A Tribute To AL Havrilla
Some of you may have known AL as he was a meteorite collector.
Perhaps some of the meteorite dealers may have known him better. He
read the list and was a lurker. AL Passed away Wednesday September
17th 2014. He had a long history of illness due to his diabetes. He
was born in Ohio and was a past member of the Chagrin Valley
Astronomy Club. He worked on the Hubble Space Telescope Project in
the photo lab and he is credited with photos he worked on in the book
Galaxies by Timothy Ferris.
AL was a avid meteorite collector and lived, breath, and studied
meteorites, as this was his biggest passion. AL didn't have much
money in which to acquire specimens but saved up money and would make
two, three or four purchases per year as his budget allowed. His
collection grew to about 100 nice specimens over a period of 22 plus
years. I was honored to be able to provide him with a number of his
specimens.
He would call me for my offerings, and we would often talk for 30 or
40 minutes at a time about meteorites, astronomy and what all was
going on. I had an occasion to visit with him in person twice when I
went to Washington D.C. and we went to see the national collection of
meteorites.
Due to his poor health he was put on disability and was a shut in for
a great part of his remaining years. Meteorites were his escape and
kept him going, along with reading Meteorite Magazine from cover to
cover. Also telephone calls seem to pick him up when he called me or
I called him. I know that he also dealt with Blaine Reed often and
talking to Blaine lifted him up
A few years back he began thinking about what to do with his
specimens before he suffeled off the Earth. He contacted me to assist
him with this. He had decided to try to partially donate/sell his
collection to a museum that did education and had outreach programs.
His collection could then be seen by children and adults in order to
become better acquainted with meteorites. I was able to find a great
museum for his specimens. I drove to his location in Baltimore, MD.,
and spent a day or two there and then took his collection with me,
where I later delivered the specimens to the museum of his choice.
While it was hard for AL to part with his specimens (he did retain
some) he knew his specimens would be going to a place where they
would do the most good and it would give him some credit and a small
legacy. He derived a great deal of satisfaction and some relief from
doing this.
AL will be missed by a number of us and there is now another hole in
the meteorite world.
--AL Mitterling
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