Ted Johnson will be speaking at our September meeting. The power point presentation he will be giving, he describes as his way of honoring a collector that deserves recognition. I couldn't think of any reason why any collector wouldn't want to hear about the life and collection of someone that has contributed as much as Ron has contributed to the collecting community. About half of the localities that are mentioned in the presentation are open for collecting. His description of the presentation is as follows.
Testimonial to Ron Januzzi
Connecticut has its share of passionate mineral collectors. A few of them, such as Marcelle and Charlie Weber and perhaps Dick Schooner, (I am sure you can add or Substitute a couple of Bristol’s members here), can be considered to be “iconic” Connecticut mineral collectors. These individuals were passionate about their hobby but more importantly they willingly shared their passion with others. Ron Januzzi is one of these people. Born on June 13, 1929, Ron has dedicated his entire life to the study of minerals. Currently, 87 years young, he’s still contributing with two new books in the last few years. Here are some highlights of his accomplishments:
*Founded the Danbury Mineralogical Society around 1950
*Studied the minerals of the Tilly Foster Iron mine for approximately 40 years to become one of the recognized experts on the locality. This included writing the most comprehensive guidebook on the locality, as well as, several other papers.
*Field collected many sites in western Connecticut and the eastern part of New York state. He specialized in localities such as the Branchville quarry, Trumbull Tungsten mine, Robeling quarry, Roxbury Iron mine and many, many more.
*He conducted extensive research to locate the “type” locality for Danburite in Danbury,CT and the associated minerals there.
*As a result of this research is compiled some of the most comprehensive collecting guidebooks for our region. Even after 40 years these books are highly sought after and continue to be relevant guidebooks for collectors today.
*Ron also produced two children’s books on minerals, “Connecticut Minerals on Parade”, “New York Minerals on Parade”, and even an 8MM movie for kids!
*Ron operated the Pink Dinosaur Rock shop and Museum located in Brewster, New York, as well as, a Museum in Norway, Maine.
After leaving the Connecticut area some years ago, he has gone on to study the mineralogy of Maine and, currently, the mineralogy of Colorado. In the last five years he has written at least two more books, one on meteorites and another on the minerals of the Uncompahgre mountains of western Colorado.
And he’s not finished yet. His story continues….