16.xii.'11 

Hello All,

        In 1956 and 1957 I lived on Hawthorn Street in Cambridge, Mass.  Prof. R. A. Daly, whose house then was kitty-corner on the same street, learned that he was terminally ill.  Specifically he requested not to be visited.  He wished to die only in the company his family and closest of friends.  A few months later, in September 1957, he was gone.      

        I did not know JBT well.  We first met on an NEIGC fieldtrip in 1956 or 1957.  A few years later, as a graduate student from 1960-1961, I audited his "Phase" course which was an extraordinary experience.  Our subsequent meetings were rare - an occasional NEIGC trip or at GSA.  Aside from being a superb lecturer, JBT was always friendly and accessible.  He was, in short, an inspiring mentor.        

        The celebration of JBT's (upcoming) 90th was a fine event that brought together many of us older-timers, of whom some truly "came out of the woodwork."  What saddened me, however, was the Skype link.  To have a last view of the great petrologist who influenced us so profoundly, dressed in a hospital gown and on his deathbed, was deeply disturbing.  It diluted all those wondrous memories from the outcrop to the classroom.  It is those latter memories that I shall evermore recall.  Thank you for them Jim, they are well anchored.  

                                                     Tomas Feininger
                                                     Québec