2019 Show Speaker Bios
Bob Whitmore, the former owner of the Palermo mines in North Groton, New Hampshire, is an avid mineral collector and well-known authority on New Hampshire mineral localities. He is the co-author of the book The Pegmatite Mines Known as Palermo. The mineral whitmoreite, a hydrous iron phosphate whose type locality is the Palermo No. 1 mine, is named in his honor. When he and Forrest Fogg purchased the Palermo mines in 1974, they did so with the intention that the mines would remain open to not just themselves but also to collectors and students worldwide. Bob has collected extensively throughout New England and a number of his specimens are displayed in museums in the United States.
Martin Kippley was born in the iron mining districts of northern Minnesota and has been a mineral collector his entire life. He spent six years in the U.S. Naval Nuclear Submarine Force as a Machinist Mate 1st Class, during which he qualified both as a Leading Engineering Laboratory Technician and an Engineering Watch Supervisor. After he left the Navy, Martin worked for the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard for 34 years overhauling nuclear submarines as a Radiological Control Technician, a Supervisory Radiological Control Technician, and as the senior Assistant Radiation Safety Officer during his last ten years there. He has an extensive background in all aspects of radiation and radioactive material control and in 1992 was certified by the National Registry of Radiation Protection Technology. Martin is currently one of the owners of the Palermo No. 1 Mine in North Groton, New Hampshire.
Randy Archer has spent most of his life in some of the most productive gold areas of the United States. His earliest memories include Yukon gold stories as his father read him Robert Service’s poems of the Klondike Gold Rush. He has been in about 30 lode gold (hard rock) mines, and he has prospected for placer (stream bed) gold in California, Alaska, Idaho, Colorado, New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont. Before moving to Vermont, Randy owned the “Riverman” and “Sandman” gold claims in Colorado. He has presented gold lectures to mineral clubs in Burlington and Rutland, Vermont, and to historical societies in Saint Albans, Charlotte, Milton, Stowe, and Worcester. Over the last ten years, he has acquired considerable knowledge about the Vermont Gold Rush of 1885, the events leading up this gold rush, and the history that followed.
Bob Whitmore, the former owner of the Palermo mines in North Groton, New Hampshire, is an avid mineral collector and well-known authority on New Hampshire mineral localities. He is the co-author of the book The Pegmatite Mines Known as Palermo. The mineral whitmoreite, a hydrous iron phosphate whose type locality is the Palermo No. 1 mine, is named in his honor. When he and Forrest Fogg purchased the Palermo mines in 1974, they did so with the intention that the mines would remain open to not just themselves but also to collectors and students worldwide. Bob has collected extensively throughout New England and a number of his specimens are displayed in museums in the United States.
Martin Kippley was born in the iron mining districts of northern Minnesota and has been a mineral collector his entire life. He spent six years in the U.S. Naval Nuclear Submarine Force as a Machinist Mate 1st Class, during which he qualified both as a Leading Engineering Laboratory Technician and an Engineering Watch Supervisor. After he left the Navy, Martin worked for the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard for 34 years overhauling nuclear submarines as a Radiological Control Technician, a Supervisory Radiological Control Technician, and as the senior Assistant Radiation Safety Officer during his last ten years there. He has an extensive background in all aspects of radiation and radioactive material control and in 1992 was certified by the National Registry of Radiation Protection Technology. Martin is currently one of the owners of the Palermo No. 1 Mine in North Groton, New Hampshire.
Randy Archer has spent most of his life in some of the most productive gold areas of the United States. His earliest memories include Yukon gold stories as his father read him Robert Service’s poems of the Klondike Gold Rush. He has been in about 30 lode gold (hard rock) mines, and he has prospected for placer (stream bed) gold in California, Alaska, Idaho, Colorado, New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont. Before moving to Vermont, Randy owned the “Riverman” and “Sandman” gold claims in Colorado. He has presented gold lectures to mineral clubs in Burlington and Rutland, Vermont, and to historical societies in Saint Albans, Charlotte, Milton, Stowe, and Worcester. Over the last ten years, he has acquired considerable knowledge about the Vermont Gold Rush of 1885, the events leading up this gold rush, and the history that followed.