A day after the recent Denver coin show my Dad, Wilfred J Carr, passed away. It was not unexpected, although it seemed a little sudden at the end. He was 89. He had been diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma over 12 years ago. The average life expectancy for that is about 4 years. So he survived longer than expected. He had good mental function right up until the day before last, although his health and physical abilities had been declining significantly over the last several months.
My Dad was not one who would normally spend more than face value for a coin. But he had collected coins from circulation in the early 1960s and had a pile of blue Whitman folders. included with that were a few Morgan and Peace silver dollars that he received on his many assignments in Nevada. About 1970, as a pre-teen, I was interested in the old coins and my Dad encouraged the hobby, even going so far as to help me buy several coins over the years. So I credit him with where I am today.
My Grandfather on my Dad's side was quite an interesting character. My Grandfather was an educator and a diplomat. My Dad told a story about when my Grandfather took my Grandmother and my Dad on a "sight seeing" trip to Germany in late 1938. Later in 1966 my Grandfather was outed by the Washington Post as having worked with the CIA.
My Dad joined the US Navy and they paid for him to attend Princeton and obtain a degree in Geology. He graduated in 1946 and at that point the Navy didn't need him anymore since WW2 was over, so he was honorably discharged. What a great deal !
He went to work for the US Geological Survey and had a long and interesting career with them. One of his assignments of note was instructing astronauts about geology in preparation for Moon landings. In February 1965 there were three groups of astronauts that my Dad worked with at the Nevada Test Site (NTS). My Dad is not shown in this picture, but this is a typical gathering. Reclined in the back (black pant legs up in the air) is Buzz Aldrin. On the right in the front is Neil Armstrong. At the time (1965) it was of course not known that these would be the first two people to walk on the Moon.
This issue of the NTS News recorded the project. My Dad is shown on the last page with the map.
My Dad was able to collect signatures of one group of the Astronauts on an unusual post card featuring a mushroom cloud:
Tragically, four of these astronauts died not long after:
Donn Eisele: Command Module pilot for the first Apollo flight (Apollo 7).
Alan Bean: Lunar Module pilot for Apollo 12 (the third person to walk on the Moon); Commander for the Skylab 3 mission.
Charlie Bassett: Never flew in space; Died tragically in a training jet crash with Elliot See on 28 February 1966 (about a year after the NTS training).
Gene Cernan: Pilot for Gemini 9; Orbited the Moon as Lunar Module pilot for Apollo 10; Commander of Apollo 17 - currently the last human to have walked on the Moon.
Clifton Curtis "CC" Williams: Never flew in space; Died tragically due to mechanical failure of his training jet on 05 October 1967.
Michael Collins: Pilot for Gemini 10; Command Module pilot for Apollo 11.
Walt Cunningham: Pilot for Apollo 7.
Elliot See: Never flew in space; Died tragically in a training jet crash with Charlie Bassett on 28 February 1966.
Roger B Chaffee: Died tragically during ground testing in the capsule of Apollo 1 on 27 January 1967.
Here is a photo of my Dad (pointing to the map). Another geologist is on the left. To the right of my Dad is Charlie Bassett and Walt Cunningham:
After the Astronaut training, my Dad went on to play a part in winning the "Cold War". His group studied the geology of potential underground nuclear testing sites. For a time he was stationed on Amchitka Island in the Alaskan Aleutians. One of the largest nuclear tests of all time was detonated under that island, not far from Russia. It is believed that someone made a serious mistake in not issuing radiation exposure badges for the workers there. Many people who worked there later developed Multiple Myeloma. Many years later the US Government offered a significant compensation payment to anyone who developed Multiple Myeloma and was able to show that they were on the island in 1970. One of the pieces of evidence we presented was this letter that my Dad wrote from Amchitka to my Grandfather in Tahiti ! This may be the only known surviving letter with an "Amchitka" postmark (that post office only operated for a short time during the testing). At the very least, this is probably the only letter ever mailed from the Aleutians to Tahiti:
One of my Dad's favorite hobbies was classic cars, especially GM models of the mid to late 1950s. That is where I get that from (although mine are generally GM "muscle" cars of the late 1960s and early 1970s).
I just spent many nostalgic hours going through things and coins I hadn't looked at in a long time. Here are some of the coins that I bought with the help of my Dad, or that I had picked out for him to buy. We generally had a somewhat limited budget, but we were able to pick up some nice things.
1938-D Indian Head nickel with nice pastel toning:
1939-D
Jefferson nickel with even better pastel toning:
1897-S
Morgan silver dollar:
Unusual 1881-O
Morgan silver dollar with ultimate DMPL:
1921 Peace silver dollar with original ANACS photo certificate:
Key-date 1991 1/2-oz Gold Eagle that I told him to buy in 1992 ;)
1999 $50 1-oz Gold Eagle that I bought for my parent's 50th wedding anniversary in 1999. I made the text insert for the screw-together Capitol Plastics holder.
Scarce 1845 Seated Liberty silver dollar:
Nice 1908 Indian Head $10 gold purchased as an AU-55:
In lieu of flowers or specific donations or the like, we simply ask that everyone just bring back fond memories of their own departed family members.
Thanks for viewing this rather lengthy post.
Posted 10/28/2015 07:17 am
