Carl Sagan and the DPS* :

Stories about Carl Sagan and

his interactions with fellow scientists

Edited and compiled by

Mona Delitsky
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Pasadena, California, USA
91109

*Division for Planetary Sciences

of the American Astronomical Society
1997
Dr. Carl Sagan
 TABLE of CONTENTS

Introduction 1
Notes 2

Stories by:

Mona Delitsky.......................................................................................
......... 3
Stephen J. Maran........................................................................................... 5
Richard French.............................................................................................. 6
James W. Head ill.......................................................................................... 7
*photo, 1981*.................................................................................................. 8
Charles Kohlhase.......................................................................................... 9
Larry Esposito................................................................................................. 10
Johnathan I. Lunine..................................................................................... 11
Jeffrey S. Kargel.............................................................................................. 12
Bonnie Buratti............................................................................................... 14
*photo, 1979*.................................................................................................. 15
Mike Belton.................................................................................................... 16
Andy Odell...................................................................................................... 17
Brad Dalton..................................................................................................... 18
*photo,1978*................................................................................................... 19
Jay Pasachoff.................................................................................................... 20
Carl Murray..................................................................................................... 21
Edward Anders............................................................................................... 22
Dave Tholen................................................................................................... 23
Laurance Doyle............................................................................................... 24
*photo, 1976*................................................................................................... 25
Jennifer Grier.................................................................................................. 26
Marla Moore.................................................................................................... 27
Carolyn Petersen............................................................................................. 28
Rev Theodore Hes burgh.............................................................................. 29
INTRODUCTION

In 1974, someone handed me a copy of a book called "The Cosmic

Connection" by Carl Sagan. At the time I was a college student studying
chemistry, and this book astounded me. Before reading this eloquent and
exciting book, I had assumed that the only chemistry done by space scientists
was the analysis of moon rocks. Carl's book opened my eyes to
understanding how much we can tell about the chemistry of the solar system
from ground-based observations and spacecraft missions. It was also a
passionate story of exploration which inspired me enormously.

I first met Carl and Annie in 1978 at a public lecture he was g1vmg m
Binghamton, New York The picture on page 19 was taken on that day. One
can observe with amusement Carl's long hair and 1970's-style sport coat.

I became a member of the DPS in 1981, at the Pittsburgh meeting. It was great
seeing Carl every year at the meeting reporting on the latest results. I was
privileged to be a visitor to Carl's group at Cornell for 2 weeks in the summer
of 1985. We were doing experiments to study chemistry of ices in the solar
system. We didn't see Carl very much during that period (he was off jet-
setting somewhere for most of it) but the few meetings we had with his
group were great fun.

I was always impressed with Carl's brilliance and insight, his enthusiasm and
clarity of thought. But the thing that was much more important to me about
him was his great humanity. Carl Sagan was a kind person, always
encouraging to young scientists, and a very down-to-earth human being. I
most admired his passionateness about science and about life. He was a very
emotional man (a somewhat unusual quality in males) and never seemed to
be ashamed of this. I also liked his sense of humor. He was a real gentleman.

Carl was a hero to me. When he passed on in December 1996, I felt a genuine
loss, a profound sadness. While on Christmas vacation, I thought much
about it, and decided that I wanted to personally do something to
memorialize Carl. This booklet is the result. I felt that historians would go to
his closest associates to find out about him, but they might fail to learn about
the interactions he had with his fellow scientists in the DPS, including some
that he had only brief interactions with, but for whom his words or actions
may have had positive long-range effects. I thank all of the contributors for
their stories. They are greatly appreciated. I hope you enjoy this book.

Mona Delitsky
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Pasadena, California
July 9, 1997
e-mail: mld@scn5.jpl.nasa.gov
NOTES:

Photo credits: Three photos are from the JPL 'Universe' (newspaper). The
photo on the frontispiece appeared in the Jan 24, 1986 issue of the Universe.
The photo on page 8 is of William Pickering (former director of JPL), Mrs
Pickering and Carl Sagan. It appeared in the Sept 11, 1981 issue. The photo on
page 15 shows, from left to right, Walter Sullivan, seated (of the New York
Times), Bruce Murray (also former director of JPL), Ray Bradbury (author),
and Carl Sagan. It appeared on March 16, 1979. The photo on page 19 was
taken in 1978. The photos on page 25 are from the JPL Photo Lab archives,
and were taken during the Viking era (circa 1976-1977).

Each entry has the name and e-mail address of each contributor and the time
that I received their story via e-mail. As I know that some people could not
get their stories to me in time, the plan is to have the 2nd edition of this
booklet to appear by the time of next year's (1998) DPS meeting in Madison,
Wisconsin. If you have a good Sagan story, please send it to me at the e-mail
address: mld@scn5.jp1.nasa.gov, or you can mail it to me at: JPL, 4800 Oak
Grove Drive, Pasadena, California, USA 91109. I will include in the 2nd
edition all the stories from this year, and all of the new ones. If people can
also provide some unique photos of Carl, we can include those as well. Please
contact me if you have stories or photos to contribute.

But first, my own contribution ...

Mona Delitsky
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
(mld@scnS.jpl.nasa.gov)
Thurs July 10 21:00:011997

The 1983 DPS meeting was to be held in Ithaca, New York. I was working as
an industrial chemist at the time; however I also had some graduate training
in planetary science, and was interested in the chemistry on the surface of
Triton. In my spare time, I did some calculations and came with up with
some interesting conclusions. I decided to send in an abstract for the DPS
meeting. My abstract stated that there should be, after cosmic ray
bombardment, such exotic compounds as azides, nitriles and nitrogenous
polymers on the surface of Triton. I felt I could make a contribution to
planetary science if I attended the meeting and gave a talk on my results.

However, when first arriving in Ithaca, I suddenly realized what I had signed
up to do. I began to feel a certain trepidation about the idea of presenting my
studies to such an august and esteemed body of scientists. Would they like it?
Would they find it interesting? Would they believe an industrial chemist
could have anything of value to say about Triton? I started to doubt this.

On the first morning of the meeting, I was standing around talking with
someone when Carl Sagan saw me as he walked by, and veered over to talk to
me. He said, suddenly,
'So. You think there are azides on Triton, do you?'
Startled by his direct approach, I fumbled for words,
'Uh, um, yeah. Uh, yeah.' I said.
Carl said,
'Oh. So what ARE azides?'
I laughed,
'Oh, they are molecules that contain an -N3 group.'
I felt amused at that moment, giving a chemistry lesson to Carl Sagan.
'How exotic. That's very interesting. I am very glad you are doing this work.
I hope you will keep it going. It's good to have people from outside planetary
science come and contribute their knowledge.'
He wanted to know why my company was interested in Triton.
'They're not interested in Triton. I'm interested in Triton ! I'm actually here
on vacation to give this talk, and keep up with what's going on in the field.'
Carl smiled, "That's very commendable." he said. We chatted a bit more, and
I distinctly remember how he would smile each time he pronounced the
word 'azides'. Chemistry appealed to him, but he seemed to act like he felt he
was a bit of an amateur in this field.

I love this story because it shows that Carl had seen my abstract before the
meeting had begun, saw something interesting in it, and wanted to talk to the
person who had written it. He had no problem revealing his ignorance about
anything; he always made you feel like you were the expert. It was an
amazing feeling to have this brilliant accomplished scientist seeking me out
to find out about what I was going to talk about. After this incident, I realized
that, if Carl Sagan could find my work interesting (without having yet heard
the paper), then probably others who would be in the audience might also
find something of interest in it. This removed all doubts I had, and I
delivered my paper later in the week with confidence and enthusiasm.
Stephen P. Maran
Goddard Space Flight Center
(hrsmaran@stars.gsfc.nasa.gov)
Wed May 14 17:16:49 1997

Some years ago, I was sitting in a dentist's chair in downtown Washington,

D.C., nervously anticipating the drilling of a cavity. As my dentist waited for
the anesthetic to take effect before he could commence the painful process, he
said "By the way, do you know Carl Sagan?" I mumbled through numbing
lips, "I've known him for years and in fact I'll see him in Washington this
week." Excited, Dr. Fitzmorris called in his whole staff, "Listen," he
announced, "Dr. Maran knows Carl Sagan and he will be seeing him this
week." "Let me give you some more novocaine," he concluded.

I saw Carl a few days later and told him the story. "Steve," Carl said,
"Anytime it will reduce your pain, use my name freely."

5
Richard French
Wellesley College
(rfrench@wellesley.edu)
Mon Mar 17 04:40:23 1997

Carl was my advisor during my first few years of graduate school at Cornell.
At that time, I was planning to write my thesis on radar observations of
Venus. I remember being apprehensive about whether or not I would be able
to write the computer programs necessary to analyze the radar echoes from
Arecibo and tum them into something scientifically interesting. Carl's reply
has remained with me for 25 years: "I wouldn't worry too much about it,
Dick. After all, programming is just logic." At first, I thought the answer was
glib, but the part that I remember is simply not letting something that seems
difficult stand in the way of doing something you really want to do.

6
James W. Head III
Brown University
(J ames_Head_III@brown.edu)
Fri May 16 06:41:14 1997

I remember sitting with Carl next to a monitor at JPL as the first Viking color
images from Mars were coming down. As the reconstructed images scrolled
down the screen, I was intensely looking at the details of the rocks and soils
and thinking frantically about weathering, alteration, composition, etc., etc.,
and excitedly pointing things out as the image unfolded. Carl, on the other
hand, leaned back, gazed at the completed image, and said: "Well, that
confirms one of the findings of Paleolithic man. Mars is red!"

It was wonderful! His perspective that day influenced me greatly and during
the later Voyager encounters I even took the time to write poetry about the
experiences.

7
Charles Kohlhase
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
(C.E.Kohlhase-Jr@jpl.nasa.gov)
Thu Jun 19 15:40:44 1997

I typically leave my office room lights turned off, for reasons that will become
apparent later. One day Carl dropped in to say hello. As he passed by the light
switch, he turned on the lights. Without hesitation, I said "Ooops, Carl, you
just killed a butterfly". He stopped, and I could see his brain racing. In no
more than 2 seconds, he said "I understand", and he quickly shut off the
lights.

The explanation: A fossil-fuel-burning plant in Pasadena generates the

electricity to power much of JPL. The burning of these fuels releases chemical
and pollution products into the atmosphere near the plant. A small, frail
butterfly passes through the area one day and, because its tolerance is right on
the edge of the amount of pollution it is breathing, it succumbs to the tad
extra produced when my lights are turned on.

The above story shows-both the quickness of Carl's scientific mind, as well as
his love and concern for the natural environment.

9
Larry Esposito
LASP /University of Colorado
(esposito@maia.colorado.edu)
Tue Jun 24 07:41:32 1997

At the Palo Alto DPS meeting, Carl's interview with Playboy magazine had
just appeared. I told Carl I was impressed with his statements, and with his
willingness to have his comments appear in a men's magazine. It would be
something I couldn't easily find the courage to do.

Carl laughed: He obviously was not intimidated in the slightest! He added

that he had even gotten a Thank You from his father-in-law for providing a
ready excuse to buy the magazine.

10
Jonathan I. Lunine
University of Arizona
(jlunine@lpl.Arizona.edu)
Tue Jul 1 12:44:41 1997

I read "The Cosmic Connection" at the age of 14 or 15. I was really charmed by
the book, and it intensified my interest in astronomy. My mother's response
was to urge me to write a letter to Carl, and I could not imagine that this
exalted and famous professor would read anything I wrote to him, let alone
respond. Well, respond he did, with a long letter concerning advice on
studies leading up to college and grad school, and some reprints from the
Mariner 9 mission. So I wrote again ...and Carl responded again. More
remarkably, he remembered these letters well over a decade later, after I had
received my Ph.D.

Carl's thoughtfulness and willingness to write personally to some run-of-

the-mill high school student (me) made an enormous impression. Someone
who inspired millions through books and TV could easily have brushed off
personal letters, but Carl didn't. His letters encouraged me to continue my
studies and become a planetary scientist -- how many others did he similarly
inspire?

11
Jeffrey S. Kargel
USGS, Flagstaff, AZ
(jkargel@flagmail. wr. us gs.gov)
Mon Feb 24 17:18:211997

I know Carl through the media and from popular accounts of him far better
than Carl ever could have known me. In part this is because I came on the
scene in planetary sciences really just in the last 8 years or so, but in part it is
because even before then I was watching Cosmos, and before then I was
reading newspaper accounts of his explanations of Mariner 9 Mars images-- I
grew up with Carl, went to undergraduate school with Carl, and did my
doctoral work with Carl, just as all Americans my age grew up with him. The
few personal interactions that I have had were very impressive. At one level,
I'll admit what no self-respecting scientist should admit, but it's the honest
truth. I remember calling him on the telephone just after I moved to Flagstaff
in October 1992; I don't even recall why I called-- maybe it was to request a
reprint, but maybe that was an excuse just to talk to Carl Sagan. I introduced
myself, and he politely cut me off, "Jeff, I know who you are-- you've written
about cryovolcanism on icy moons." The simultaneous feelings of utter
embarrassment over the stupid way I had handled this call and my
momentary stunned silence that he, *Carl Sagan*, knew that I existed in
some small place of his cosmos, sticks with me, though my reason for calling
him does not. The only parallel in common American experience is that
which a young lad experiences when he gets up the courage to call a special
lady, expecting the worst, and she actually acknowledges that you exist.

On another level, it doesn't take long before the "stupid stage" gives way to a
professional scientific relationship. With some scientists, that means the big
bluff-- trying to pretend that you know a bit more than you really do, and
defending to the death what on occasion turns out to be an incorrect idea. No
scientist is immune from being wrong, and Carl was no exception, but the
one time I pinned an error on him he was gracious as anyone could be, he
acknowledged his error in no uncertain terms, but showed no sign of
embarassment-- the sure sign of someone who has a long record of being
right most of the time yet accepting his humble place as a mere observer
trying to do his best in interpreting something far greater than him/herself.

Carl Sagan was among the founders of modern thinking about Mars-- the
general notion that Martian climate was once warm and wet (or just plain·
wet and icy) and has undergone a distinct change to colder or at least drier
conditions. He was a central figure in the development of this hypothesis in
his interpretive and theoretical work regarding ancient Martian valley
networks following their discovery during the early 1970's Mariner 9 mission.
But his insights were developing even during the 1960's Mariner flyby
missions. The imagery relayed by those probes was a fuzzy foreward of better
 things to come, and anyone daring to interpret the early Mariner images was
bound to fail only half the time, if you were lucky. Carl's time came in a
report based on Mariner 7 images of the Martian south polar area, but he
didn't recognize his error for 2 decades, clearly because he was busy modeling
Titan's greenhouse atmosphere, contemplating First Contact, and generally
moving forward the frontier of exploration. On November 4, 1992, Carl wrote
to me in response to a paper that had just come out by me and Bob Strom; we
had claimed evidence for possible ancient Martian glaciation in a paper that
in my own judgement stands a 50 / 50 chance of proving every bit as wrong as
Carl's paper was (there are some scientists who would grant me smaller odds
of success). Carl wrote me, "I enjoyed reading your article on Mars
glaciation ... as far as I know, the earliest claim of morphological features
indicative of glaciation on Mars is contained in the enclosed paper. With
every good wish, Cordially, Carl Sagan," signed with that simplest of possible
signatures, an elongated "C," that I think of as standing alternately for either
"Courtesy" or "Courage." The courtesy seemed to shine in his everday
communications, and his courage shined in his many landmark publications.
His politeness only became more apparent after I wrote to thank him for the
reprint of his paper, for his kind words, and for his historically important fact.
I also pointed out that what he had interpreted in his paper as glacier-
deposited moraines were in fact the escarpments in the southern polar
layered deposits that only later were fully resolved in Mariner 9 and Viking
Orbiter images. Carl responded with as much graciousness as in his earlier
letter. He acknowledged his error, thanked me for pointing it out, and
wished me well.

Carl's greatest impact on me came from one of his public lectures just a
couple years ago. He pointed out in his eloquent way the habit of some
Christians to tithe 10% of their time or money to a worthy cause and to
promote Christian values. He suggested that scientists should adopt this
habit and tithe 10% of their time and mental energies into communicating
with the public about planetary science or about whatever it is that they do
and about what motivates them to study whatever they study. I am certain
that I fail to meet Carl's 10% standard, and certainly I fail to come quarterway
to the quality of Carl's public contributions, but on the occasion when I ignore
my cluttered calendar and agree to give a presentation at a public school or to
lead a tour here at USGS, I often think consciously of Carl's ministry.

13
Bonnie Buratti
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
(bburatti@ocelot.jpl.nasa.gov)
Wed, 9 Jul 1997 19:41:37

In spite of Carl's dedicated office staff (Shirley Arden comes to mind), I always
thought he had several clones stuffed into his closet. How else could he
accomplish such prodigious quantities of work? His friend Isaac Asimov in
fact wrote a short story on this theme, and I was sure Carl was his model. I
especially appreciated his conscientious devotion to his students, no matter
what. This little story illustrates this point:

I was Carl's student when he was producing "Cosmos". He had a very busy
production schedule in the spring of 1978, but he made sure he met with all
his graduate students. He was back in town for a few days and spoke with
each of us and arranged to meet for an extended time later during the
Memorial Day weekend.

I was embarrassed to tell him I would be on vacation in Toronto. No

problem - we'd have our meeting by phone. I gave him the number of the
family I was visiting, and we set a designated time for our meeting. Promptly
at that time, the phone rang (and that family was so impressed that I was
receiving a call from a celebrity!). Shirley Arden was on the other end, and
explained that, due to unforeseen production problems on Cosmos, we'd
have to have our "meeting" about a half an hour later. A half an hour later,
Mrs. Arden called again, and she had to again postpone our meeting. I
sheepishly mentioned that I was about to embark on the foolish activity of
going to the zoo. No problem, said Shirley, just call 'collect' from the zoo in
an hour. And so I did. Professor Sagan and I had our meeting from a
telephone booth at the zoo in Toronto. This appeared to be a normal state of
affairs for Carl, because he was able to accomplish during our 15-minute
international phone meeting what most professors do in an hour (I'll spare
you the details).

He was also popular with his Teaching Assistants because he would buy us
pizzas whenever we graded tests. On another occasion, he gave me a ticket to
a Yo-Yo Ma concert.

14
Mike Belton
Kitt Peak National Observatory
(bel ton@jupiter.tuc.noao.edu)
Thu Feb 2716:30:02 1997

1} How I nearly killed Carl Sagan.

Sometimes graduate students need rest and relaxation, and when I was such a
student at UC Berkeley in the early 60's we occasionally used to play "office
baseball." This is played with a paper ball and an empty Coke bottle as a bat.
Carl was a post-doc at Stanford (maybe half time at Berkeley) and, on a visit to
Campbell Hall, came striding into our room. The timing turned out to be
excellent for I had just taken a mighty swing which caused the bottle to slip
from my fingers and fly across the room with high velocity and crash into the
door just a few inches from his head. I recall that Carl was actually speechless.

2) Carl's Optimism.
In the early 80's, at the Boulder DPS meeting, I had just presided over my first
DPS Business Meeting. Enormous potential cuts had been talked about in
Washington and various planetary exploration projects were in danger. The
discussion had been divisive, there was little concensus on what to do, my
"blood, sweat, toil, and tears" type speech had been no help. I was totally
depressed_ and disappointed by the tone of the meeting and, in particular, my
own performance.... As I left the meeting and entered the elevator I found
myself with Carl. Momentarily at a loss for words and very down, I uttered to
Carl "Why me?" He responded with a smile "Don't worry, just the luck of the
draw!"

P.S. Gerard P. Kuiper used to have lots of stories about Carl as a

student. .(Particularly his (i.e. Carl's) dislike of telescopic observing .... )

16
Andy Odell
Northern Arizona University
(Andy.Odell@nau.edu)
Tue Feb 25 09:20:00 1997

I was at DPS in St Louis, about 1980, talking to James van Allen, my friend
and former mentor, when Carl stopped by and congratulated van Allen on
being the only scientist to investigate every planet in the solar system for his
field. Van had discovered the radiation belts of earth in 1958, through the
Mariner 10 to Mercury and Venus, and Pioneer and Voyager to the outer
planets. Although I had known this, I had never put it into words as Carl did.
I think this showed his perceptive nature--took what was obvious and
expressed it, while the rest of us overlooked it.

I've used this story when people have asked me if Carl was deserving of his
notoriety. He always had something interesting to say, that the rest of us had
overlooked.

17
Brad Dalton
University of Colorado
(dalton@isidis.co1orado.ed u)
Thu Feb 27 18:40:26 1997

1) I wish i could remember in sufficient detail, but you absolutely must

include the monologue Carl delivered during an evening session at the
Boulder Colorado 1993 DPS, in which Wes Huntress had been handing out
the bad news about de-scoping Planetary to make room for the Space Station.
In his monologue, Carl had the audience in stitches as he imitated Vice
President Dan Quayle, and argued that there was no point in building a space
station just to prove we're "better than the Russians," since they had had an
operational space station for years already! It was a well-crafted impromptu
delivery that made a forceful point while using enough humor to take the
edge off and provide exciting entertainment to what was otherwise a terribly
boring and in fact depressing occasion.

2) At the 1991 DPS banquet, i took the opportunity to introduce my girlfriend

to Carl. Not wanting to call her simply "my girlfriend," but having only a
fraction of a second to pick my words, i called her my "protege," thinking that
that indicated a degree of companionship and cooperation; what i didn't
realize was the negative, "secondary" connotation of the word. Carl turned to
her and said, "Don't let him get away with that!" Which left her laughing
and me flushed .......

18
Jay Pasachoff
Williams College
(jmp@williams.edu)
Sun Mar 16 18:40:50 1997

I remember when, as a graduate student at Harvard in the 1960s, I was at a

party at which we were asked to visualize a room and its contents. Carl
started, "the room is 15 by 20" and then went on "by 30," bringing in an extra
dimension that had not occurred to others. I have since remembered his
orthogonal mind.

20
Carl Murray,
Astronomy Unit, Queen Mary and Westfield College, London, UK
(C.D.Murray@qmw.ac.uk )
Tue Feb 25 01:41:34 1997

Although "Carl" is a fairly common first name in the United States, it was
almost unheard of in Northern Ireland when I was growing up. Carl Sagan
was the first person I had heard of who had the same name as me. I cannot
claim that this influenced my choice of career, but at least I knew that people
called "Carl" could get a job in astronomy.

In 1980-82 I worked as a Research Associate at Cornell University. By that

time I had a large collection of books by Carl and before I left I thought it
might be nice to get Carl to autograph them. Dutifully I deposited the stack in
his secretary's office, asking her to call me when they were ready for
collection. The next day I had a call summoning me to Carl's office. I had
never really met him before, but he put me at my ease as we chatted about my
time at Cornell and my plans for the future. When I got back to my office I
noticed that each of the books was signed with a different message. One of
them read "To Carl from Carl".

Our paths did not cross again for 11 years. At the Boulder DPS meeting in
1993 I found myself sharing an elevator with him. As I entered he saw me
and said "Hello Carl." Naturally I was flattered that he recognised me after
such a long time, and his simple greeting made a lasting impression on me.
We never met again.

I cannot claim that Carl was a colleague or a friend -- I never had the
privilege of working with him. However, I do know that I was one of many
people who received encouragement from him and whose lives are poorer
because of his departure.

21
Edward Anders
Bern, Switzerland (retired DPS member)
(anders@phim.unibe.ch)
Tue Jun 24 10:14:11 1997

I recall Carl's debate with Velikovsky at a AAAS (?) meeting some time
between 1975 and 1985. You probably know that to refute one page of
Velikovsky takes 20 pages of scientific argument, and as his fantasies cover a
very wide range of subjects, he generally got the better of us by shifting the
debate to an area outside our expertise. This tactic worked until he
encountered Carl the polymath. As reported by SCIENCE, Velikovsky got so
frustrated that he stormed out of the room; probably for the first time in his
life. He had met his match.

Carl first demonstrated his phenomenal talent as a popularizer of science

while still a graduate student at the University of Chicago. In 1957, he
organized a series of 8 public lectures under some catchy title such as "Life
and the Universe". The lectures were to be held in the auditorium of the
Oriental Institute (capacity 170), but when the room had filled up and the
block-long line outside was still growing, the lecture was hastily moved to the
chemistry lecture hall (capacity 390). Even that room overflowed, so all
subsequent lectures were held in Mandel Hall (capacity 1000).

Seven of the speakers were senior scientists, such as astronomers Gerard P.

Kuiper and Adriaan Blaauw, geneticist H. J. Muller (Nobel laureate),
mathematical biologist Nicholas Rashevsky, etc. In the program, each name
was followed by a thundering blast of titles. The eighth speaker was 23-year-
old Carl Sagan, listed merely as "National Science Foundation Fellow". Carl
acquitted himself exceedingly well in this distinguished company. He chaired
the sessions with his well known poise and wit, and his own lecture, ranging
from astronomy to biology, was as lively and informative as those later in his
career. He fielded questions with skill and humor, thoroughly charming the
audience.

I did find a 1981 article from Omni magazine that refers to a Univ of Chicago
campus lecture series titled "The Creation of Life and the Universe." The
article, which is not entirely flattering, recounts a story by Carl C. Brandt,
another classmate and later a lab director at Goddard. Brandt recalled that,
Carl (age 22) announced on Dec. 29, 1956, at a meeting of the Society for the
Study of Evolution in New York, that "organisms could flourish on Mars." It
also recalls that Carl, at about the same time, walked into the alumni
magazine office and told then-editor Felicia Holton that he would like to
write for the public, penning for her an article called "Life on Other Planets?"

22
Dave Tholen
University of Hawaii
(tholen@hale.ifa.ha waii.ed u)
Mon Mar 3115:46:541997

The Guy or the Gunk?

The first time I "met" Carl Sagan (though not face to face on this particular
occasion) was during the Saturn conference in Tucson, which as I recall was
in 1981. Carl's talk was scheduled the day before mine, and during his
presentation, he referred to some materials that he had dubbed "tholins", a
word I gather he took from the Greek language. He later described one of
them as an "intractable polymer", which gave me the idea of a witty way to
start my own presentation the next day. When the time came, I was still
unsure whether I should use the new introductory remark or not, but after I
was introduced by the session chair, I heard a sort of murmur ripple through
the audience, so I assumed that they recognized the similarity between my
surname and the material called 'tholins' that Carl had spoken of the
previous day, which gave me the last bit of motivation I needed to start with:
"Well, I've been called many things in my life, but yesterday was the first
time I've been called an intractable polymer." The remark got a good chuckle
from the audience as well as a nod and slight smile from Carl; it also helped
to relax me, given that this was one of the first times I had given a
presentation at a scientific meeting.

A couple years later, when Cornell hosted the Natural Satellites meeting in
Ithaca, Carl had a reception at his house on the gorge, and when I arrived we
had a chance to chat. He started by apologizing, but I told him no apology was
necessary, and that we've actually had some fun with the situation. I went on
to explain that the coincidence didn't end with just the name; I noted how
Carl had occasionally referred to a "tholin haze layer above Titan", and I
explained that my hometown is named Hays, and that it would be easy to
prove that a "Tholen Hays layer exists above Titan" by taking a layer of
pictures with me and the city name in the same shot arranged above the word
Titan. He encouraged me to do that, so the next time I was home, I had my
dad take pictures of me reading the Hays Daily News, standing next to the
Hays City Limit sign, and standing at the Hays High School entrance. I later
taped them to a piece of paper containing the word Titan in block letters,
photographed the ensemble, and sent copies of the slides to Carl. He had the
proof that he wanted!

Dave Tholen (the guy, not the gunk)

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 Laurance R. Doyle
NASA Ames Research Center (SETI Institute)
(doy le@galileo.arc.nasa.gov)
Wed Jul 9 18:04:43 1997

Carl (and Dave Pieri at JPL) pulled me out of the fire often when I worked at
JPL - I would get into trouble with the management for working directly with
the Voyager Imaging Team. So, there are many stories of appreciation. But
one come to mind is this:

I had just returned from my 10-year high school class reunion. I had
mentioned that I was working as an astronomer to one of the teachers
(Richard Lucore) who had been one of those teachers that go to bat for the
kids - a great guy. He said, "Say, you haven't met Carl Sagan, have you?
He's my hero!" When I replied in the affirmative he was so excited and
asked me all sorts of questions about his hero.
I relayed the story to Carl (and to his then-secretary Shirley) when I got back
to work and, with his usual forebearance, Carl smiled. About two weeks later
I received a book in the mail (Broca's Brain) from Cornell. I opened it up and
it was signed "For Mr. Lucore, Laurance Doyle's favorite teacher. With every
good wish, Carl Sagan." I can't tell you how much that meant to me - but
especially to Mr. Lucore. In a way, Carl really let us all say thank you to a
great teacher. He was, of course, our hero too.
I

ol
I hope that little story can convey a little of what I owe to Carl's
thoughtfulness and help through the years. I'm right now looking for
terrestrial-sized planets at Lick Observatory - and I know that would have
pleased him greatly also.

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Jennifer A. Grier
University of Arizona
(jgrier@lpl.arizona.edu)
Tue Jul 1 17:54:47 1997

I'm not sure exactly what you intend to publish in terms of stories and
anecdotes about Carl Sagan. I have included a short blurb below about my
own feelings, just to have a chance, perhaps, to say "Thank you" to the man
who made me love the planets ...

In a sense, I feel indebted to Carl Sagan. He was the single most influential
factor in my coming to love planetary science. While my parents sat
snoozing in their easy chairs, I sat riveted to the TV, watching episode after
episode of Cosmos. I received the hard cover version as a gift as soon as it
came out, and read it cover to cover at least ten times. As a 6th-7th grader, I
found the imagery very powerful, direct, and surrounded by an aura of awe
and mystery about the universe. I'd always loved the night sky, but now I
wanted to find out why EVERYTHING worked the way it did. I know many
of .my peers feel the same. So now I get the chance to say "Thank you" for this
wonderfu~ gift, something I never got the chance to say in person.

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Marla Moore
Goddard Spaceflight Center
(ummhm@lepvax.gsfc.nasa.gov)
Thu Jul 3 11:33:40 1997

During the fall of 1974, while in Ithaca for a year, I enrolled in a Planetary
Physics course at Cornell taught by Carl Sagan. Having experienced years of
courses as a physics major, I was surprised by the excitement and relevance
that Carl brought to the course. He would present the most rigorous
treatment of the physics of planetary atmospheres and then apply the ideas to
new data on Jupiter or Venus with great enthusiasm. He tied the course to
real-time science. He was able to direct each of us to an idea for new research
based on a recent journal article describing measurements from a spacecraft
such as Pioneer 10. He wanted us to look for new physical insights (not just
massage the data) and many students were encouraged to tum their resulting
paper into a journal article. His course was a turning point in my career
since it led me to change my major to astronomy and I went on to finish a
degree in astronomy at the University of Maryland.

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