Eugene Merle Shoemaker

Eugene Merle Shoemaker (April 28, 1928 – July 18, 1997) was an American geologist.

He co-discovered Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 with his wife Carolyn S. Shoemaker and David H. Levy.

Carolyn was born in Gallup, New Mexico, in 1929, but the Spellman family moved to Chico soon afterward.

Carolyn earned degrees from Chico State College in history and political science.

She never exhibited an interest in scientific subjects while growing up, and took one geology course in college, which she found boring.

Nevertheless, the couple kept in touch while Shoemaker spent the next year in Princeton, followed by a two-week vacation touring the Colorado Plateau.

She reportedly told others that listening to Shoemaker explain geology turned a boring subject into an exciting and interesting pursuit of knowledge.

The family moved back to Los Angeles in 1942, where Gene enrolled in Fairfax High School at the age of thirteen.

He completed high school in three years.

During that time he also played violin in the school orchestra, excelled in gymnastics, and got a summer job as an apprentice lapidary.

Shoemaker enrolled in the Caltech in 1944, at the age of sixteen.

His classmates were older, more mature and on a fast track to graduate before serving in World War II.

Shoemaker thrived in the fast pace and earned his bachelor's degree in 1948, at age nineteen.

He immediately undertook the study of Precambrian metamorphic rocks in northern New Mexico, earning his M.Sc.

degree from Caltech in 1949.

While Shoemaker was attending Caltech, his roommate was Richard Spellman, a young man from Chico, California.

Although Shoemaker had already enrolled in a doctoral program at Princeton University, he returned to California to serve as best man at Richard's wedding in 1950.

He met Richard's sister, Carolyn, for the first time on that occasion.

The couple married on August 17, 1951.

The Shoemakers had three children: two daughters and one son.

Carolyn saw her work as keeping house and raising the children especially after they settled in Flagstaff in the 1960s.

She had tried teaching school before they married, but found the work unsatisfying.

She also traveled sometimes with Gene, but stopped after she noticed that her absence affected the children.

After their children were grown, Carolyn wanted something meaningful to combat the "empty nest" feeling.

By then, Gene suggested that she take up astronomy and join his team looking for asteroids approaching Earth.

This comet hit Jupiter in July 1994: the impact was televised around the world.

Shoemaker also studied terrestrial craters, such as Barringer Meteor Crater in Arizona, and along with Edward Chao provided the first conclusive evidence of its origin as an impact crater.

He was also the first director of the United States Geological Survey's Astrogeology Research Program.

He was killed in a car accident while visiting an impact crater site in Australia.

After his death, some of his ashes were carried to the Moon with the Lunar Prospector mission.

Shoemaker was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of Muriel May (née Scott), a teacher; and George Estel Shoemaker, who worked in farming, business, teaching, and motion pictures.

His parents were natives of Nebraska.

During Gene's childhood they moved between Los Angeles, New York City, Buffalo, New York and Wyoming, as George worked on a variety of jobs.

George hated living in big cities, and was quite satisfied to take a job as director of education for a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp in Wyoming.

His wife soon found life in a remote cabin quite unsatisfactory.

They compromised, when Muriel got a teaching job in Buffalo.

She could teach in the Buffalo School of Practice of the State Teachers College at Buffalo during the school year while keeping Gene with her, then both would return to Wyoming during the summers.

Gene's passion for studying rocks was ignited by the science education courses offered by the Buffalo Museum of Education.

He enrolled in the School of Practice in the fourth grade, and began collecting samples of minerals.

Within a year, he was also taking high-school-level evening courses.