[meteorite-list] Ron Hartman

[Impactika at aol.com]

Hello Everybody

Tonight I have the very sad mission to inform you all that Ron Hartman, one 
of the "inventors" of the IMCA has passed away.

Please read the note that I received from his son Jim:

Ronald N. Hartman passed away on August 30, 2011, after a brief illness. He 
was a Professor of Astronomy and Director of the Planetarium at Mt. San 
Antonio College in Walnut, California for 38 years and was well-known in the 
community of meteorite collectors and hunters. His passion for meteorites was 
kindled when he studied astronomy at the University of California, Los 
Angeles under the renowned meteoriticist Frederick C. Leonard, a founder of the 
Meteoritical Society. He worked at Griffith Observatory giving public 
lectures in the 1960s and began investigating California dry lakes for the presence 
of meteorites. He discovered the Lucerne Dry Lake strewn field in 1963 and 
returned to that site in 1999 to find more of the illusive little black 
rocks from space. Throughout his career he continued to hunt for meteorites, 
first at Meteor Crater, Arizona (when it was legal) and Odessa, Texas. He 
found, traded, bought, cut and sold meteorites as well as tektites and shatter 
cones and built up a large collection, part of which is displayed at the Mt. 
San Antonio College Planetarium and library. In 2005 he founded R. N. 
Hartman, Inc., a company that manufactures, assembles and distributes membrane 
suspension boxes worldwide.

He held a B.A. in Astronomy and a B.A. in Cinematography from the 
University of California, Los Angeles and an M.A. in Education from California State 
University at Los Angeles. Ron loved astronomy, he loved teaching and he 
loved sharing the wonders of the night sky with his students at star parties. 
He continued teaching even after he retired in 2005. He was fascinated by 
archeoastronomy and traveled to Egypt to study astronomical alignments in 
ancient monuments. He was active in the Pacific Planetarium Association and the 
International Planetarium Society. He served as an editor of the Planetarian 
Magazine from 1978 – 1981. In 1984 he received the ISP Service Award, the ISP
’s most prestigious honor. 

Ron was the oldest son of Albert and Evelyn Hartman. He was born in 
Milwaukee, Wisconsin on July 23, 1935, and moved to California at the age of 10. In 
1965 he married Petrea Nelson of Reno, Nevada. He is survived by his wife 
and two sons, James and Rick Hartman, his brother Chris Hartman, a nephew 
Christopher Hartman and niece Laurel Meable. 

If you would like to know more about Ron, please go read the Field Report 
he wrote for us several years ago:  
_http://imca.cc/old_site/metinfo/metadventures/LDL.html_ (http://imca.cc/old_site/metinfo/metadventures/LDL.html) 

And I am sure we will talk a lot more about Ron in the coming weeks.
Goodnight.

Anne M. Black
http://www.impactika.com/
IMPACTIKA at aol.com
President, I.M.C.A. Inc.
http://www.imca.cc/