Jess Brewer's Memories of Tony Arrott

If only I had Tony's memory capacity! Every time we talked he would tell me fascinating, exciting stories of his exploits and adventures until my brain reached saturation and began to swell. Alas, it was like trying to load an entire operating system onto one floppy disk. (You remember floppy disks, don't you?) I retain only blurry memories of great discoveries, famous people and stupendous events. Revolutions in magnetism! Russian cosmonauts! Miraculous computer programs! Unsolved problems in physics! Life with a great artist!

My daughter insisted that I should take a recording device to my next meeting with Tony, and I harbored good intentions for the last year or more, but never followed through, to my deep regret. If I had managed to capture a few hours of his enthusiastic story-telling, it would have compelled me to find collaborators to work on his biography, which would surely have run to many volumes -- page-turners all! Perhaps there are other friends with better memories than mine who could undertake such a project? I'll help!

I'll never forget the night Tony stayed up until dawn glueing crystalline whiskers of pure iron onto a backing to be studied with muons at TRIUMF, and fell asleep at the wheel on his drive home. His beloved Mercedes was wrecked, but he survived to recount that testament to his commitment whenever any of us complained about Owl Shifts.

Others may remember Tony's answer to the NRC panel who asked how his Thermal Neutron Facility at TRIUMF could hope to compete with reactors whose neutron beams were orders of magnitude more intense: "I'm a lot cleverer than they are!" he said. And so he was. His self-assurance was entirely justified, but did not interfere with his generosity and kindness the way it does with so many others.

My family will never stop missing Tony.