This is really, really sad. My deepest sympathies. I met Pat personally. He was in Washington in July 2007, and his stay included a Tuesday, July 24. I had told him about change ringing in e-mails before, and asked him if he wanted to sit in on one of our Tuesday practices at the Washington National Cathedral. He accepted readily, and arrived a bit after practice started; I went downstairs to bring him up. As I rang I noticed that he and Eddie Martin, one of our best ringers who had been in the band for decades (and was about to move with his wife Ann back to the UK) were talking happily like two old friends. Pat was thoroughly fascinated by all the patterns people were ringing. We had good Mexican food after and I took him back to his hotel.
Earlier this year Pat wanted to send letters to everyone in Congress, both the House (435 members) and the Senate (100 members). The postage from Australia would have been absolutely prohibitive. He asked for someone in the USA to help and I gladly offered. A few weeks later a box arrived from Australia with all the letters, addressed and sealed in envelopes, inside. He also sent money for the stamps via Paypal. On my next shopping trip to Costco I bought 600 "Forever" stamps, stamped the envelopes, and took them with me to work, stopping by the post office. Sadly, Pat received not one reply from anyone. Apparently if you don't live in the Representative's or Senator's district they want nothing to do with you. Pat carried out in Australia, and proclaimed constantly, the only way metrication really works: get everyone involved, set up a huge education campaign, and get it done ALL AT ONCE (ideally within ONE YEAR), and don't listen to the whining/whinging; it will die down soon enough when people realize just how easy it really is and that no one is converting back to the old units. It is unfortunate that the process was never done right in the USA (and a few other places); despite Pat's best efforts, the people in power just would not listen, deadly afraid that anyone they made unhappy would vote them out of office in the next election. I will miss Pat and his writings and his friendship. He was a true metric hero (and I'm sure several other kinds of hero to those around him). I'm sorry he never was able to see the job completed. Carleton MacDonald -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Pat Naughtin Sent: Sunday, July 17, 2011 17:32 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:50870] PAT NAUGHTIN Dear all, It is with great sadness that I write to tell you that my beloved Pat died on Saturday July 16. He was diagnosed with advanced bowel cancer in March 2010, and had chemotherapy and radiotherapy, and survived a large operation last year. Throughout he not only continued his correspondence and newsletters, he also gave talks to groups all over Victoria, some as large as 400 to 600 people, and some as small as 20, urging people to have a bowel scan. Bowel cancer has one of the best survival rates if detected early. Pat's Rotary club actively promoted scans and Pat helped in their promotion, but never had one himself. There will be two more newsletters, as Pat wanted to finish them at 100 - he was only sorry that this wouldn't happen in October! In honour of Pat please have a bowel scan. Wendy Pomroy
