Interesting person in the family of Dixie Bonds

Everette Frick, John Wyatt, Dixie Bonds, Robert Stoner -- Morgan School Alums

Dixie Bonds has been at many class reunions. The photo here is from the 2006 reunion. My brother Nelson (who mines obits daily) came across some interesting info about the family that Dixie's son married into via the obit of Dixie's son's father-in-law (see if you can wrap your mind around that).

Turns out that Dixie's son married a girl whose father came from the least populated county in the state of Wyoming (Niobrara County in eastern Wyoming). Less than one person per square mile in Niobrara County. His name was Barney Conrath, and he died recently in Charlottesville VA (a place that I know well since I went to graduate school at UVA in the 1960s). Barney's obit appeared in the Charlotesville newspaper. I've included an excerpt below.

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Barney J. Conrath

Barney J. Conrath of Charlottesville, Virginia, died at home on Wednesday, April 23, 2014. Born on June 23, 1935, in Quincy, Illinois, he was the son of the late Frederick and Jayme Conrath.

Barney was an astrophysicist, working at NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center and Cornell University. His studies of planetary atmospheres included experiments on the Voyager 1 and 2 missions, Mars Global Surveyor, and most recently on the NASA/European Space Agency Cassini mission. He has won several awards, including the Kuiper Prize, 1996, from the Division of Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society.

Barney was also an avid amateur fine art black and white photographer. He recently had a showing of his work at the Firefish Gallery in Charlottesville, and was a member of the James River Arts Council in Scottsville, Virginia.

The Daily Progress, Charlottesville
25 Apr 2014

-- Posted by Lavon