Category: In Memoriam and Honorarium
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Throwback Thursday #299: Macfallite
This is Throwback Thursday #299. In these, we look back into the past at ESCONI specifically and Earth Science in general. If you have any contributions, (science, pictures, stories, etc …), please send them to esconi.info@gmail.com. Thanks! email:esconi.info@gmail.com. This post is a follow up to last week’s Throwback Thursday, where we mentioned the mineral species Macfallite.
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Fossil Friday #295: Juvenile Dvinosaur From Mazon Creek
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #295. Expect this to be a regular feature of the website. We will post fossil pictures you send in to esconi.info@gmail.com. Please include a short description or story. Check the #FossilFriday Bluesky/Twitter hash tag for contributions from around the world! We have a particularly special Mazon Creek fossil to share
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Fossil Friday #284: Alethopteris lonchitica
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #285. Expect this to be a somewhat regular feature of the website. We will post any fossil pictures you send in to esconi.info@gmail.com. Please include a short description or story. Check the #FossilFriday Bluesky/Twitter hash tag for contributions from around the world! We have a very special seed fern
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Throwback Thursday #283: The Strip Mines
This is Throwback Thursday #283. In these, we look back into the past at ESCONI specifically and Earth Science in general. If you have any contributions, (science, pictures, stories, etc …), please send them to esconi.info@gmail.com. Thanks! email:esconi.info@gmail.com. This poem first appeared in the September 1964 edition of the ESCONI newsletter. Written by Gene Falada, it was
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Paleontologist Mark Norell (Coolest Dude Alive) RIP (1957-2025)
This announcement is from the Witmer Lab at Ohio University. I’m shaken by the news of Mark Norell’s passing—a good friend, a trusted colleague, and a giant in our field. Coincidentally, I got the news as I was working on my talk for the International Symposium on Asian Dinosaurs in Fukui later this month. Here’s
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Throwback Thursday #273: Remembering Floyd Rogers
This is Throwback Thursday #273. In these, we look back into the past at ESCONI specifically and Earth Science in general. If you have any contributions, (science, pictures, stories, etc …), please send them to esconi.info@gmail.com. Thanks! email:esconi.info@gmail.com. —————————————————– Will a heavy heart, we bring news of the passing of Floyd Rogers in South Africa.
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Mazon Monday #274: George Langford Sr. Passes Away on June 16th, 1964
This is Mazon Monday post #274. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Recently, I ran across the letter from George Langford Jr. upon the death of his father – George Langford Sr. The letter is the subject of this post and follows below. George Langford Sr. is giant in the history
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Mazon Monday #265: Historic Collectors – John and Lucy McLuckie
This is Mazon Monday post #265. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. John McLuckie, a prominent figure in the history of Mazon Creek fossil collecting and an early member of ESCONI, was well known—along with his wife Lucy—for their extraordinary fossil collection. The two are pictured together on the left in
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Throwback Thursday #261: Roger Bohn
This is Throwback Thursday #261. In these, we look back into the past at ESCONI specifically and Earth Science in general. If you have any contributions, (science, pictures, stories, etc …), please send them to esconi.info@gmail.com. Thanks! We are saddened to share that Roger Bohn (1932–2024) passed away in October 2024. Roger served as ESCONI’s
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Mazon Monday #253: Pipiscius zangerli
This is Mazon Monday post #253. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Pipiscius zangerli is an extinct species of lamprey that lived 307-309 million years ago, during the Middle Pennsylvanian Epoch of the Carboniferous Period. It has a distinctive crown-like mouth comprising a ring of radially arranged teeth. It is known
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Throwback Thursday #237: Bruce Stinchcomb, Route 66, and Mazon Creek
This is Throwback Thursday #237. In these, we look back into the past at ESCONI specifically and Earth Science in general. If you have any contributions, (science, pictures, stories, etc …), please send them to esconi.info@gmail.com. Thanks! ——————————————————————————————- US Route 66 has been termed the “Mother Road” by some as it was one of the
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Mazon Monday #220: George Langford
This is Mazon Monday post #220. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Jim Konecny wrote this piece for the June 1994 edition of the ESCONI Earth Science News. This year marks the 60th anniversary of George’s death. He was a interesting man. His contributions were many… to Mazon Creek, science, ESCONI,
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Throwback Thursday #211: Don Auler Paintings
This is Throwback Thursday #211. In these, we look back into the past at ESCONI specifically and Earth Science in general. If you have any contributions, (science, pictures, stories, etc …), please send them to esconi.info@gmail.com. Thanks! ——————————————————————————————- Who was Don Auler? He and his family joined ESCONI in March 1967. He and his wife
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Throwback Thursday #209: Tony Sobolik, I Remember…….
This is Throwback Thursday #209. In these, we look back into the past at ESCONI specifically and Earth Science in general. If you have any contributions, (science, pictures, stories, etc …), please send them to esconi.info@gmail.com. Thanks! This was originally posted as Flashback Friday #10. It was part of the run up to ESCONI’s 70’s
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Fossil Friday #200: Peachocaris strongi
This is Mazon Monday post #200. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Thanks! If you thought, “Oh… another Mazon Creek fossil for Fossil Friday”… You’d be wrong. This special little fossil shrimp is Peachocaris strongi. It hails from the old Astoria locality in western Illinois. Fossils from Astoria came from the Sunspot
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Sad News – Long-time member Joan Bledig has passed away
It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of one of our most devoted members in the club family. Joan Bledig was known to many of us as a friend, a fossil enthusiast, and a hard-working collaborator on many ESCONI projects including the most recent Mazon Creek books. She was present at nearly
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Throwback Thursday #169: Stevens T. Norvell III
This is Throwback Thursday #169. In these, we look back into the past at ESCONI specifically and Earth Science in general. If you have any contributions, (science, pictures, stories, etc …), please send them to esconi.info@gmail.com. Thanks! As we posted in Throwback Thursday #158, the logo was designed by Stevens T. Norvell in 1950 as
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Mazon Monday #135: McLuckie Collection Donated to the Smithsonian in 1990
This is Mazon Monday post #135. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Thanks! —————————————————– The collection of John and Lucy McLuckie, who we’ve covered a few times in Throwback Thursday #55, Throwback Thursday #104, and Flashback Friday #29, was donated to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C in
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Throwback Thursday #55: John and Lucy McLuckie
This is Throwback Thursday #55. In these, we look back into the past at ESCONI specifically and Earth Science in general. If you have any contributions, (science, pictures, stories, etc …), please send them to esconi.info@gmail.com. Thanks! A giant in the history Mazon Creek fossil collecting and early ESCONI member, John McLuckie and his wife
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Remembering Dave Bergmann 1935-2020
Dave Bergmann passed away on April 7, 2020. Dave and his wife, Sheila, have been very active in ESCONI for more than 30 years. They have participated in the ESCONI shows demonstrating their collection of artifacts including fossils and microcrystals (in particular Dave had a powerful large crystal microscope with TV display monitor). Activities extended
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Remembering Dale Gallian 1954 – 2020
Sadly, we lost ESCONI member Dale Gallian on February 23rd, 2020. For a time, Dale was a fixture at ESCONI meetings and field trips, especially those at Braceville and the Larson Quarry in Dekalb. At meetings, he enthusiastically shared both collecting stories and was always eager to show his specimens. He was a great guy
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Remembering Dan Behnke July 31, 1932 – January 20, 2020
Daniel (Dan) Walter Behnke, 87, of Glenview died January 20, 2020 of Lewy Body Dementia and a stroke. The obituary is here. Dan was an Associate Photographer of both the Mineralogical Record and Rock and Minerals magazines. He was a member of the Board of Directors of the Friends of Mineralogy from 1990 to 1993.
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Remembering Clay Davis 1946 – 2020
Clay Davis in his “fossil room,” surrounded by Mazon Creek specimens. June 2013. Sadly, our friend and fellow fossil enthusiast, Clay Davis, passed away this January. His family will be hosting an informal luncheon in his memory on Friday, February 7th, from 1 to 3 PM at the Stone City VFW Post 2199 in Joliet,
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ESCONI Flashback Friday #31: Andy Hay Memorial Scholarship
As part of the celebration of ESCONI’s 70th Anniversary, here is Flashback Friday post #31. If you have pictures or stories to contribute, please send them over to esconi.info@gmail.com. Thanks! Andy Hay was a long time ESCONI member. He joined in 1976 and was a member to the very end. He wrote the Creature Corner
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David Bardack, Professor Emeritus, Biological Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago
David Bardack, Professor Emeritus, Biological Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago has passed away. He was a specialist on fishes and was responsible for naming and describing many of the fishes of the Mazon Creek biota, including early hagfish and lamprey. He was 87. Here is a partial list of his papers.
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Letter from Member
December 12, 2013 ESCONI old-timers may remember Allan Mitchell of Iowa City, Iowa, who died on November 22, 2013 at the age of 101. He sold and/or donated large amounts of interesting micro material to the micromount group on several occasions in the 1980s and was a familiar name to that group at that time.
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Obituary for Harry Whittington
Via Telegraph: Professor Harry Whittington, who died on June 20 aged 94, was the former Woodwardian Professor of Geology at Cambridge and the world’s leading authority on fossil trilobites; in later life he led painstaking research which revealed a “Cambrian explosion” and raised disturbing questions about the processes of evolution….
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Andy Hay Memorial Scholarship
From the Northeastern Illinois University Newsletter for NEIU Donors February 2004 Friends and family of Andrew A. Hay, distinguished university fellow in the earth science department, recently established the Andrew A. Hay Memorial Scholarship fund. The earth science department will award the scholarship. It will be open to earth science majors who have a grade
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In Memoriam
Don Brazda Jr, son of Don Brazda, long-time ESCONI member and former President, passed away on September 7. Donations in lieu of flowers may be sent to Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, 500 N. Dearborn, Suite 305, Chicago IL 60610
