I've been collecting now for over 60 years. First specimen wasn't one mineral, it was a rock (granite) but it sparkled. A friend of my father told me how it formed, and I was hooked. He mentored me for five years, teaching me some botany along the way. Truth be told, I pestered him after school, and he was gracious and patient enough to become a good friend

Some years later, after belonging to several clubs and collecting at a large number of Southern California sites, I was offered a small mining engineering scholarship at the Missouri School of Mines. Had to look up mining in a dictionary. One of my local club collecting friends was a mineralogist at Standard Oil. He advised I give mining a go, as it would with a strong geology background multiply my job possibilities. My earlier plans to become a mineralogist went by the by, and a Bachelor's in Mining and Master's in Geological Engineering followed. I loaded up on all the geology courses I could take. Where I could, collected at the mines I worked at, but sadly more time was spent in coal and sand/gravel than the interesting stuff. I know more about mining permits than any rational person should be burdened with.

After a long quiet spell, became a serious collector again in the early 80's, and by 1988 I was a confirmed carbonate freak. Sixty plus species and 1200 specimens later, I became more focused. First on Smithsonite in general, and then Smithsonite solely from Tsumeb. Also got hooked on Dolomite from Tsumeb, especially casts. A small group of the other Tsumeb carbonates rounds out the main collection.

The collection is now gone. Illness and a pending move and serious downsizing led me in early 2016 to disburse the collection, and put it into the hands of the next generation of collectors.

My focus is on color, morphology, and associations. And while I had many lovely display rocks, many were in the drawers because they were just plain good Tsumeb rocks. With over 600 Smithsonite and Dolomite specimens, including 150 casts, there was no lack of interesting things to study and contemplate. The endless variety of Smithsonite variations from Tsumeb is truly a wonder. My wife asked me some years back when I would stop acquiring pieces. I told her I would quit when there was nothing new to add. She has finally caught on to the fact that for Tsumeb, there will always be something new.