Deceased: Richard A. Bideaux - (1935-2004)

I once suggested to Dick Bideaux that I had spent an accumulated six months of my life in Room 120 of the Executive Inn in Tucson while participating at the annual show there. This was where we first met, and it was not uncommon at hotel shows for several hours to pass between individual sales during a lull in the action. The stupefying, dull times could weigh on one’s sanity, and were it not for the many lengthy visits of Dick Bideaux and others like him, I would have quit the Tucson hotel show scene ages ago.

We talked about everything during those long visits, often several hours at a time over multiple days of the show. The candid picture of him that appeared in the Canadian Mineralogist newsletter earlier this year was taken in my Tucson room, a testament, and now sad reminder, to the hours we spent there together. While many knew and admired him for his mineralogical prowess, I often found myself intrigued by his astute and frequently blunt business sense, an uncommon trait among many “scientific types”. As co-author of the now renowned Handbook of Mineralogy volumes, Dick was clearly the driving force and economic chief of that project. His focus and meticulous attention to detail were legendary. His offer to provide a $5.00 reward for any error found in the Handbook’s 3600+ pages mirrored his commitment and belief in the quality of the work the team was producing, and all the while it supported the marketing strategy he had devised for the Handbook in an already crowded field.

Dick was a giant of man, both in physical stature and accomplishments during his sixty-nine years. Better left to more discerning and careful writers about his life (and there will be many in the months to come), I cannot recount his many contributions with great authority. But touching on a few that I knew about, it is clear that he influenced and impressed many: winning an award as a student at the very first Tucson Gem and Mineral show in 1955, being one of the founding members of the Friends of Mineralogy, a member of the first editorial board of Mineralogical Record, assisting Mike Fleischer in preparation of the first Glossary of Mineral Species, author of numerous articles in popular journals such as Mineralogical Record, Rocks and Minerals and Matrix, co-author of the Mineralogy of Arizona and, of course, the Handbook of Mineralogy. The list could easily consume this entire issue!
Convincing his father to begin a mineral business (Bideaux Minerals) in 1965 was testament to both Dick’s interest in minerals and in his negotiating skills. They operated the shop together, Dick continuing on for a while after his father’s death in 1978, and I delighted in his stories of marketing tactics, pricing and other minutia related to the mineral trade. He built a wonderful collection of high quality minerals, and I had both the pleasure and pain of occasionally selling him a good specimen, even in light of his near-physical aversion to paying a retail price for a just about anything. Being “in the business” forces one to act that way, he once confided in me. And yet, he was extraordinarily generous with his time and money, contributing to and supporting both the hobby and the science often.
Dick’s beloved Mammoth-St. Anthony Mine near Tiger, Arizona yielded the new mineral bideauxite, named in his honor, which he found during his extensive study of the mineralogy there. He subsequently co-authored the paper on the new mineral yedlinite, also found at Tiger. He spoke at many mineral symposia around the country, sharing his knowledge of descriptive mineralogy, collecting lore and mining history. His collection of mineral labels was truly astounding, and I received both thanks and critiques for the many duplicates and orphan labels I sent to him. Always the instructor, he felt it was not only important to acknowledge a triumph, but also to educate as to why an item was rejected, ensuring better performance the next time. He was instrumental in helping me reach important decisions about The Hudson Institute of Mineralogy, and I eagerly sought out his advice and his approval.

We often talked of his grueling schedule during preparation and publication of the Handbook series. When Volume V was finally done, he had already begun work on updating Volume I, and he was unanimously appointed by the Mineralogical Society of America’s Council as the editor of their newly established editorial office to update and maintain the Handbook of Mineralogy. It could not have been in better hands.

At last year’s Tucson Show, I missed a party at Dick’s house due to an FM commitment that evening. I regretted it then, more so now. That same Tucson week, I gleefully presented him with a claim for one of the few $5.00 Handbook rewards he would issue, this one for a substantive chemistry error in Volume V that had escaped all the elaborate programs he used for detecting mistakes that can creep into a publication of this size. The following afternoon, he awarded me one of the coveted checks, along with “the only hard copy of the corrected page in existence”. I cherish them both to this day, and he was secretly delighted, I suspect, when I told him I planned to never cash his check.

I deeply miss this remarkable man, a collector, author and mineralogist I greatly admired and deeply respected. It is perhaps fitting that I will never return to Room 120 at the Executive Inn where Dick and I first met, choosing instead to move with Marty Zinn and others for a fresh start at the new Clarion Hotel for the 2005 Tucson show. Old and familiar Room 120 just would not have been the same without my friend Dick Bideaux to keep me company on those slow, lonely afternoons.

Tony Nikischer - Excalibur Mineral Corporation

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