Another great one gone - Jacques Géry 1917 – 2007

[Lisachromis]

I was going through http://www.aquapress-bleher.com/ earlier and came across the news that Jacques Géry passed away the 20th of June 2007.
For those who don't realize who that is, here's a snippet of what Heiko wrote about him.

One of the great ichthyologists of our times has left us. Jacques Géry the extraordinary Frenchman, the gentleman par excellence, this humble man, has fallen asleep forever. I called once him the greatest characoid expert of the world, especially after the publication of his magnum work “Characoids of the World” (Géry 1977), which until today is considered the reference book for Characiformes.

[Darrell Ullisch]

This is the first I have heard of this, thank you for posting it, Lisa. At the time that book was released, I was just getting into studying and breeding that group of fish, and prior to the release of Gery's Characoids, information on these fish was spotty, only found in general aquarium books. The book was mostly intended as a key, but I read it cover to cover. Because of the interest sparked by this book, I later met illuminaries such as Dr. Stan and Marilyn Weitzman, and was able to converse semi-intelligently with them.

This is indeed a sad day.

[Juan Artigas]

Remembering Jacques Géry I share with you an anecdote that Patrick de Rham shared with me about him some years ago. Please excuse me if I don’t remember all the details correctly though. Jacques Géry was a surgeon and an aquarist. At his 40's he divorced and at the time he decided to give a new direction to his life, being a respected professional he quitted his job an dedicated to study ichthyology, he then specialized in his beloved Characinids and became one of the greatest ichthyologist of the 20 th century.

Probably it is time for me to quit engineering?

[Ken Boorman]

Maybe you should finish your book first?

Ken.
(ducking from Juan)

[Lisachromis]

Maybe you should finish your book first?

Ken.
(ducking from Juan)

YES! What he said.

[Philippe Burnel]

A French interview of Doctor Géry is available on the site of the aquarist magazine “Aquaplaisir” for which he had written some articles. I had been pleased to once contact him by phone about an article of Konings on the use of Metriaclima instead of Maylandia. Not only I had the feeling to speak with a great man but also with somebody very humble. He had provided me his "answer to Konings” for a publication in the journal of the French Cichlid Association.
Doctor Géry was sick for a long time

http://aquaplaisir.com/jgery.html