Henry Stommel (1920 – 1992)
“… We have been given the precious gift of life, a chance to contemplate a surpassingly beautiful universe, minds in which to cultivate some measure of wisdom and the companionship of other creatures no less mortal than we. If in the midst of an often crass and strident society, we have learned to love this world; if we have managed to control our avarice and learned to give, rather than to take, and above all to give ourselves to fellow human beings, then we may discover how, with grace, to give ourselves to death…. ”
Henry Stommel, from his essay “The Viper’s Jaws, ” written under the pseudonym Starbuck, … was read at his memorial service on 22 January 1992, attended by some 400 friends and colleagues from all over the world. In it he lamented the fact that an active, young mind should be chained to a dying animal body. He ended the essay with words that describe the philosophy of the man who was our friend… ” George Veronis. from the Journal of Marine Research 50(01) February 1992, “Henry Melson Stommel 27 September 1920 – 17 January 1992.”
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