My father was military, which meant we moved around a lot. What passed for family vacations were usually cross-country road trips in an un-airconditioned car between postings. To keep my three sisters and me entertained, we would make frequent stops at all manner of tourist traps, some of which were national parks. Everyone would invariably come away with souvenirs, my sisters would get dolls and such, I would get pretty bits of rock. I think I got the better deal. During the mid 1960s, while stationed in Hawaii, I had opportunity to visit the active volcano, Kilauea, and both feet became firmly planted on the road to ruin.

Some fourty years down that road now, I find myself with multiple degrees in the geological sciences and an ever-growing mineral collection, neither of which seem to have done much for my bank balance. My wife Joan and I currently run a small public relations consultancy for the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry (her area of expertise, not mine) from San Francisco. With what ever spare time and money that affords us, we are also partners in the on-going specimen recovery project at the Rogerley Mine in Weardale, England. Besides getting muddy and hanging around with a lot of sheep, this has allowed us to become "Old Farts" in good standing, and keep company with such luminaries as Lloyd Llewellyn, Ian Jones and Helen Wilkinson. Good fun.