Phillip McLennan’s Remembrance

Halton Arp was also a competitive fencer. Here is someone who remembers him from when he was training.

The First Time I Saw Him:
I was standing in the fencing room about twenty feet away from Ralph Faulkner, the fencing master and owner of the Falcon Studios and suddenly a tall, gentleman with a very fast walk shot down the hallway and into the dressing room. He soon emerged and made himself comfortable against the wall and started to button his vest. Hmmmm. “An interesting-looking man”, I thought. “He’s and artist!” no. Hmmm “A doctor!” yes, that’s it. “But not a medical doctor”. Then, after a little more staring. I made this great, internal gasp. A chill ran up my spine. I went to Faulkner, who was looking down adjusting a foil, and I said: “Who is that?!” He look up and said, “That’s Halton Arp, an astronomer who works at Wilson and Palomar. Some kind of a genius.”. I stood there stunned.
Later, when I was spending a fun evening at Chip’s house in Hollywood with Carlos Fuertes, who became a fine fencer and wound up owning his own fencing club, Chip unloaded a lot of painting supplies. So he was an artist!
I just listened to Chip and Carlos talk politics. Carlos was pro MacArthur, Halton, not so much.
After fencing on Saturdays, the team would have dinner and go to an art-theater. It was a great time.
Everyone would be a good listener with Chip. Without ego or hubris, he would command conversation with soft-spoken, charming style.
I had to go into the military. So I lost contact with Him until about 2006. I found his site and we emailed each other a few times, and I was saddened about all the troubles he endured.
“I shall not look upon his like again”
Phillip S McLennan

Jess Artem’s Remembrance

I am taking this comment to my eulogy and making it a post of its own. Thanks, Jess Artem, for your contribution.

I am deeply saddened to learn, only today (10th May 2014), of the passing of your father. I had the great privilege of having some correspondence with him in the 1990’s and eventually meeting with him when he came to give a talk at the Astronomy Institute here, in Tenerife, in 1996. Strangely, I today sent him a photo by email – not knowing of his passing – directly after that I thought I’d do a google search and only then heard the news. I never heard it covered on the mainstream media and I watch TV everyday (I remember seeing the report of Fred Hoyle’s death.)

I have fond memories of our meeting in Tenerife and picking Chip up from his hotel in the University town of La Laguna and going to play a game of tennis (he beat me easily even though I was some twenty years younger) After the game he came back to my home and I was honored to be able to show him some of my cosmic-inspired paintings – I talk about this, and some of the topics we discussed in my novel MIRRORSCOPE. (the novel is based on the quasar controversy)

My correspondence with Chip began in 1990, after I contacted him with a correspondence I happened to notice between Bodes Law of planetary spacings about the sun and the preferred redshift of quasars. To my great surprise, he kindly cited my contribution in his book SEEING RED.

I was always amazed and impressed how this giant of 20th century astronomy would so happily correspond with an artist and complete amateur when it came to discussing questions about the Universe. Perhaps this was because his father was an artist and he intuitively understood there is more than just ONE way of describing the mysterious Universe we live in.

Your father was treated in much the same way Galileo was treated and that, ironically, will be testament to his eventual vindication in much the same way Galileo was eventually vindicated. In that that can be no doubt.

If an archive of Halton Arp’s papers is to be set up, I will happily donate my correspondence with him to that cause.

Jess Artem
Tenerife

Kristana Arp’s Eulogy for Her Father

The following is an extended version of the remarks Halton Arp’s daughter, Kristana Arp, delivered at his funeral in Munich:

I have been invited to share some memories of my father. I have many cherished memories of him. He was a wonderful man, and it was a privilege to know him and to be his daughter. Looking back over the full scope of his life, he seems a larger than life figure in many ways. To my mind, he was part of another era, a time in the United States when one could start out from humble beginnings and through effort and talent and dedication, make an important contribution to the world.