[meteorite-list] 2014 Tucson Harvey Award

From: debfred at att.net <debfred_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun, 23 Mar 2014 16:14:28 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <1395616468.83199.YahooMailNeo_at_web184904.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>

List,
This? never?arrived on list?because it was in HTML
Thanks again to Geoff and Steve!

________________________________
From: "debfred at att.net" <debfred at att.net>
To: meteorite list <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Monday, March 10, 2014 5:00 PM
Subject: 2014 Tucson Harvey Award



I want to thank my friends Geoff and Steve and the esteemed members
of the Harvey award committee for honoring me with the 2014 lifetime achievement
award. I sprained my ankle on the day before the bash?and was unable to attend the
festivities. I owe so much to Steve and Geoff for teaching me everything they know
about meteorites. Ever since Mark Bostick won a Harvey award back at the old
Ramada Inn, I have been saving my shekels in hopes of ?winning" an award myself.

I would like to take this opportunity to explain what meteorites have meant to me over the last 4 decades! I saw, held and purchased my first
meteorite in May 1969 from Fred Pough who had just driven from Allende, Mexico
to Gainesville, Florida where I was attending geology graduate school. I had
read Brian Mason?s book on meteorites, but had never actually seen one. The 85
gram stone I purchased did not look like I thought?a meteorite?should. No visible metal,
very dark inside, but a beautiful glassy fusion crust. I took it to the geology
lab where I cut a small slice off and made a petrographic thin section. It was
beautiful, I was hooked and that Allende meteorite became my favorite rock. I
now have a meteorite thin section collection with over 500 slides.?

Later in 1969 I made my first driving trip to Alaska. On the return trip I stopped in San Francisco and purchased the
largest horseshoe magnet the hardware store had and then I drove to Meteor Crater, Arizona. I searched for several hours and found quite a bit of
?meteorite oxide but no unoxidized metal. Little did I expect that I would
spend hundreds of hours during the next four decades before I would find my
first meteorite. It wasn?t until February, 2012 when I found several Gold Basin
meteorites during 3 days of searching With Keith Jenkerson. It only took another 4 months to make my
second and then third finds in Yelland, Nevada, where I searched the dry lake
beds with Mike and Bill Jensen. Then In May 2012 I spent a morning in Morocco
with Adam Arronson and Hasnaa Chennaoui documenting the strewn field of the
Howardite, NWA 6560, I went back to my old ways and found nothing except the impact pit for the main mass.

In August 1999 My wife Debbie Baldwin
and I went to France with our University classmate, Jean G. Klein, who was born
and raised in Ingwiller, Alsace, which is north of Ensisheim. Jean was my best
friend in geology graduate school where we often talked about visiting his
homeland. Jean followed the example of his father Georges Klein who was a
teacher and school administrator in Ingwiller. Jean became the chairman of the
department of geology at Santa Fe College I was a faculty member and taught
geology and physical science for twelve years. For me the two must visit places
in France were the Rochechouart impact crater and the Ensisheim Meteorite.
After the total eclipse of the sun we drove down from Ingwiller and spent the
day exploring the Ensisheim area and visiting the museum and Ensisheim
meteorite. This?was?one year before the Ensisheim Meteorite Fair Began.
?I am planning on attending the 15th annual Fair in June?2014? with my wife and look forward to seeing many of my meteorite friends.

After I returned to Colorado, I decided
to produce an accurate reproduction of the famous woodcut broadsheet depicting
?The fall of the thunderstone of Ensisheim, 1492?. In 2003, I started by making
a mirror image and carve it into a large hard maple board. Then I found Rob
Barns who had a centuries old screw type printing press. We then printed the
image onto Arches handmade paper (The Arches Company was founded in France in
1492). I then learned to hand make watercolor paints using natural minerals and
materials available at the time the meteorite fell. I received a US copyright
for the image I produced. Anne Black has been selling my prints.

I have made dozens of presentations on Meteorites to the Geological Society of America, US Air Force Academy, Colorado
Scientific Society, Colorado School of Mines, Denver Astronomy Club, and too
many others to mention. . In 1995 I started a company, We B Meteorites to
supply meteorites for science and education.

I am a member of the Meteoritical
Society, Geological Society of America and a founding member of the Colorado
Meteorite Society, (COMETS) and the International Meteorite Collectors
Association (IMCA). I have been instrumental in sample preparation and having
thin sections made for the classification of over twenty new meteorites from
North America and Africa. I have worked with Gary Huss, Melinda Hutson, Alex
Ruzickca, John Wasson, Carl Agee, Ted Bunch and Tony Irving in the process of
meteorite classifications. Personally I have been very fortunate to have
made so many friends in the meteorite community since I held my first meteorite 45
years ago.?
Fred Olsen, Denver Colorado, USA?
Received on Sun 23 Mar 2014 07:14:28 PM PDT