Memorial of Eugene Edward Foord, 1946–1998

The mineralogical community lost a valued colleague and friend with the death of Eugene E. Foord. Gene, a Life Fellow of the Mineralogical Society of America, died at his home on January 8, 1998 at the age of 51 after a three-year battle with lymphoma. Gene was a career scientist at the U.S. Geological Survey where he worked from 1976 until his death in 1998. Gene was an outstanding mineralogist and he will be remembered for his significant contributions to the mineralogy and paragenesis of pegmatites from San Diego County, California. He will also be remembered for his boundless enthusiasm for mineralogy, his dedication to thorough and accurate mineral identifications and descriptions, and his willingness to work with both professional scientists and amateur collectors. Foordite, a tin-niobium oxide was named after Gene ( ̌ Cerný et al. 1988) in honor of his many contributions to the study of niobium-tantalum-tin minerals in pegmatites. Gene enjoyed practical jokes, having learned from the master himself, Richard H. Jahns. In fact, Gene was the “mystery” person responsible for “relocating” the bust of Theodore Hoover from the third floor of the Stanford geology building. Gene was an enthusiastic and animated storyteller and he loved to entertain his friends and colleagues with his outrageously funny stories of his escapades including backyard bouts with birds, avoiding landmines along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, finding stashes of frozen hummingbirds in a Stanford professor’s freezer, nearly “starving” to death in Labrador, graphic descriptions of the Russian cuisine, toying with guards while in house arrest in China, and many more. Gene was born at Children’s Hospital in Oakland, California, November 20, 1946. Gene, a RH-factor baby, had the distinction of being one of the first survivors of a complete exchange transfusion. However, as a result of the RH incompatibility, Gene was born severely hearing impaired. He moved in 1947 with his parents, Elizabeth and Delbert Foord, and his older brother William, to West Hempstead, New York. When his parents realized that Gene was hearing impaired, they took him to the Manhattan Eye and Ear Infirmary. They were told that their only education option was to enroll Gene in a special school for the deaf. However, his parents were determined to provide Gene with a normal education in their own hometown. Consequently, they joined together with other parents of hearing impaired children in Long Island and formed the Long Island Hearing and Speech Society. This was one of the first