Lauriston D. Calvert (1924-1993)

Larry Calvert died peacefully in Australia, on Feb. 19,1993 at age 68, after a lengthy, brave struggle with cancer.

Larry Calvert's major scientific contributions were in the field of X-ray powder diffraction and his pioneering work on databases beginning in the early 1970s. He was an editor of Structure Reports from 1970 to 1981, and was also co-editor, with Pierre Villars, of Pearson's Handbook of Crytallographic Data on Intermetallic Phases (1985), a major revision of which has recently been published (1991). He wrote the section on X-ray Powder Diffraction in the most recent volume of the International Tables. His main research interests lay in intermetallics, powder diffraction, and the Metals Data File, which evolved into the CRYSTMET on-line database.

Calvert, a New Zealander, born in Tasmania on Dec. 24, 1924, eventually became a Canadian citizen. He received his Ph.D. in 1952 from the University of New Zealand. He joined the National Research Council of Canada as a Postdoctorate Fellow with W. H. Barnes, in the Div. of Pure Physics, and in 1954 started his own crystallography group in the NRC's Div. of Applied Chemistry, working there until he retired in 1985. His first wife Marjorie, with whom he had two children, died of cancer in 1980. Larry and his second wife Barbara, an Australian whom he married in 1982, retired to Lakes Entrance, a scenic resort village in Victoria, Australia.

Calvert proved to be a very capable Organizing Chairman of the IUCr's XIIth International Congress and General Assembly held in Ottawa in 1981. Several of his innovative ideas were adopted by organizers of subsequent Congresses. Calvert established a CNC/IUCr trust fund with the surplus from the meeting. This fund, devoted exclusively to helping Canadian students present their work at IUCr meetings, was renamed last Dec. as The L.D. Calvert CNC/IUCr Trust Fund, by a unanimous vote of the Canadian National Committee.

Larry remained active in retirement, continuing as a member of the JCPDS International Committee. His latest article in Acta Crystallographica was printed about a year ago.

Larry revelled in the company of anyone with a different experience or from a different culture. He took great pleasure in sharing a brew or two with friends. An avid reader of biographies, he also enjoyed the simple life at his cottage, and maintained a keen interest in the observation and photography of wild birds and flowers. He is survived by his wife Barbara, in Australia, son Alistair in Ottawa, Canada, and daughter Margaret, in Sydney, Australia. Memorial donations to the The L.D. Calvert CNC/IUCr Trust Fund may be made clo Prof. M. N. G. James, Biochemistry Dept., U. of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, T6G 2H7, Canada.