[meteorite-list] "Who is Dr. LaPaz"

From: Martin Altmann <altmann_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun, 28 Feb 2010 15:47:32 +0100
Message-ID: <001001cab884$f5f505b0$07b22959_at_name86d88d87e2>

Hi Al & all,

the relationship between Nininger, LaPaz and Leonard is quite well depicted
in that more recent article by H.Plotkin & R.S.Clarke Jr:

http://kuerzer.de/PazNinLeo


What we see from our historic angle of view is a story of missed chances.
Nininger was no saint, though he was obsessed of meteorites and hand-tight
results, the means, he chose, to accomplish his aims, weren't always the
right ones.
And we see his pursuit of appreciation of his doubtlessly enormously
successful contribution to meteoritics. That he furthermore hoped to make a
safe living from his work - is more than legitimate.
The mistake, we maybe could blame the contemporaries like LaPaz and Leonard
for, was, not to realise, what for a brilliant field-worker and scientific
practitioner they had with Nininger.
Other fellows were much more aware of that, also earlier, if you remember
that e.g. Henderson from the Smithonian tried to help the Nininger family in
the 1930ies to continue their work, in buying each year meteorites from him
for the museum for $2000 (equates to $33,000 today), although he was
somewhat discontent to obtain mainly weathered ordinary chondrites.

In LaPaz we observe now in the retrospective the type of scientist, who puts
the personal momentum, his own interests and vainness above the objectives
of science and his profession - not shying away of using illegitimate means.

To a certain degree we observe still today - especially in the
dealer/hunter-scientist relation - here and there the same mechanisms
and it's unavoidable, that a few little LaPazes will always cavort in the
meteorite pool.
Individuals like LaPaz are responsible for such a brilliant pioneer like
Nininger being still sometimes described as somewhat shady character in the
chronicles of meteoritics.

Btw. Father Chladni, although he never was hostiled to like a Nininger, but
respected as one of the most brilliant minds and physicist of his times,
had the same problem like Nininger. He always was desperately looking for a
salaried position, but never got one offered - so he had to do small time in
travelling through Europe, died on the road and the place of his grave is
forgotten. Not forgotten is his epoch-making work about the acoustics (and
among us meteorite people, his breakthrough in our field),
and likewise Nininger's finds and pioneer work never will be forgotten,
while such nasty armchair-fellows like LaPaz will always be on the margin of
the pantheon of meteoritis :-)

Best!
Martin




-----------------------------------------------------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: "al mitt" <almitt at kconline.com>
To: "Shawn Alan" <photophlow at yahoo.com>;
<meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Saturday, February 27, 2010 8:57 AM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] "Who is Dr. LaPaz"


> Hi Shawn and all,
>
> I am sure that some people will disagree with my assessment of LaPaz,
> but he
> organized the collection at the UNM in Albuquerque, New Mexico and
> seem to
> want to discredit Dr. Nininger every chance he got. While he did
> contribute
> some to the understanding of meteorites he was no giant in the field
> and
> didn't contribute as much as Nininger was by any means.
>
> A lot of his fame is the Norton County Meteorite that he outbid
> Nininger on.
> Nininger was standing on top of the main mass of the Norton County
> Meteorite
> when LaPaz and another museum head came onto the site. My
> understanding that
> Nininger used some of LaPaz's information to triangulate the fall but
> it
> takes more than one set of observations for this.
>
> He help organize the Meteortic's Society with Nininger but later tried
> to
> get Dr. Nininger thrown out of the society. I believe that Nininger
> resigned. He did spend a great deal of time trying to make Nininger
> look
> bad. The two were obvious rivials but not in a healthy sense. Probably
> because Harvey Nininger was making his living finding and selling
> meteorites
> in order to fund his hunts and research. BTW Harvey made attempts to
> get the
> scientists and museums of that time to fund his program in order to
> add to
> their collections but no one thought it would work except Farrington.
> Farrington was older and had health problems but wished he could help
> in
> Nininger's pursuit.
>
> LaPaz was also a hypocrite who frowned on anyone collecting meteorites
> but
> after his death a sizeable collection was found in his basement, he
> was an
> obvious closet collector. While he didn't help Nininger out, I have
> always
> felt that he might have been one of Nininger's inspirations to keep
> going
> and not letting anyone get in his way. Same with no one wanting to
> give
> Nininger a grant or position at any of the main museums or scientific
> institutions of that time. It might have drove Nininger to work harder
> in
> order to get it done.
>
> --AL Mitterling
Received on Sun 28 Feb 2010 09:47:32 AM PST