Remembering 31 years ago today in Spring, Texas.  Bill was so nervous; we had some extremely contemporary vows along with his having to wear a tuxedo.

This year's Mineral DisplayTribute was written by Robert Clements and Doug Robinson, and recognizes the Mineralogical Society of Brattleboro for their donation in Bill's memory to the Arizona State Museum.

Thanks to the Tucson Gem & Mineral Society for inviting us to share Bill's minerals through a special exhibit at their show during February.  All the minerals are from Bill's collection and features many of his blue favorites.  The pictures included in the exhibit shows Bill in the field collecting the Arizona aquamarine, his foray into an ice cave in New Zealand and Bill out on survey in the desert. You can view each specimen "upclose and personal" on Mindat at http://www.mindat.org/g/663

In the March-April 2003 issue of "Rocks and Minerals", Bill, along with Dr. Robert Lauf and Dixie Barker, published an article on Gibbsite from China.  Bill was very proud of this accomplishment as well as having the privilege of working with Bob Lauf on the article.  The pictured specimen of Gibbsite from Bill's collection will be featured in his Memorial Mineral Display at the upcoming 2016 Tucson Gem & Mineral Society Show.

Barbara Sky has made another donation in memory of Bill to the Arizona State Museum.  Bill's commitment to ASM was never fully realized while he was alive; to have our mineral family members continue to honor his dedication to this institution brings much joy to us.  There are no words to fully show our appreciation; we have sent Barbara the canvas characture that was part of Bill's memorial mineral exhibit during the 2015 Tucson Gem and Mineral Show - just a small token of our love.

From Andy Thomas,Senior Reservoir Quality Consultant for Chevron - Australia : "Thought you would be interested to know that my amigo [Bill] is a co-author on this talk in Melbourne at AAPG (Geochemical Evaluation Mitigates Potential Productivity Loss in Gorgon Field, Offshore Western Australia by A. Thomas, T. Dunn, W. Williams, A. Morrison, H. Riordan, J. Rivera, B. Lawrence.)  He retired sort of in the middle of the work, so the second half and the wrap up was done by Julie Rivera.  When I gave this talk internally at the ABU (Australia Business Unit) Forum in 2014, it was ABU Forum Best Presentation.   We hope for continued good feedback at AAPG." 

Thank you so much, Andy, for continuing to recognize the work Bill did at Chevron and helping to perpetuate his memory through continued research. 

Dale Wheeler presented the Altar Flowers at his church in loving memory of Bill during the 2015 Easter Services.  Special love to Dale for this tribute.

All the mineral specimens from Bill's self-collected sell/trade stock have been donated in his honor and memory to the New Mexico Tech Mineral Museum in Socorro, New Mexico as an unrestricted donation.  Special thanks to Virgil Lueth and Bob Eveleth for making this desire become a reality.

A special thank you to Jim McGlasson of Collectors Stope for handling Bill's self-collected sale stock for the past year.  All the remaining items will be donated to TGMS and other worthy mineral-related causes to further the interest in young people to collect and enjoy minerals.  Thanks again, Jim, for everything - we love you.

Bill's Smoky Quartz Gwindel specimen from Switzerland was the winner of the Tucson Gem & Mineral Society's Best of Species - Thumbnail for Minerals of Western Europe.  My heartfelt thanks to TGMS, the judges and show attendees for this award and honoring Bill's memory.

The 1st Annual (hopefully) William T. Lawrence Memorial Mineral Collection display at the Tucson Gem & Mineral Society, February 12-15, 2015.  The theme of the show is Western European Minerals; everything displayed are items Bill purchased from classic and obscure European localities.

A donation has been made in Bill's honor to Archaeology Southwest for protection of archaeological important sites in the Southwest; areas Bill loved to visit and learn from.  From Dr. William H. Doelle, President and CEO of Archaeology Southwest: "We are honored to remember Bill through our work."  http://www.archaeologysouthwest.org/what-we-do/initiatives/

A note from "family" - Bridgett Kana:

"I have been listening to a lot of Van Halen over the past few weeks and everytime I hear this song I think of you and Bill.  It makes me smile.  :)"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RPx6A3gKiA

Overwhelming love to Rob Lavinsky, Kevin Brown and the entire staff of The Arkenstone, and to Jim and Gail Spann, for embracing me over the weekend at the Dallas Mineral Symposium.  Rob's commitment to not letting Bill's memory fade means so much to our family.  The love and support shown to me over the weekend by many in the mineral collecting hobby had a great impact on me and was very therapeutic.  I am looking forward to continuing to be a part of this vibrant community to honor Bill and his deep, intense love for minerals - stay tuned!

A donation was made in Bill's memory to Archaeology Southwest and their continuing work of Preservation Archaeology in the Southwest.   Special thanks to Patrick Lyons for getting us involved with this great organization, and to Bill Doelle, Linda Pierce, Leslie Aragon, Lewis Borok, Kathleen Bader and the entire staff of Archaeology Southwest for making us feel welcome and their love and support for our family.  http://www.archaeologysouthwest.org/

To honor Bill, our good friends, Lonnie Newton and Todd Driggers, have made a donation to the Alyssa Cares Foundation http://alyssacares.org/.  Lonnie tells me that Alyssa wanted to change the world, loved to read and loved lizards - sounds like Bill, doesn't it?  Thank you so much, Lonnie and Tood, and much love to you both.

Many Thanks to Chevron and the "Humankind" program for matching Bill's March 2013 donation to the Friends of Ironwood Forest in his honor.  The Friends of Ironwood Forest are a group of very dedicated volunteers who are passionate about perserving and protecting the Ironwood National Monument; a place Bill loved to visit and photograph.  For more information: http://ironwoodforest.org/

I did not have internet access on June 11, but wanted to thank everyone who visited Bill's website to remember my sweet Willie on his birthday.  I had a very emotional visit to the Hopi Tribal Lands this week that brought back so many good memories of our last visit there together; a place and people Bill was very passionate about.

Hiram Patterson just advised that he was the winner of Bill's Polyhedron from the "Hoppel" Collection sold through Heritage Auctions.  This polyhedron was from Bill's original "rock" collection; Bill purchased the rough material from a dealer in South Texas and cut and polished it.  Bill consigned it to RSI; RSI sold it to Oswalts at the Cincinnati show.  To know this piece is in Hiram's and Susan's collection is so special - as they both have been special to us for so long.

My heartfelt thanks to Brian Kosnar and Bryan Swoboda for this wonderful gift.  Their love and respect for Bill is expressed in every second of this video.  Thank you both for letting me share Bill's Celebration with his friends around the world.  http://youtu.be/fZpIkwr9wdU

One of Bill's favorite mineral localities was Picher, Oklahoma and one of his absolute favorite Calcite specimens was one from the Mid-Continent Mine with a water bubble in the scalehedron that he purchased from Stan Esbenshade.  This link -  http://www.nbcnews.com/news/investigations/last-residents-picher-oklahoma-wont-give-ghost-town-n89611 - from today reminded me of when we were in Picher to participate in our very dear friend's (Dale Wheeler) wedding several years back at the very tiny Episcopal church in Picher.  Bill went scambling around several of the toxic piles described in the story the day after the wedding, happy as a clam.  He didn't find any great specimens, but he could at least claim he was there and found a few metal relics that he treasured.  I know there are pictures and will post when I find them.

I grew up around Jaye and her parents doing the shows with my parents. Loved Bill like family from the first timeI met him.Always looked up to Jaye as my adopted big sister and the nicknames "Sis" and "Bro" are something we have called each other for as long as I can remember. We were at Oklahoma City doing the show and he and I decided to do a quick run through the flea market that was next door. Just as we were getting ready to head back to the Gem Show , we rounded a corner and some guy was selling trail mix. "Want a free sample ?" ... I declined , the guy's response was the birth of a nickname : "That's ookay , here give some to your dad" ..... I turned around and the only person standing there was Bill , needless to say , we laughed like crazy at that over the remainder of the day ..... the nickname stuck and over the years we had MANY odd and great times where we would be somewhere together and yell "Sis" , "Bro", and especially "Dad" towards each other to many varied responses ...... People at the shows would always look and say : Dad ? Was funny as hell and a great inside joke that the 3 of us will have forever. 

So much love to Pam and Phil Parker for their donation in Bill's memory to the The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.  Tribute gifts such as this mean so much, especially with the battles both of our families are facing.  Love you both and thank you for honoring Bill in this way.

The Mineralogical Society of Cleveland honored Bill with a gift in his memory to the American Federation of Mineralogical Societies Scholarship Foundation.  Heartfelt thanks to Janet, Paul, Anne (with special memories of Bill Cook) and all of our friends in the Society for this most generous and heartwarming gift.

One of Bill's great joys in life was sippin' and sharin' his precious bottles of Garrison Bros Texas Bourbon.  My thanks to Dan on the Bourbon Blog for his kind comments and thoughts.
http://blog.garrisonbros.com/2013/11/01/garrison-brothers-introduces-texas-first-single-barrel-straight-bourbon-whiskey/#comments

From a card sent by Arlene Nakanishi and Mike Mizutani:
"One of our ealiest memories of Bill was while at the Costa Mesa Show.  We were eyeing an expensive quartz piece in Dave Bunk's booth, which was next to The Rocksmiths.  We hesitated because it was expensive for us back then in our collection.  At that point, Dave didn't know us and we didn't know him.  Bill took it upon himself to get Dave to give us a discount, in true Bill form - cajoling and proding.  In the end, Dave relented!  We both love that story and will always remember Bill in that way." 

Our good friend, John Veevaert, mentioned the Celebraton of Life in his Tucson Show Report #1 http://www.mineralshows.com/tucson2014/report1.shtml. He also pictured Marvin Todacheenie, the wonderful Navajo Flutist who provided music both during and after the tribute presentations.  Thank you so much, John and Ronna, for making Bill a part of your Tucson show experience this year.

My sincere and heartfelt thanks to TGMS Members Pat and Timothy McClain for coordinating Bill's selling table at the TGMS Club Sale and refunding the table fee in Bill's honor.  Bill was so much looking forward to this event, and worked very hard cleaning and prepping minerals he self-collected to offer for sale.  I will always be grateful to Pat and Timothy for taking on this responsibility when I could not.  And, many thanks to all who purchased Bill's minerals - I hope you will enjoy them as much as Bill did.

Our dear friend Bryant Harris has made a memorial donation in Bill's name to Camp Mak-A-Dream, a cost-free camp designed to enhance the quality of life for children and young adults with Cancer.  Love you so much, Bryant and Thank You for remembering Bill in this way.

Special heartfelt love and sincere thanks to the following special friends and family for your overwhelming love and support:

Andy and Sally Thomas
Ms. Sandra Um
Raymond and Barbara Glass
Teri and Bart Birdsall 
Ann Treverton (Gift to ASM) 
Gail and Carl Huntley (Gift to ASM)
Hong Mei and Lijiang Deng (Gift to ASM)
Lana Loy and Steve DeCanio
Ronald L. Brown (Gift to ASM)
Barbara Sky (Gift to ASM)
Doug and Teri Wallace  
Roy W. Jones, Jr. (Gift to ASM)
Dorothy Beeler and Michael Ruelman
Dennis Thompson
Jim and Imelda Klein 
Arlene Nakanishi and Mike Mizutani
Ben and Marie Cutts and family 
George and Judy Megerle (Gift to ASM)
Richard Olsen (Gift to Archaeology Southwest)

And, a special mention to Les Presmyk and Dr. Virgil Lueth for their most sincere help with a situation involving Bill's memorials and remembrances.

Loving Thanks to Shirley Crabtree for donating to the Arbor Day Foundation in Bill's honor and having 25 trees planted and registered in Bill's memory in the Superior National Forest in Minnesota.  With Bill's love of the outdoors, what a wonderful and caring tribute.  Love you so much, Shirley.

Thank you so much to the following Gem & Mineral Societies for their tributes to Bill during their annual shows:

Knoxville Gem & Mineral Society, October 18 & 19, 2013  - Special thanks and love to Dr. Robert Lauf who dedicated this year's show to both Bill and our dear friend, Neal Pfaff.
 
Houston Gem & Mineral Society, November 8 - 10, 2013 - Special thanks and love to David Gardner, who honored Bill during the Show Dinner.


If I have missed any, I do apologize; please let me know and I will be happy to add your Society to the list.    

During the opening reception on November 8 for the Arizona State Museum's newest exhibit "Curtis Reframed, The Arizona Portfolios" http://www.statemuseum.arizona.edu/exhibits/index.shtml
Museum Director Dr. Patrick Lyons gave an emotional and heartfelt tribute for Bill and honored our family with special recognition for our sponsorship of the exhibit.  Bill loved photography, and was very excited about the Edward Curtis exhibit. Our deepest thanks to Dr. Lyons, Associate Director Dr. Michael Brescia, Exhibit Curators Janelle Weakly and Aleta Ringler. 

My heartfelt thanks to Rock Currier who wrote a stirring memorial for Mindat.org.
http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,6,308154,308308#msg-308308

Thank you, Lizanne and Phil, for your wonderful Tribute from Bill's Chevron Family.

October 14, 2013

Houston, Texas

ETC Colleagues,

I am deeply saddened to advise you of the passing of a recent Chevron retiree and friend, William (Bill) Lawrence who passed away on Wednesday, October 9, as a result of a tragic accident.  Bill was a Geo Technologist within the Rock and Fluids Characterization Unit within RPE where he was responsible for leading Scanning Electron Microscopy efforts and was instrumental in purchasing the Environmental SEM and the Field Emission SEM. 

Bill joined Texaco’s Exploration and Technology Department in 1985 where he managed the core and sample inventories and core layout facilities at Briarpark.  He developed strong relationships with many of our ETC and BU Earth Scientists.  Bill was also an active lab safety coordinator and his involvement in VPP was instrumental in Chevron attaining Gold certification by OSHA.  This continues to this day to be a cornerstone for the Briarpark facility.

Bill will be remembered by his colleagues for his knowledge and love of minerals.

Our condolences go out to Jaye and his entire family at this difficult time.

There will be a Celebration of Life for Bill on Friday, January 31, 2014 at the Arizona State Museum in Tuscon.  Gifts to memorialize Bill can be sent to the Arizona State Museum “William T. Lawrence Memorial Gift."  at the address below:

Arizona State Museum

Development Office

1013 E. University Blvd.

Tucson, AZ 85721

For this article written by Ann Meister, please use this link:
http://www.mineralsocal.org/bulletin/2013/2013_Nov.pdf

Thank you, Annie, for your thought provoking comments and article.