[meteorite-list] Ron Hartman

[Michael Mulgrew]

Sad news indeed.  He was a jewel in southern California's crown and
will be missed.

With sympathy,
Michael in so. Cal.

On Sat, Sep 10, 2011 at 10:51 PM, <Impactika at aol.com> wrote:
>
> 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/
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