That is sad news indeed! He was always there to help identify some "minimi"
iron objects, e.g. His books are incredibly useful. Im sorry I never saw his
library. Im sure he has many colleagues/friends on this side of the
Atlantic. dgorr

On Mon, Dec 27, 2010 at 9:09 AM, paul courtney
<[log in to unmask]>wrote:

> I am having difficulty writing this through my tears. Geoff Egan was found
> dead at home by his cousin on Christmas Eve. He had left the Museum of
> London after 3 decades or more for a new job at the British Museum- his
> ideal workplace. Geoff was great friend and I spent part of December with
> him and the Finds Research group in Bavaria. Geoff was a true character and
> individualist who must have driven his teachers and managers mad,
> technophobe (he and I still had no mobile phone) and a brilliant scholar of
> objects. His vast library was even bigger than mine. He was certainly
> capable of spending his last £100 on some obscure German book on heraldry.
> He was a real vocationalist who did archaeology for the love of the subject.
> I doubt we will see an individual again with his vast knowledge. I always
> used to joke there was no museum on the planet you could visit without them
> remembering his visit to look at small metal objects. I know he had lots of
> friends in North America, Europe and further afield. All I can say is that I
> feel very lonely at losing one of my best friends and a guy who was a real
> inspiration to me from the moment I first met him with three carousels under
> his arms and about to give a lecture on metal objects from London to a class
> of conservation students at Cardiff.
>
>
> paul courtney
>
> Co-Editor Post-Medieval Archaeology
> Leicester
> England
>