The Meteoritical Society Newsletter, September 2007 James Kriegh
The society is saddened by the passing of Professor James Kriegh, who was a key figure in the renaissance of meteorite search and discovery in Arizona. He was particularly well-known for his discovery of the Gold Basin strewn field, which represents a shower of debris created by a multi- kiloton asteroid collision during the late Pleistocene. Because the debris field can potentially provide a measure of the strength of an impacting asteroid and thus help mitigate the hazards of future impacting asteroids, he painstakingly mapped the locations of thousands of meteoritic stones with his friends Ingrid Monrad and John Blennert. To preserve the scientific integrity of the Gold Basin site, that team worked largely at its own expense for approximately two years before making the find public. Jim collected meteorites with appropriate permits, provided abundant material to the national meteorite collection at the Smith- sonian Institution, and sent representative samples to other museums and researchers. Jim was an Emeritus Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Arizona who, once retired, developed a deep interest in meteoritics. He became a valued collaborator and good friend. Jim was known for his integrity and gentleman's civility, two attributes often considered old-fashioned, but welcome in the field of meteoritics. I was heartened to see his repeated successes. While working on Gold Basin, he and his colleagues discovered several other meteorites. He used the notoriety of those discoveries to help educate others in the community, including K-12 students, about the scientific value of meteorites and the excitement of scientific discovery. In addition to his meteorite discoveries and years of teaching, he co-founded a town north of Tucson and is commonly known as the Father of the Town of Oro Valley (incorporated in 1974); he helped organize the Oro Valley Historical Society (2005); and was a major force behind the town's successful bid to obtain the historic Steam Pump Ranch (2007), which was built in the 1870s. Jim Kriegh enriched his community both in Arizona and in the international field of meteoritics. (David A. Kring - Houston, Texas) ______________________________________________ http://www.meteoritecentral.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list