Passing... Rowland "Ron" Mowrey aka PE, Photo Engineer, Feb. 15, 2020

Lee Rust · Feb 27, 2020

Helge said:
...Wouldn’t it be a fitting honor to him to index all of his posts, in a way that is more accessible and browsable than what is the case with the clumsy and cumbersome search function?

Ron was sick for quite a while, taking some heavy medication, amongst other adrenocortical steroids, which is not something you do for long periods without unpleasant side effects.

That he continued his postings here unabatedly and to the same high standard, speaks to his character.
I think this forum meant the world to him.

In his last years it was an escape from some of his worries and a way to do something, when he could do nothing to improve his own health.

He will be missed greatly.
Here’s to one of the last great Lensmen, now gone to the third stage.

This is an excellent idea, Helge. A Photo Engineer index would be a fitting tribute to Ron's memory and a lasting resource.

cjbecker · Feb 27, 2020

Complete agree. That would be a wonderful resource. The amount of information he had was incredible.

Helge · Feb 27, 2020

One of the things I first did, when I really discovered this site, was to start leafing through PEs posts, just for the fun of it.
It was very, very interesting and felt like a treasure hunt. But on the other hand I'd be hard pressed to go back and find any of them again quickly.
I tried to use the bookmark feature of the board, but like normal bookmarks, it quickly just turns into a transferred mess of disorganisation.
PE had a habit of referring to older posts, but I'm not sure he was quite aware of how tricky they could be to find.

What we need is some kind of program that can pick out all the posts, and display them in an easy and quickly accessible way, for a human to sort through them, rearrange them and tag them.
Does such a program exist?

B&Wpositive · Feb 28, 2020

So sorry to hear. I used to immediately gravitate to his posts when I read this site regularly. I had a few of my questions answered by him, and have some private messages from him dating back to 2008 in my inbox. I also have some of his film, frozen. The black and white will probably used eventually. It always seemed like there were technical details that only he could answer, and there were a lot of them over the years.

Renato Tonelli · Feb 28, 2020

Lee Rust said:
This is an excellent idea, Helge. A Photo Engineer index would be a fitting tribute to Ron's memory and a lasting resource.

I agree - this would be a very useful resource -

eli griggs · Feb 28, 2020

if Phototrio were to set up PE's post in a 'encyclopedia' of how-to and whys, using these post as the initial skeleton of post by topic, then it would be both easier to locate his relevant work, AND, future posts that may be deemed to be significant or instructive enough to be added, including 'stickies'.

I know how well this can work and how valuable it can be, from my experience with http://barenforum.org/ , a woodcut printmakers site, dedicated mainly to Japanese printmaking work.

This one small site has taught many self-taught printmakers, well enough to start and continually improve their woodcut printmaking abilities.

The encyclopedia, has a category of one point lessons, focused on single topics,which here could be the simple topic, of 'How to chose bottles for raw chemicals, and other darkroom formulas', 'The difference between Polarizes and Neutral Density Filters' , or, How to use Pre-flashing negatives, for better details in shadows'.

This may 'feel' too different' from simply grouping all of PE's post into one folder, but it is just the sort of organization of usable resource that will allow everyone to locate information already available, easily, and allow that knowledge base to grow and improve over time.

Call it "Ron Mowrey's P.E. Encyclopedia of Analog Photography", and make it simple for other member's good knowledge and advice to pass on to newer generations of Analog Photography, keeping it simple, as long as this site exist.

IMO.

bluechromis · Feb 28, 2020

Very sorry to hear about this. He contributed so much to the field.

ME Super · Feb 29, 2020

I agree that an index to his writings would be useful. I am involved with a project with Southern Illinois University and the Illinois State Board of Education, whereby we received metadata about resources from the now-defunct Learning Registry (LR). The LR leveraged schema.org's schema so that publishers could publish metadata about resources they host or know about.

Of particular interest over on schema.org is the schema for Discussion Forum Posting, which PE's posts are pretty good fits, as is everything posted on Photrio. Having said that, IOER (Illinois Open Education Resources) normally used their Creative Work class, not the Discussion Forum Class, so importing the data would be a bit tricky, and I certainly don't want to be the person to go in and tag all of PE's 29,410 posts, of which for some reason only 1,980 show up when you search for posts by him.

There would definitely be some technical hurdles to putting something like this together, and it would not be a one-person job for sure. Not impossible, not by any means, but IMHO too much for one person to tackle. I'm more of a tool builder when it comes to this sort of thing. While it's possible to build the "monster" that could house the index of all of his posts, the hard bit is getting people to "feed the monster" (loading the data). As is the case with any thing like this, 90+% of people want to be consumers, not contributors.

So, who wants to contribute time and effort to "feed the monster" after the "monster" has been built? Any takers?

Wayne · Feb 29, 2020

Wow, don't know how I missed this. Ron, you were an absolute treasure to this and other photo communities and you will be missed immensely. I can't think of anyone else who even comes close to the contributions you made to whatever future analog photography has.

Lee Rust · Feb 29, 2020

ME Super said:
...There would definitely be some technical hurdles to putting something like this together, and it would not be a one-person job for sure. Not impossible, not by any means, but IMHO too much for one person to tackle. I'm more of a tool builder when it comes to this sort of thing. While it's possible to build the "monster" that could house the index of all of his posts, the hard bit is getting people to "feed the monster" (loading the data). As is the case with any thing like this, 90+% of people want to be consumers, not contributors.

So, who wants to contribute time and effort to "feed the monster" after the "monster" has been built? Any takers?

Even though most of the material would be way over my head, I'd be willing to help out.

eli griggs · Feb 29, 2020

I would take on a limited number of posts, from time to time but I believe if members have particular posts in mind, we combine these with keyword searches to begin with.

I wonder if the Internet Archive will 'house' the full range of PE's post or a University/College.

A list of his best topics post, would help, if a general call to members was made.

Perhaps we should start with the newest first, say the last year or two, as he would have made many replies to the same topics, over time.

IMO

Helge · Feb 29, 2020

Well I can only agree to less is more, KISS etc.

First thing would be a script to pull out all the posts in an easily browsable, searchable and information dense format. That should in theory be quite simple and fast.
Without breaking links to the continuity that they are a part of though.
Going back to the original thread and seeing the other replies should be easy and quick.
A lot of the posts don’t make sense without context.

Next should be the possibility of everyone to tag, and edit tags, Wikipedia style.
And very welcome would be Talmud style ability to add footnotes and references.

The moment that we leave it up to a few big hearted people to look over, categorize and tag the posts, is the moment that there is a big possibility that the task won’t ever get near a satisfactory state of completion, or will get done sloppily towards the end of the attention span of a reasonable person.

It’s IMO far better to have it as a running wiki, with the PE part of it frozen.
That way it will always improve and stay alive.

argentic · Feb 29, 2020

Helge said:
Wouldn’t it be a fitting honor to him to index all of his posts, in a way that is more accessible and browsable than what is the case with the clumsy and cumbersome search function?

I totally agree. With Ron one of the most appreciated members of Apug/Photrio and a world of irreplaceable knowledge disappears. He will be greatly missed.

dmr · Feb 29, 2020

Lee Rust said:
This is an excellent idea, Helge. A Photo Engineer index would be a fitting tribute to Ron's memory and a lasting resource.

I like that idea too! In the past when I was searching for one of his items, I stumbled on many of his others and spent hours on them!

I was unaware of his failing health. Thanks for letting us know, Helge.

newcan1 · Mar 1, 2020

I just found out about this. I never knew Ron, never met him. But that didn't stop him from giving me valuable information here on Photrio, including by answering my posts, and more than once in the form of private emails. I was quite taken aback by his generosity, as a man with considerable experience who was willing to share much of it freely, even with strangers. One seldom encounters persons with such class these days. I am pleased to have "known" him through Photrio, and I am truly saddened at his passing. My heart goes out to his family and personal friends.

jvo · Mar 2, 2020

Rick A said:
Requiem æternam dona ei, Domine
℟. Et lux perpetua luceat ei:
℣. Requiescat in pace.
℟. Amen.

and if you didn't go to catholic school or speak latin...

eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord
and let perpetual light shine upon him.
May he rest in peace.
Amen.

ditto

ced · Mar 2, 2020

Not to detract from the sad passing of PE, if we are into considering an archive of his many fine contributions.
I can think of another kind soul that contributed reams to this site & as the fragile situation of her website being kept alive by her family with appreciation.
Some links are already broken along with lost images we might consider inclusion of her past contributions on mainly "Gum Bichromate Printing".
So that any budding gummists looking for reading material on that quite complex subject. Katharine Thayer if anyone remembers.
http://katharinethayer.com/index.html

Vonder · Mar 2, 2020

He was a great one, that's for sure. I mainly interacted with him over on photo.net before I ragequit that platform over heavy-handed and clueless moderators.

He was neither.

mooseontheloose · Mar 3, 2020

I just saw this thread and am extremely saddened to hear of Ron’s passing. Like so many others here, I learned more from him than I’ll ever be able to do or pass on myself. What a loss.

vsyrek1945 · Mar 3, 2020

jvo said:
and if you didn't go to catholic school or speak latin...

eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord
and let perpetual light shine upon him.
May he rest in peace.
Amen.

ditto

Amen, indeed.

PE's contributions are immeasurable, and we are all that much better for his influence and shared knowledge. He will be sorely missed.

AndyH · Mar 3, 2020

Kind, generous, and knowledgeable. I hope someday to have a tribute half as great. I’d consider my life well spent.
Andy

Christopher Walrath · Mar 3, 2020

Been gone for a few years and this is the first thing I see. Ron, wow. You will be missed by so many photographers the world over.

Guillaume Zuili · Mar 4, 2020

No following as much APUG (still apug for me) as I used to. Learning of Ron passing is a very sad news indeed.
Rest in peace PE.
G.

Agulliver · Mar 7, 2020

Damn I just saw this....a huge loss to this forum and I am sure to family and personal friends.

Kodachromeguy · Mar 7, 2020

Ken Nadvornick said:
Do you recall the classroom lesson where the teacher asks her students "Where does your dinner come from?" And the young city child answers "The grocery store." Then the rural farm child quietly raises his hand and says "No, there's a little bit more to it than that..."

This, I think, summarizes well Ron Mowrey's most enduring contribution to APUG. Before PE, I daresay for the vast majority of us who use film, it simply came from a camera store. Or perhaps Rochester, New York, if we fancied ourselves extra knowledgeable on the topic.
....

After PE, I now realize that this film stuff turned out to be one of the most highly technological creations ever attempted. Tolerances and subtleties and voodoo almost beyond measurement. Or comprehension. Incredibly delicate to make. Incredibly robust to use. Incredibly easy to take for granted.

Ken

I agree that that PE gave us all immensely valuable insights into the technology and engineering behind silver-based photography. It was a technology that developed and improved for over a century. I will miss his posts and generous hints. Rest In Peace.

Passing... Rowland "Ron" Mowrey aka PE, Photo Engineer, Feb. 15, 2020

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