Remembering Howard
by Adrian Lawler
I never met Howard Norfolk personally. Several years ago I was trying to figure out
things to do during retirement. I
searched the internet looking for a site that published aquarium articles and found
Aquarticles.com. I wrote to Howard and
said I had an aquarium manual that might be of use to him.
He said to send it on.
I mailed a hard copy to him and he had parts of it
scanned and posted as articles on Aquarticles.com.
I was then hooked. Here
was something to do that might interest and help others that was related to work I did
throughout my career.
We communicated more and more. He sent photos of fish, etc. encountered in
his travels and I helped with identifications. We
worked together when various sites tried to use articles from Aquarticles.com without
giving credit to the authors (See his article on this.).
We discussed ways to make Aquarticles better, and when he found out he
was dying we (along with several others, including the present editor, Theo Wyne)
discussed ways to keep Aquarticles going after he was gone.
When Howard started Aquarticles his vision was
much smaller, trying to help out aquarium club newsletters with informative articles for
their clubs. As time passed, and his
site received an ever-increasing number of hits and contributions from authors on many
subjects, he then wanted to have the best aquarium article site in the world. He enjoyed traveling to various places around
the world and taking pictures of aquariums and fish and other interesting things to share
with the world, and did an excellent job in presenting his travel findings. He had planned his next trip (Dec 05) to be
to the Antarctic area but he got the bad news about cancer, so he put his energy into
planning out the future of Aquarticles.
His thoughts were about making Aquarticles better,
and better, and better. Just prior to
dying he made sure my article on the problems I’ve had with nutria was posted. And he picked Theo Wyne as the first one to
carry on the leadership role for his site.
Even when he knew he was dying he tried to
encourage me after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina (August 29, 2005). Since Katrina I have worked on various
aquarium articles before light in the mornings, then gone outside during the day to
untangle the mess that used to be my farm. Howard
gave me a purpose and a cause in my older age. Through
him and his site I could share my experiences with the world. Many others can do the same. They, and their articles on experiences with
aquariums and various organisms, are Howard’s continuing legacy to the world.
Howard’s friendship, kindness, encouragement,
and contributions will not be soon forgotten by me and others. He took great pains to find a successor
editor for his site, and Theo Wyne is doing a commendable job in carrying on the site and
the continuing expansion of Aquarticles. Howard
would be proud.
We have all gained knowledge and pleasure from
Howard’s efforts on Aquarticles. It
is up to us to help continue the growth and expansion of Aquarticles. May Aquarticles get better, and better, and
better…….
Adrian Lawler, Feb 07
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