[meteorite-list] Richard Norton

[MeteorHntr 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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