Found on the discount rack.
Last year I bought several identical calanders, sometime in February or March (very late in the calendar-purchasing season) at the grocery store we usually shop (I'd say 'frequent', but who 'frequents' a store these days?).
Each calendar contained landscape photographs of mountain ranges, rushing high country rivers and such. Since it was already 2004, these were in a box way in the back on the 'cheap' rack, next to expired granola bars and half-opened packages of hair dye. At 99 cents each, they were just what I was looking for. Of the three I picked we sent one to a family friend in Michigan, my wife took one and I was pleased to hang the last on in my office for the rest of the year.
It expired this month and was time to pull it off the wall.
Tossing it seemed a waste of some beautiful imagery, so I put it aside. This morning I picked it up, ready to discard it once again when I noticed the calendar had been self published by a photographer named Larry Burton and printed in Missoula, Montana. Having been born in Missoula, I was curious.
I googled his name. Turns out he died last August of prostate cancer at the age of 65.
From The Missoulian:
"Burton started college at the University of Arizona, then transferred to Northern Arizona University, where he earned bachelor's degrees in electrical engineering and physics, and a master's in pure mathematics."
"Geshell said Burton was a year short of his doctorate at the University of Montana when "he decided he'd rather be outside photographing, than inside next to a blackboard."
Burton was also well-known in skiing and mountain-climbing circles, she said".
According to the article, Burton stood in for actor Robert Redford in scenes for the movie "Downhill Racer," and appeared as a skier in a James Bond movie.
Burton spent countless hours hiking in the nearby Absaroka-Beartooth Mountains, fly-fishing with a bamboo rod his father gave him.
He used the same fishing rod for half a century.
His ex-wife, Sylvia Geshell, was also his (then) current business partner.
Sure enough, the calendar I own was written by Sylvia Geshell. How one partners for business after de-partnering a marriage is a feat, I think.
Burton is survived by his mother and three sisters. And a photo collection of approximately 125,000 images. No childern were mentioned.
He seemed an interesting person; someone whom I might have liked to be. Or like to think I could still be. I love my children, and often reflect on how they have changed and enriched my life. But after reading this obituary, I was shocked to realized that I may actually be 'survived' by someone whom is not my wife. That some legacy other than photos, friends, a fishing rod (or in my case a hunting knife, thanks dad) or debt will carry on past my time.
The things you can find on the discount rack.
Each calendar contained landscape photographs of mountain ranges, rushing high country rivers and such. Since it was already 2004, these were in a box way in the back on the 'cheap' rack, next to expired granola bars and half-opened packages of hair dye. At 99 cents each, they were just what I was looking for. Of the three I picked we sent one to a family friend in Michigan, my wife took one and I was pleased to hang the last on in my office for the rest of the year.
It expired this month and was time to pull it off the wall.
Tossing it seemed a waste of some beautiful imagery, so I put it aside. This morning I picked it up, ready to discard it once again when I noticed the calendar had been self published by a photographer named Larry Burton and printed in Missoula, Montana. Having been born in Missoula, I was curious.
I googled his name. Turns out he died last August of prostate cancer at the age of 65.
From The Missoulian:
"Burton started college at the University of Arizona, then transferred to Northern Arizona University, where he earned bachelor's degrees in electrical engineering and physics, and a master's in pure mathematics."
"Geshell said Burton was a year short of his doctorate at the University of Montana when "he decided he'd rather be outside photographing, than inside next to a blackboard."
Burton was also well-known in skiing and mountain-climbing circles, she said".
According to the article, Burton stood in for actor Robert Redford in scenes for the movie "Downhill Racer," and appeared as a skier in a James Bond movie.
Burton spent countless hours hiking in the nearby Absaroka-Beartooth Mountains, fly-fishing with a bamboo rod his father gave him.
He used the same fishing rod for half a century.
His ex-wife, Sylvia Geshell, was also his (then) current business partner.
Sure enough, the calendar I own was written by Sylvia Geshell. How one partners for business after de-partnering a marriage is a feat, I think.
Burton is survived by his mother and three sisters. And a photo collection of approximately 125,000 images. No childern were mentioned.
He seemed an interesting person; someone whom I might have liked to be. Or like to think I could still be. I love my children, and often reflect on how they have changed and enriched my life. But after reading this obituary, I was shocked to realized that I may actually be 'survived' by someone whom is not my wife. That some legacy other than photos, friends, a fishing rod (or in my case a hunting knife, thanks dad) or debt will carry on past my time.
The things you can find on the discount rack.
posted by d20 at 11:21 AM
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