[FPSPACE] Rick Pirko

[Brett Harrison]

Sad news.

FPSPACE members who were on the 1996 trip to Moscow will doubtless 
remember Rick Pirko, the softly spoken planetarium guy from Ohio with a 
mischievous sense of humour.

Rick passed away on the 15th of this month a few days after a sudden 
neurological attack.

I only knew Rick on that trip, but he was unforgettable. Rick was a very 
competent space educator (I still remember his talk on Native American 
astronomy), and great company.  Rick, of course, was one of the trio 
(the others being myself & Rob Landis) who did that harmless but 
well-remembered prank on the Apollo-Soyuz monument.  He'll be remembered 
by better people than me for a lot more that, but his role in that story 
is for me, indicative of his character: clever, quiet, competent, 
thorough, friendly, helpful & fun.

A memorial will be held for him at the Youngstown State University 
Planetarium on the 25th of October.

He will be sorely missed.


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Brett Harrison
Australia
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"I don't appreciate poetry--I don't mind admitting that now; I don't 
understand poetry. We studied it in high school and college, but they 
never told us why it was good. I got A's on all the exams--"Hail to thee 
blithe spirit, bird thou never wert"-- what the hell does that mean? I 
have no idea."

-Tom Lehrer