God Bless You, Dorothy Hoard

Looking skyward among the big trees, 
June, 2011 on the Canon de Valle Trail

"Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
Till it's gone..."  --Joni Mitchell, "Big Yellow Taxi"

So it is, although in this case I think it was hard to not know what we had. Dorothy Hoard, a retired colleague of mine in Analytical Chemistry and more importantly, a human giant of knowledge of the natural and archeological world around Los Alamos, checked out today for that land of giant trees in the sky.

A great obit is over at Carol Clark's Daily Post. An updated obit is there too. The update indicates a public celebration of Dorothy's life will be held on 25 March, and suggests that donations be made, in lieu of flowers, to a fund set up in her name at PEEC or to Friends of Bandelier. 

May our lives be as rich and giving as Dorothy's was.

Dorothy Hoard teaches us about giant, old trees along the Canon de Valle Trail, 
June 2011, just days before they were destroyed by the Las Conchas Fire.