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)
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