RE: [cdn-nucl-l] Ray Silver passed away

["Brown, Morgan" <brownmj@aecl.ca>]

Ray visited us in Manitoba in September 1999.  He gave a good speech (to the
CNS and to the Phys & Astron Dept at the U of Manitoba), and entertained us
at dinner with his wartime stories.  He also had some interesting (i.e.
unprintable) things to say about some people within the nuclear industry,
and about its critics.  No holds barred, at least in private conversation.

Ray managed to get me my knuckles rapped, when I wrote something on this
list server a few years ago (I can't remember the topic) - he phoned me up
and asked a few questions.  My comments on this list were quoted,
anonymously, in Nucleonics Week.  Their context did make them sound more
controversial than was intended.  Someone happened to put the anonymous
quote and my e-mail together, and I was told to watch my wording.  I told
Ray about it when he phoned me up later, on some unrelated matter - his
words about public relations departments were, again, unprintable.

I've enjoyed my brief encounters with Ray, and was pleased to be able to
show him and his wife Lynne AECL's Underground Research Lab and the other
research we do out here in Manitoba.  He told me he would never again think
of the URL as just a hole in the ground, but as the laboratory it is.

Sometimes I've had a few problems with the accuracy of what Ray's written,
but over all I enjoyed reading his reports on Canada's nuclear scene.

- Morgan