Fr. George Coyne SJ (1933-2020)“It was just a year ago…” starts a lot of articles this week; just a year ago, we suddenly realized we were in the middle of a world-wide pandemic. But there was another sad loss we remember from a year ago, and that’s the passing of Fr. George Coyne, SJ, the iconic founder of the Vatican Observatory Foundation.
It was just a year ago that we decided to set up a memorial fund with the goal of raising $100,000 in his memory. To that end, we promised that if we reached the $100,000 goal we would prepare a book of George’s best articles, both popular and technical, scientific and science/faith. And that book would include the memorials that people left on our web page.
Well… have you looked at the web page lately? https://www.vofoundation.org/fr-george-coyne/
The fund is now sitting at $97,819.17 … which makes us just $2,180.83 short of our goal. (This is thanks in part to two large donations, from the Jesuit Community and the Jesuit Conference; but lots of you chipped in as well, and we’re thankful to all of you.
Can you help push us over the top?
Chris Graney, who many of you know from these pages, ha agreed to edit the book and we’re already starting to assemble the material. With luck the eBook might be ready by the end of the summer, and the printed book some time early next year. Assuming, of course, that we can find that last $2,180… I’ll contribute the final 83¢ myself!)
(Also, don’t forget to go to the web site to read some of the wonderful memorials that people left!)
