MEMORIES OF BILL CLOSE

by Berry Pyron

I suppose most of us have a few very special friends who have influenced our
lives greatly. For me, Bill Close was one such. 

As a Georgia Tech student with an interest in astronomy, in the fall of 1947
I noticed and acted on an invitation in the paper from Dr. William A. Calder,
Professor of Astronomy at Agnes Scott College, to attend an organizational
meeting to form an Atlanta Astronomy Club. Bill and Anna Belle were there. A viable club was indeed set up, and regular meetings began. Since Bill and Anna Belle lived not far from Agnes Scott, soon it was an understood thing that the public meeting adjourned in large part to their living room. 

For me it was an exciting time, almost the first real opportunity I had
experienced of wide-ranging conversation and interaction with people of
similar intellectual interests. Over coffee after the Friday meetings, and
soon on most Saturday evenings too, we talked and debated everything from
religion to the composition of Saturn's rings. And if the sky was clear, the
Close backyard became an observing site. 

A year after the first meeting of the Club, Vol. I, No. 1 of The Atlanta
Astronomers' Report was handed out at the meeting, produced by Bill Pinson,
another of the early leaders of the Club. The very next issue had a sketch on
the cover - signed by W. H. Close. Soon it was routine that the covers were
all drawn by Bill. And before long, they appeared in an attractive format,
basically a blueprint, produced in the Close home on homemade apparatus,
designed and built by - yes, Bill. 

As the years went by, writing and production of "the Report," as we called
it, became a part of life for several of us, largely accomplished in the
center of our life - 225 Forkner Drive - home of Bill and Anna Belle. One
cover depicted how the covers were done, with Bill drawing in the background
and Anna Belle operating the developing machine. 

When classes in telescope making were started, Bill was an enthusiastic
learner. Before long, he graduated to the construction of his own "201-inch"
scope, shown on the cover reproduced from the Atlanta Astronomers' Report of May 1952. 

Bill was an artist, truly a gifted one. But he was so much more than that. He
could write beautiful lucid descriptive prose. He had a marvelous mechanical
knack at improvisation of gadgetry for telescopes, mirror making - or
practical tasks. Bill was a quiet man, a modest man - and one of tremendous
accomplishments. 

I've been thinking a lot about Bill Close in these recent days since he left
us. Quite suddenly, it came to me that Bill was a superb educator too. He
surely educated me in many ways. Not art, for which I had no talent, though
he was a talented artist in so many varied forms, not building gadgets,
though he was so clever at gadgetry, not astronomy, nor even telescope
making. No, I think the lessons I learned from Bill Close, and from Anna
Belle too, were something different. Different and more valuable. 

On a practical level, writing and editing for the Report, I gained experience
in technical writing that served me well in a long career with the Georgia
Tech Research Institute. 

But, far more important, I think, from Bill I learned some very important
lessons of life. Lessons of modesty - lessons of perseverance and hard work
to achieve a wanted goal - lessons of integrity - lessons of character. 

Perhaps the most valuable lesson I received in those early get-togethers in
the Close living room was the realization of just how much fun study and
developing your intellect can be. I'm enjoying that lesson to this day. 

Thanks, Bill. 

Berry Pyron was editor of The Atlanta
Astronomers' Report for a number of years. 
He is a founding member of the Club, and
can be seen occasionally at meetings. He
lives in north Atlanta.

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