I
was born in 1951 in Glen Dale WV and still live in the same
small town. I am college educated and a Certified Public
Accountant. I have been a controller for toy and steel
manufacturers.
I became interested in meteorites
in 1992. I was at a gem, fossil, and mineral show in
Pittsburgh, PA. One of the dealers was selling a few small
meteorites which turned out to be Sikhote-Alin shrapnel. I
didn't even know you could own a meteorite!!! I was hooked
instantly. I bought one of the specimens and started doing
research when I got home. I found a couple more mail-order
dealers and bought a piece of Murchison and Gibeon. About a
year later, I went to the Denver gem and mineral show to help
one of the dealers that I became acquainted with. I ended up
helping him at the Tucson and Denver shows the next two years.
My hobby became an obsession and I
started selling specimens from my collection as I upgraded to
larger pieces. I even started hunting for meteorites on dry
lake beds in Nevada and California. The bulk of my success in
hunting meteorites has been in the deserts of South America,
Africa, and Middle East.
My
favorite meteorite is still the Sikhote-Alin iron from Russia
which fell in 1947. It really looks like what I and many other
people think that a meteorite should look like. That fall has
quite a variety of specimen types – smooth, oriented, shrapnel,
angular, round; I could go on and on. Each Sikhote-Alin specimen
is unique in its own way. Next to Sikhote-Alin, I like the Moon
and Mars. It is still incredible for me to think that I can own
a piece of a planetary body that I can look at it in the night
sky.
I really enjoy what I am doing with
meteorites now. They have really expanded my interest in space.
