The passing of Murray Coppold was a shock to his friends and colleagues at the Burgess Shale Geoscience Foundation. He was a long-time contributor to the Foundation in various activities such as editor of our newsletter Marrella and the author of “A Geoscience Guide to the Burgess Shale”. I knew him best from our collaboration, along with Dean Rokosh, in writing and producing “Climate Change and Landscape in the Canadian Rocky Mountains”. Murray’s passion, sincerity, dedication, and collaborative spirit were major factors in its success . His enthusiasm for the project was in part due to his love for the Rocky Mountains and his curiosity, as a geologist, in the development of the mountains and the changes that continually take place. His scientific input was significant, but probably his greatest contribution was his innovative and practical approach to design, graphics, and illustrations. He intuitively knew how to explain things to the public and what illustrations were needed to get a point across. David Schindler, the noted zoologist, in his review, commented on how clearly the book was written and what a valuable resource it was. This positive comment reflects to a large part to Murray’s contributions. He will be dearly missed by all of us.
Nat Rutter, August 2017.
Murray’s obituary is posted here