Dick Pugh.

CML member Dick Pugh is a long-time meteorite enthusiast, educator, and field scientist who graduated from Portland State University and went on to teach science for 30 years at Cleveland Highschool in Portland.  He has spent decades giving lectures on meteorites and currently is the face of CML's outreach program.  He has donated many specimens to CML from his private collection, including many "non-ordinary" ordinary chondrites.

Edwin Thompson (at right, with son Patrick). 

"I have been mystified by space science since an early age and have always been a rock hound.  My siblings and I would sleep under the stars often on warm summer nights to watch falling stars and since mom was a school teacher and we lived just two miles from the site where the Willamette meteorite was found, I new what meteorites were and where they came from by the age of 5 years. The Willamette site was one of my favorite childhood picnic places. By the age of sixteen I felt that meteorites were the ultimate rock and had a few in my rock collection. My first meteorite was a 272 gram Canyon Diablo iron that was purchased from Harvey Nininger for $1.00! In the mid-1980's I began buying and selling meteorites as a effort to develop my current business; E.T. Meteorites. The business is based in Lake Oswego, Oregon after many years of work on the road doing 48 gem and mineral shows per year. In my life I have had the opportunity to live my bliss and have handled countless pieces of extremely rare and passionately sought after meteorites. Dick Pugh has been my mentor for 25 years and the creation and development of C.M.L. is a long time dream of ours that is now a rapidly growing reality." 

Gene Frederiksen (left center, next to wife Susan),
together with Alex Ruzicka and Melinda Hutson. 

"I started collecting meteorites in 1999. I wanted my first  meteorite to be a good one so I bought one from MARS - a Zagami shegottite. Soon after I bought the book  "Rocks from Space" by Richard Norton and decided to start a collection that would have every meteorite classification in it. As I was going through this process, I tried to learn the  differences and soon bought the Catalog of Meteorites.  I found the most fun to me was the hunting for the "rare" one. Through the use of the internet, I was able to search out new finds from around the world and became in contact  to most meteorite dealers and meteorite researchers.

"One day while going through the Catalog of Meteorites, I came  across the meteorite "Hardwick". Very cool as I had grown up in Hardwick, Minnesota. As a child in Hardwick,  we had never heard that there was a meteorite from Hardwick (I think that was because it wasn't socially accepted that there was anything from space, except maybe aliens  :) ).  I decided to hunt down the Hardwick meteorite and donate it to the  historic society in the area. I soon found  a slice of this meteorite (very lucky) and donated it to allow  those that follow to have pride in their local meteorite.  As I was questioned on how I knew it was from space and how I knew  it wasn't just a rock, I pulled out my Catalog of Meteorites to show that the Hardwick meteorite does exist (I also donated the Catalog of Meteorites to them to help future studies). I also am a firm believer in classification authentication of meteorites so I showed them that it was from New England Meteoritical Services. I was  finally convincing enough that the meteorite was accepted (although I did see something being tossed out of the window as  they drove away -- just kidding).

" I hope that PSU can enjoy and use the collection that is being donated. It is a wonderful field of study." 

                                                 --Gene Frederiksen

Peter Abrahams (upper left and right) and daughter Katie Abrahams. 

Peter Abrahams was a true Renaissance man, with a wide range of interests including the optics and history of telescopes and microscopes,  woodworking, and the collection of meteorites. He served as the President of both the Antique Telescope Society and the Rose City Astronomers, and as Secretary of the Columbia-Willamette Chapter of Sigma Xi.  He was a long-time lab supporter, who acted as the auctioneer at our fundraiser, every year from the first fundraiser through 2017, the last fundraiser before his untimely death in March 2018. He was a generous and thoughtful man who appreciated the beauty and complexity of the world around him.  Peter will be missed by all who knew him. His daughter Katie Abrahams kindly donated his collection of meteorites and meteorite thin sections to the lab.