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

[Darryl Pitt]

While his contributions were many, I understand LaPaz's egotistical,  
toxic personality is well documented---including his enmity for  
Nininger.

Best/ Darryl



On Feb 27, 2010, at 9:57 AM, al mitt wrote:

> 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
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Shawn Alan" <photophlow at yahoo.com>
> To: <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
> Sent: Saturday, February 27, 2010 12:26 AM
> Subject: [meteorite-list] "Who is Dr. LaPaz"
>
>
> Hello Listers,
>
> Its been a crazy day in NYC today with the snow and slush but all  
> has melted
> and I received a package in the mail today of a Norton County  
> meteorite,
> weighing at 2.33g from Dr LaPaz collection. Within the package, I also
> received copies of news paper clippings From the Norton Daily  
> Telegram,
> dated May 1, 1948 from the meteorite fall, and Dr LaPaz comes up in  
> every
> article. In one of the clippings there is a photograph of him  
> standing by
> the meteorite being lifted out of the ground. I haven't read  
> anything about
> Dr LaPaz till a week ago and was wondering what significance had he  
> had in
> the meteorite community? I also Wiki him and from what I saw on  
> Wiki, Dr
> LaPaz was smart guy and got his PhD at a young age. Lastly, along  
> with the
> meteorite specimens I also received a trinitite fragment weighing at  
> 1.79g
> that he had collected from the Trinity project and was wondering if  
> people
> on the list knew much about this stuff.
>
> Shawn Alan
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