RIP Richard Rallison

This is a forum to share experiences and ideas about holography.
Locked
Colin Kaminski

RIP Richard Rallison

Post by Colin Kaminski »

Thursday Richard Rallison left to go parasailing. When he did not return home his wife went looking for him. She found his truck at the parking place for the launch point. The launch point is about 1/2 mile from the parking spot and as it was dark she called the police around midnight. Search and rescue found his body on a rugged hillside about 2AM.

It is not clear if he had ever launched is paraglider. He may have passed from a medical condition. His remains have been sent to the coroner to determine the cause of death.
My condolences to his family.
Thieu

RIP Richard Rallison

Post by Thieu »

Very sad to hear that Colin. Many of us benefited from his pioneering work with DCG and his willingness to share it through his website and the many scientific articles he wrote. My thoughts are with his friends and family.
John Klayer

RIP Richard Rallison

Post by John Klayer »

Sad news. A big loss.
Dutchelm05

RIP Richard Rallison

Post by Dutchelm05 »

Oh wow, what sad news.
I am in the lab right now mixing some DCG not too far far from the formulation that Rallison had done years ago.
I talked to him a few times via e-mail. He never refused a question and was always willing to help.
I will certainly be thinking of him as I make this new batch of plates.
BobH

RIP Richard Rallison

Post by BobH »

Rich was a really nice guy; unwaveringly practical, resourceful, generous to a fault, and inspirational to a whole generation of holographers. He offered me a job right out of laser tech school in 1981, which I hesitantly refused as the woman I was with at the time didn't get a job at Sperry in SLC, and we continued on to California.

I saw Rich at many conferences throughout the years, always behind a table full of sparkling DCGs and big HOEs, always with a sparkle of enthusiasm in his eye. Here's a pic of him at an OSA conference in the mid 80s in Hawaii:
BobOSAMeeting.jpg
BobOSAMeeting.jpg (33.34 KiB) Viewed 11834 times
We worked together on a few projects over the years and he was always very patient and willing to experiment to get the results we wanted. I'll miss him, and know many others who will as well.
Joe Farina

RIP Richard Rallison

Post by Joe Farina »

BobH wrote:Rich was a really nice guy; unwaveringly practical, resourceful, generous to a fault, and inspirational to a whole generation of holographers.
About 15 years ago I took a one-day class taught by Richard Rallison at Lake Forest. Although that's the only time I spent with him (there were about a half-dozen other students in the class also), my impressions of him were the same as what Bob said above.

When he was demonstrating how DCG holograms were made, I got the impression that he was always worried that things wouldn't turn out. (As it happened, he seemed to be having a bad "holo" day.) Probably every DCG holographer on the forum knows this feeling well, and even Richard Rallison wasn't immune to it.
Colin Kaminski

RIP Richard Rallison

Post by Colin Kaminski »

jean

RIP Richard Rallison

Post by jean »

Ho my...
I'm very shocked about that...
Richard Rallison was very kind. He always replied to all my questions about dcg.
Locked