Gene Shoemaker
Eugene Shoemaker, master of cosmic collisions, died on July 18th, aged 69
IN 1961 Gene Shoemaker, his mother and his wife, Carolyn, were on holiday in Germany. In a church in the town of Nördlingen, Mr Shoemaker, ever curious, scratched the walls to see what they were made of. To his delight, the stones contained coesite, a mineral he had found a year earlier in the 1,200-metre-wide Barringer crater in Arizona, near his home.
This article appeared in the Obituary section of the print edition under the headline “Gene Shoemaker”
Obituary August 2nd 1997
From the August 2nd 1997 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Explore the editionDiscover more
Celeste Caeiro’s small gesture named a revolution
The Portuguese restaurant worker and single mother died on November 15th, aged 91
Frank Auerbach aimed only at one memorable image
Britain’s most obsessive figurative painter died on November 11th, aged 93
Baltazar Ushca climbed Chimborazo twice a week
The last Ecuadorean ice-harvester died on October 11th, aged 80
Quincy Jones ruled popular music for half a century
The producer, arranger and film-score writer died on November 3rd, aged 91
Lily Ebert lived to share her story of Auschwitz
The Holocaust survivor and memoirist died on October 9th, aged 100
Fethullah Gulen tried to transform Turkey in the subtlest ways
The scholar, teacher and activist died on Ocrober 20th, aged 83