Thanks, Bill. On Fri, Aug 23, 2019 at 11:51 AM William R. Elliott <speodes...@gmail.com> wrote:
> *Ernie Garza* > > *NSS 13484-FE, CM * > July 20, 1938 – August 16, 2019 > > *Note:* This is the obituary sent on 23 August 2019 to the *NSS News*, > which will contain one or two photos. For a longer biography of Ernie Garza > with many photos and citations, see *The Hall of Texas and Mexico Cavers*, > established today at http://cavelife.info/ > > International caver and creative photographer, *Ernest Garza*, was born > in Brownsville, Texas. He grew up in Corpus Christi and southern > California. Nicknamed Ernie and Ernesto, he was a skilled caver, > photographer, and friend to many. Ernie passed away at his residence in > Austin, Texas, age 81, with friend Vivian Loftin by his side. His family > and friends are mourning his death, so soon after his close friend and > neighbor, Don Broussard, passed away on May 16. Ernie passed away after > recent stays in the hospital and nursing home, then spending his final > weeks in Austin, living under the watchful eyes of cavers Yazmin Avila and > Jim Kennedy. > > Logan McNatt and Barbara Vinson interviewed him in June to learn more > about his life. Logan and Terry Holsinger went through some of his slides > and photo prints to get them ready for friends to organize and scan. There > are numerous albums in storage cabinets and elsewhere. > > His cousin, Tavita Alvarado, remembers Ernie attending W.B. Ray High > School in Corpus Christi, Texas. She recalled Ernie as a diver who would > bring sea collections to his family. Rune Burnett said that Ernie worked in > undersea welding for a time. He became independent of his parents, Ramon > and Esther Salinas Garza, at age 15 or 16. He was in the Los Angeles area > for junior high, where he started learning photography. He worked in > photography at McGreggor Studios in Corpus Christi in high school. > > He served in the Army at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, in 1961-1963, where he > learned advanced photography. He was back in Corpus in 1965 and California > 1966-1994. He often came to Austin via expeditions to Mexico, and in 1994 > he moved to Terry Raines’ old house on Parkwood near Mueller Airport. He > rented 473 Limestone Lane, Driftwood, and then he bought his country place > on 444 Billie Brooks Road. > > The first caving photo we have of him was at Xilitla, San Luis Potosí, in > 1966. He made trips to the Sierra de El Abra, San Luis Potosí and > Cuetzalan, Puebla. He focused on Oaxaca, where he caved in the Huautla Area > and the Cerro Rabón. His name is on at least 23 Mexican cave maps, and he > explored and photographed many others. > > Ernie went on many trips to Mexico and a few Texas caves. He published > cave photos, trip reports, reviews and articles. He received an NSS Fellow > award in 1988, and he and Karlin Meyers received a Certificate of Merit > Award in 1993 for pioneering the Cerro Rabón in Oaxaca, where there are > many deep caves. > > In California he lived in Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Monterey Park > and Los Angeles, and he was a member of the Southern California Grotto. He > went caving with Frank Binney, Dave Bunnell, Carol Vesely, Bob Richards, > Steve Slocomb, John Woods, Blane Colton, Bill Deane and others. Ernie and > John Woods went in many California caves: Lilburn Cave (survey trips), > Church Cave, Soldier's Cave, Cave of the Winding Stair (survey trips), > Crystal '67 (Houghton's Cave). Ernie and John caved in Arizona at Onyx Cave > (survey trips), Cave of the Bells, SP Cave, Fort Huachuca Cave and Dante's > Descent. They also travelled around Nevada and made brief sorties together > into the Grand Canyon and Northern Mexico around Hermosillo. He assisted > Dave Bunnell in mapping Painted Cave, California, for years the largest > surveyed sea cave in the world. He surprised everyone by pulling out two > helium-filled Snoopy balloons that he used to measure the 130-foot ceiling. > Ernie also went on a big 1982 expedition to Mount Kaijende, Papua New > Guinea. Details of his career with citations are in a long biography > compiled by Elliott, available at http://cavelife.info/ > > John Woods said, “Ernie Garza is the studliest nerd who ever walked the > planet and an eccentric among eccentrics. He has done things that macho men > fear and yet has always remained self-effacing, gentle and kind. He is one > of the most soft-spoken men I have even known. I used to joke that he had > no adrenal glands. Both his eccentricity and his humility are legendary > among cavers. I can truly say that all who meet him – care for him. I have > never met a more affable man.” > > Ernie hardly reacted when a massive rock fall nearly nailed his caving > group in Dante's Descent, Arizona. Ernie emerged from a cloud of dust and > said, “That was exciting.” Ernie was constantly forgetting his caving > helmet. Once he bought a straw hat to replace his forgotten helmet at > Millerton Lakes Cave, CA. He taped a carbide lamp to the hat and everything > was fine until it caught fire in the cave while it was on his head. Ernie > never batted an eye. He put out the fire and kept on caving with a > smoldering “helmet.” Nothing could fluster him. > > Ernie loved to photograph caves, people and nature. He kayaked to sea > caves on the West Coast. He built a cool, wooden photo box for cavers to > pose in at gatherings. He made annual pilgrimages to Burning Man, the NSS > Convention and the Texas Caver Reunion. He was well-known for his excellent > photos, which were published in the NSS News, AMCS Activities Newsletter, > Texas Caver, and books. > > Ernie did some freelance photography and was a still photographer for a > number of motion pictures. He also did some publicity stills. Later, he > started working as a model maker and lab tech for a motion picture special > effects house. He worked on movies like Star Trek The Motion Picture > (1979), Bladerunner (1982), Tron (1982), Brainstorm (1983), 2010 (1984), > Ghostbusters (1984), and Solar Crisis (1990). There is a photo of Ernie on > a ladder next to the giant Enterprise spaceship model. Ernie made his > screen appearance in the first Ghostbusters as he was portrayed as a > levitated Chinaman holding a rubber chicken in a shot of a newspaper > article about the strange happenings in New York City. He worked for > Robert Abel and Associates, Boss Productions, Charles Eames Design studio, > Neuhart-Donges-Neuhart and Fine Arts Software. Frank Binney said Ernie had > an office right below Jane Fonda and Tom Hayden, and they met Jane. > Early Caving Trips > > Ernie is mentioned in at least 34 AMCS newsletters and on 23 cave maps > from 1965-2015. He explored many others. > In April 1966 Bob Burnett, Ernie Garza, Ted Peters, Terry Raines and > Philip Winsborough explored five caves near Xilitla, San Luis Potosí (four > were mapped). In 1971 Ernie joined Don Broussard, Robert Hanford, David and > Ann Honea, Sandy Robinson, Leslie Clapp, Rich Cooper, Blake Harrison, Dave > Jackson, Roy Jameson, Craig Sainsott and Frank Binney to explore and map > caves in the Sierra de El Abra near Ciudad Valles, S.L.P. In March 1972 he > was involved in exploring El Sótano [del Barro], Querétaro, then the > world’s deepest pit. His mapping trips are listed below and in the > biography. > > Table. Ernie helped map at least 23 caves in Mexico. These 15 have his > name on them: > > 1966, San Luis Potosí, Xilitla highlands, Cueva de la Selva, Cueva de > Tlamaya, Cueva del Salitre > 1972, San Luis Potosí, Sierra de El Abra, Nacimiento de El Río Coy, Cueva > Pinta, Cueva de los Monos and Sótano de los Monos > 1972, Queretaro, Sierra Gorda, El Sótano [del Barro], > 1973, San Luis Potosí, Sierra de El Abra, Sótano de la Cuesta > <https://www.google.com/maps/search/la+Cuesta+1977?entry=gmail&source=g> > 1977 > <https://www.google.com/maps/search/la+Cuesta+1977?entry=gmail&source=g>, > Oaxaca, Huautla, La Grieta > 1979, Puebla, Cuetzalan, Cueva Tecolo > 1980, Puebla, Cuetzalan, Atepolihuit de Nauzontla, Sumidero San Bernardo > 1989, Oaxaca, Cerro Rabón, Nita Jan > 1993-1997, Oaxaca, Cheve Area, Sistema Cheve > 2001, Oaxaca, San Juan Coatzóspam, Cueva de la Concha de Caracol, Cueva de > la Grieta, Cueva con Huesos y Viento > 2003, Oaxaca, Cheve, Sistema Cheve > 2005, Nuevo León, Purificación, Cueva de la Nochebuena > 2005, Tamaulipas, Sierra de Guatemala, Sótano de Jineo > 2009, Oaxaca, Huautla, Cueva Agua Golondrinas 2 > 2012, Oaxaca, Huautla, Cueva de las Arañas > > A Few Ernie Stories > > In the early 1970s Ernie invented “Garzaline” and solved the problem of > flashlight corrosion. He packed the interior of the flashlight with > Vaseline. > In December 1972 Ernie and others explored Sótano de Vásquez, Tamaulipas, > and surveyed over a km of passage, reaching Glow Worm Canyon. Fish Lake was > reached on a trip by others in February 1973, who collected blind fish for > Robert Mitchell and William Elliott’s research. > > In 1975 Ernie was detained by two corrupt cops in a Querétero bus station. > They took away his new machete, still wrapped in paper in his pack, and his > bottle of Tequila. They left him for a moment to see their comandante, so > Ernie gave them the slip into a waiting cab. He then flagged down a bus on > the road. > > In 1979 Carol Devine and Ernie used folding kayaks to float the Usumacinta > river in Guatemala. Carol and her husband Mike had a guest ranch in the > Petén jungle called Finca Ixobel. They arrived just after Mike was led to > an amazing discovery in a cave near their property. It was covered with > Maya wall paintings and was eventually named Naj Tunich. National > Geographic chief archaeologist George Stuart heard that Ernie was in the > cave area and arranged to have Ernie map the interior. Then they flew him > from the jungles up to the National Geographic headquarters in Washington, > DC, where Ernie helped analyze his data to generate a map of the cave for > the feature story in the magazine. They then flew Ernie back to the jungle > where he finally did his float trip with Carol. Ernie was amazed at the > whole experience and spoke of swimming in an underground swimming pool in > the NG headquarters building; he felt it was truly surreal. > In 1984 Ernie paddled his Folboat along the rugged coast of Punta Banda, > Baja California Norte. Landing on one of the few beaches, he discovered a > series of caves that were later named “Sistema Punta Banda.” Lacking a > flashlight, he couldn't appreciate their full extent, but he returned with > glowing reports of large chambers filled with barking sea lions. A huge > gray whale surfaced five m from Ernie and Dave Bunnell’s boat. > > In January-February, 1985, Blane Colton, Ernie, Laszlo Kubinyi, and Karlin > Meyers conducted a reconnaissance of the Suchitunaco Plateau, part of the > Sierra Mazateca east of Huautla de Jiménez, Oaxaca. They were able to scout > the routes up into the area and found a number of caves. They found an > enormous sinkhole that cavers had been seeking. They were the first > foreigners to visit Cerro Rabón since 1969. This was pure reconnaissance, > since their maps, photos, and information regarding trails and terrain were > inadequate. There were no roads onto the plateau, so they took a steep, > direct route from Jalapa de Díaz to the escarpment, west across the > plateau, and through the village of San Martín Caballero before descending > to Tenango. > > In March 1987 a multinational group of 13 cavers, including Ernie, spent > three weeks exploring the extensive Cerro Rabón karst. Local permission, a > sensitive issue due to nearby archeological finds in caves, was at first > refused, necessitating a trip to Mexico, D.F. A base camp was installed at > the edge of a large dolina near the remote village of San Martín Caballero. > They discovered Ojo de las Mazatecas, about 150 m in diameter and 250 m > deep. The deepest cave that was explored was Kijahe Xontjoa, 1223 m deep in > 2000. In a horizontal cave called Nita Tunso-o, a promising lead was > followed to a dry stream passage that opened up into a beautifully > decorated borehole. Abundant tarantulas were seen in this cave. > > In March 1988, Ernie, Beth Meyers, and Karlin Meyers set off from Phoenix > to meet Blane Colton, Jeb Steward, and Laszlo Kubinyi. They hiked 13 rugged > km to Cerro Rabón. Ernie led a team of cavers southeast and up the mountain > from San Martín Caballero to a large surface rift that became known as The > Fissure, or Nita Diplodocus. This spectacular cleft has two deep pits in > its upper section. > > In May 1988, California cavers reconnoitered Isla San Martin, Baja > California, near San Quintin on the Pacific coast. Amy Battista, Dave > Bunnell, Ernie, Susan Hammersmith, and Bob Richards took two boats to make > the five-km voyage to the volcanic island. They hiked the whole 5.5-km > circumference of the island, finding no sea caves, but a local fisherman > showed them a lava-tube cave up on the lava slopes. On a later trip he > found an unusual sea cave, with three levels, on the mainland. Cueva de > Tres Pisos has 316 m of mapped passage, probably making it the largest sea > cave in Baja California. > 2018. Ernie, Gilly Elor and Andreas Klocker drove the truck from the U.S. > to Huautla, and everyone else arrived at varying times via public > transport. These trips would not have been possible without support by > Ernie, who helped on language barriers, local politics, and great cooking. > > A memorial gathering for Ernie may be planned for this fall. There will be > a New Orleans jazz funeral march in his honor at the Texas Caver Reunion, > Paradise Canyon, October 12, 2019. > > Contributors: William R. Elliott, Tavita Alvarado, Kira Holt, Vivian > Loftin, Steve Slocomb, John Woods, Bruce Rogers, Dave Bunnell, Logan > McNatt, Jim Kennedy, Rune Burnett, Susan Souby, Terry Holsinger, Terry > Raines, Frank Binney, Katie Arens and Nancy Weaver. > > William R. (Bill) Elliott > speodes...@gmail.com > > _______________________________________________ > Texascavers mailing list | http://texascavers.com > Texascavers@texascavers.com | Archives: > http://www.mail-archive.com/texascavers@texascavers.com/ > http://lists.texascavers.com/listinfo/texascavers >
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