Sometimes you will meet a person for a week or two on our eclipse travels. Perhaps the details below will give you insight into a few of the remarkable people who have shared the love of solar eclipses with us.

DENISE NYE (1946-2006)

Denise Nye was born May 24, 1946 and passed away very suddenly on March 13, 2006 at age 60. She was born in Paris, France and moved to Montreal Canada at age 5. Her parents had foresight to put her in English-speaking schools but she spoke French at home. She graduated from McGill University with a degree in English Literature. She met her husband, Derald Nye, in February 1972 in Australia and was married in Boulder CO on April 9, 1973. She became a US citizen in 1981. She worked at IBM for 20 years, retiring in May 2001. She and Derald traveled to all the continents and over 90 countries and island groups. They had recently returned from the world's most remote inhabited island, Tristan da Cunha. She had traveled to 28 total and annular solar eclipses and was scheduled to leave on her 29th eclipse trip on March 17, 2006. She and her husband were honored when the International Astronomical Union approved the name of asteroid number 3685, DERDENYE for them.

MARY SCHIFLETT (1925-2007)

EULOGY FROM DAVID WEBER

I met Mary in November of 1994 while traveling with a group to South America to observe a total eclipse of the sun. For those of you that have never experienced a total eclipse, you may wonder why anyone would travel around the world to distant foreign countries for such a brief event. It turns out that Mary had the bigger picture in mind. That is, she savored the adventure of the journey as well as the actual eclipse itself. Mary enjoyed making new friends along the way in addition to exploring our destination countries. She always made it a point to visit museums, paying particular attention to local artwork.

On the day of the eclipse, Mary was the tour member responsible for recording the temperature changes that occur before, during and after totality. She took this responsibility very seriously and was quite meticulous in her attention to detail. As a side-note, during the 1994 eclipse trip, Mary signed up for an extended cruise down the Amazon River. However, during this adventure, all of Mary's luggage was lost and she had to share clothes with another eclipse chaser, Celia Moynihan. Upon returning to Houston, Mary reportedly burned the blouse that she had worn for almost a week.

In 1998, our eclipse group traveled to the island of Curacao in the southern Carribean. This must have been a very, very special eclipse for Mary since she was able to share the experience with members of her family, Raymond and Peggy. In 1999, Mary traveled to the Canary Islands to view a meteor shower. Our group stayed up until almost dawn as we watched the meteor display through openings in a partly cloudy sky.

It was during one of my earliest conversations with Mary that I discovered that we shared a common travel goal, that is, to eventually set foot on each of the seven continents. Well, Mary beat me to it, achieving her goal in January of 2000 when she traveled to Antarctica and walked among the penguins.

In June of 2001, our group traveled to the African countries of Zimbabwe and Zambia for yet another eclipse. Mary visited with the native peoples, observed wildlife, explored museums and listened to local music. In April of 2005, Mary invited a group of her eclipse friends to Houston to be her guest for brunch and to reminisce about our previous travels and adventures.

Mary was an individual with an adventurous spirit and will be truly missed as our group continues to travel, chasing eclipses around the world.

ACCOUNT OF HER LIFE

Mary Schiflett passed away on January 13, 2007 at age 81. She was born September 23, 1925 in El Paso, TX and moved to Dallas where she was outstanding senior girl graduate of Highland Park High School. She attended Southern Methodist Univeristy on a music scholarship but later changed her major to economics and journalism and graduated with honors.

She was a member of 5 honor societes and won 1st prize in the Cokesbury contest for the best essay by a college under graduate. Her love and talent in music was demonstrated by writing an operetta while in high school that led to her college scholarhip. Throughout her life she played the piano both by note and ear and she wrote a number of songs for special occasions and to honor friends. She was given a special award by the American Red Cross for having performed as a singer, pianist, and accordianist for more than 1000 hours at hospitals and military bases across North and Central Texas during World War II and turned down several opportunities to turn professional with her music while still at college.

At SMU she was a journalist for THE SEMI-WEEKLY CAMPUS. Upon graduation she first worked for the US Dept. of Commerce at its regional office as an economics historian. Later she was assistant editor of the Dallas Chamber of Commerce's journal DALLAS.

In 1948 she married Ray Schiflet II and they moved to Houston. She continued her career as a writer, joining the staff of McGraw-Hill's BUSINESS WEEK. When the marriage ended she enrolled at the University of Houston obtaining a masters degree in English Literature and continued as a free-lance editor and writer for economics and business journals. She taught economic planning in the Future Studies Program at UH-Clear Lake and city planning in the College of Architecture on the Main UH campus. At UH and Rice universities she received a number of national grants including one from the Sloan Foundation and two from the National Endowment for the Humanities and these projects resulted in her contributing articles and chapters to books published nationally.

In 1984 she joined the executive staff of the Texas Medical Center as Associate Director for Planning. She held successively senior positions until her temporary retirement in 1998 as Vice President for Public Affairs. After an extended trip to South America, she returned to TMC becoming Vice President/Consultant, a position she held until December 2006. Twelve years before the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed Mary recognized the need for handicapped facilities at the Texas Medical Center and initiated guidelines which enabled facilities to be installed at all onsite buildings.

She was listed for many years in WHOS WHO IN AMERICA and other national and international biographical directories. She was the first woman member of the Rotary Club of River Oaks in 1997 and was awarded its Outstanding Member plaque for her service, and and was President in 2003-2004. She was a member of the executive committee for the Friends of Hermann Park; on the volunteer service council of the Institute for International Education's Southern Regional District; and President for two years of the Downtown Club.

EUOLOGY FROM DEBBIE MORAN

I first met Mary on an eclipse trip to Africa. When I lost my suitcase somewhere on the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia, it was Mary who came to the rescue with a loan of undergarments for the few days remaining. Her generosity went even beyond that when she informed me there was no need to return them. Mary's desire to travel to see eclipses says something about who she was. I think it is because chasing eclipses is more than just a gee-whiz experience. It satisfies on many levels: as a thing of beauty, as an extraordinary natural phenomenon full of rapidly changing effects, as a cultural experience as it brings together people from many different parts of the world, and for many, there is a spiritual aspect. Besides being one of the most beautiful sights one can hope to see, an eclipse, more than anything else I can think of, makes this corner of the solar system seem tailor made for humans. I always marvel at how two completely unrelated objects, the moon, a rock only about the quarter the diameter of earth, and the sun, a star which could swallow a million earths, could be placed in the heavens in such a way that from our point of view here on earth, their apparent size is nearly the same. When every year or two, they happen to coincide in such a way that the moon completely blocks the chromosphere of the sun and the normally invisible corona appears, the effect is miraculous. It is one of those things that makes you grateful to be alive. I remember our tour guide in Africa saying he did not fully understand why we bothered to go to all this effort. After the eclipse, he said, "Now I see." I know Mary also appreciated the way eclipses draw people to explore different cultures. We have found ourselves in parts of the world we may have never thought about visiting otherwise. This serendipity of experience is another great attraction of eclipse travel.

After we returned to Houston, Mary became a lunch companion. She was also a Symphony patron, and as a musician with the Symphony, I appreciated her support. We often spoke of conductors and interpretations as well as symphony politics. I always thought it was extremely cool that she had to steer our lunches around activities such as showing PBS camera crews around the Medical Center. She struck me not only as interesting in her own pursuits, but also as interested in others. For me, Mary was a model to aspire to, with her grace, dignity, and engagement in life. I was right in the middle of getting to know her better, and feel greatly that I have missed a lot.