteorite dealer. However, this very rock (like many of
the other meteorites we have) is often mentioned as being 4.56 Billion years
old.

One human life might make it 100 years. Richard's didn't make it nearly
that far.

Thus Murchison is over 45,600,000 human life spans old.

That is about the same ratio as there are number of seconds in one year;
31,536,000:1

Days like today remind us that we are all only "temporary curators" of the
meteorites we briefly possess.

Even the oldest of our great collecting institutions have barely held
their collections for more than two centuries. Thus, even our so called
"permanent collections" have only held these treasures for 1/22,800,000 of their
existence.

Life is just a flicker in comparison.

Richard was a great example to all of us that we have an obligation to
make our impact on our world while we each have a chance. And his early
passing is a reminder to the rest of us that we need to take time occasionally
to stop and appreciate each other's contributions along the way.

Richard himself was an example of both those things we are reminded of.
Brend brought up for us today of what Richard wrote in a METEORITE article
in 2001:

NORTON O.R. (2001) Centerpiece: Kapoeta - A Howardite
Extraordinaire (Meteorite, May 2001, Vol. 7, No. 2, pp. 22-24):

"I knew it was different when I first laid eyes on it. During the 2000
Tucson show
Steve Arnold was selling thin sections from the Elbert A. King collection.
One in
particular from the Kapoeta howardite caught my attention. Even without
magni-
fication I could see a clast-like feature with a structure I had not seen
before in
any meteorite, much less in a howardite."


Above, in just one simple sentence, Richard was extending credit out not
just to me, but to Dr. King and even to the collecting community at large
via the Tucson Show. He didn't have to include that sentence at all in that
paragraph, but he did. In a gentlemanly way, he was recognizing others'
contributions to his amazing discovery he was writing about.

Of course virtually all of Richard's books (and other writings) extended
credit and recognition to others as well, in many different ways.

Maybe in honor of Richard's contribution into all of our lives, over the
next 31,536,000 seconds, we can all try to take just one step closer to
being more like Richard. If we do, this list, the meteorite community, and the
world in general will be a much nicer place to hang out.

I am going to start:

I want to extend an genuine thanks to everyone that makes positive
contributions on this list. One of my friends in a private correspondence today
mentioned in reference to Richards passing that it was "very sad to have
lost one of the good guys." In spite of some riff-raff that shows up here on
the list occasionally, we do have some really good guys (and gals) here on
the list. "Thanks" to all of you good guys for contributing and making a
difference!

Steve Arnold



.

In a message dated 5/27/2009 3:56:00 P.M. Central Daylight Time,
bernd.pauli at paulinet.de writes:
"A memory that pops into my mind just now is of a meeting with Richard and
Dorothy over lunch in Tucson, one year. Richard wanted to see what I had
in
the way of thin sections when I pulled out 6 Kapoeta thin sections I had
from
the King Collection... He held one of them up and...said almost in
amazement:

"This one slide holds a complete rock collection in it!"


NORTON O.R. (2001) Centerpiece: Kapoeta - A Howardite
Extraordinaire (Meteorite, May 2001, Vol. 7, No. 2, pp. 22-24):

"I knew it was different when I first laid eyes on it.During the 2000
Tucson show
Steve Arnold was selling thin sections from the Elbert A. King collection.
One in
particular from the Kapoeta howardite caught my attention. Even without
magni-
fication I could see a clast-like feature with a structure I had not seen
before in
any meteorite, much less in a howardite."
 
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Received on Wed 27 May 2009 08:23:31 PM PDT