During the 2017 annual meeting and auction in Tucson, Neal Larson, Past-President of AAPS recommended that we honor the person or company that successfully bids on the PaleoBond Lab Coat. The lab coat was originally donated by William "Bill" Mason owner and developer of PaleoBond glues and solvents during the 1995 AAPS auction held in Tucson Arizona and has been auctioned off every year since during the annual meeting. The coat has been signed by guest speakers, notable members and visiting paleontologists each year. The winner has the coat for one year and is required to bring it back the following year to be auctioned again.
Since 1995, the coat as been auctioned off over 27 times, and has traveled home to nearly a dozen differant states as well as Morocco and the UK, always returning to be re-auctioned. During the 2017 annual meeting and auction in Tucson, Neal Larson, Past-President of AAPS recommended that we honor the person or company that successfully bids on the PaleoBond Lab Coat, the designation of AAPS Advocate was born.
Succesful bidders will be recognised as the AAPS Advocate for the year. They will have a company profile published in the following year's AAPS Guide, distibuted in Tucson during the Mineral and Fossil shows.
The first recipient of the AAPS Advocate recognition during 2017 was Bill Murray of PaleoTools®. 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.
|