Since 1995, during the annual association
meeting and auction in Tucson, when someone
suggested that Bill Mason auction off his
PaleoBond Lab coat, Bill removed the coat, and
since then, it has been auctioned off over 28
times, and has traveled home to nearly a dozen
different states as well as Canada, the UK and
Morocco, always returning to be re-auctioned.
During the 2017 annual meeting in Tucson, Neal
Larson, past-president of the AAPS,
recommended that we honor the person or
company that successfully bids on the
PaleoBond Lab Coat, and the designation of
AAPS Advocate was born.
Over the years, the coat has been signed by
guest-speakers, notable members and visiting
paleontologists. The winner has the coat for
one year and is required to bring it back the
following year to be auctioned again. Not only
is the successful bidder recognized as the
AAPS Advocate for the year. They will have a
company profile published in the following
year's AAPS Guide, distributed in Tucson
during the Mineral and Fossil shows.
The first recipient of the AAPS Advocate
recognition during 2017 was Bill Murray of
PaleoToolsŪ. Bill began like most of us, with
an interest in fossil collecting and
preparation, early on he was bitten by the
paleo bug. Fortunately for Bill, he and his
wife Jane are residents of Utah, the state
with more dinosaur species discoveries then
all the other states combined. They enjoyed
both the search and discovery of these ancient
treasures. Bill discovered a Hadrosaurid
dinosaur during 1995 and assisted with the
collection and preparation of the specimen
(collected by the University of Utah). It was
during the preparation of these fossils that
he realized the short-comings of the tools
available to preparators.
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