FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Jordi Fabre]

Dr. Gerhard Niedermayr left us on Friday, 2015-07-17 after a long and serious illness. He was the curator and director of the mineral collection of the Natural Museum of History in Vienna.

I met him long time ago during one of my trips to Romania, the best way I can describe him is: "He loved the Minerals".
Always enthusiastic, full of knowledge, the classic description of "erudite" is what came to my mind every time I have seen him.

Be happy in your paradise of rare minerals Gerhard.

Yours

Jordi
PS: the mineral Niedermayrite was named in his honor: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niedermayrite

[John S. White]

He was a fine man and a very good friend. He will be missed.

[Peter]

He was a real mineralogist and sharp enough to immediately jump on the 17 cm Viitaniemiite crystal on Lepidolite from Paprok, Afghanistan when he saw it, after at least one serious collector, who should have known better had passed (and for him it was coffee money!) ! As I recall the asking price was 4850 DM and I saw it after Gerhard had bought it.

He was an excellent curator, caring about the best of the Collection in Wien in the first place, exchanging after his own mind, i.e. never letting sharks in to rob the collection. He exchanged lively with those who had something very special for him.
I fondly remember when I donated two red flawless gem triplites from N Pakistan. He could thus have one cut and keep one rough, He was smiling not only with his whole face but entire body! He stuttered but... but these are selling for over ten thousand dollars of not even this size.... Well, it is just a rock ;)
He loved rare pegmatite minerals and those of gem quality a little extra.

He was such a nice and knowledgeable man and kindly asked me if I would ever consider parting with a butterfly twin golden calcite.

I pulled out one of two twins I had collected from a small pocket right behind the Butterfly Twin Pocket. One of the wings had grown against other crystals on the wall, it was freely growing off the small floor of that two hand sized pocket. I hope it is still in the Wien collection. I let him have it almost for free :)

He was such a sympathetic man and his face changed from the very serious to a huge smile.

He was a dear friend, someone I really had the highest admiration, respect for in the field of mineralogy and curation of a national collection.

He was for decades a treasure in the curatorial world. On a couple of occasions, just like Ole Johnssen of Copenhagen, he asked me to represent him at the Mineral Museum Professionals Meeting in Munchen and Tucson some 10-25 years back which was a great honor. He had so many others to ask, who lived and worked closer to him.

RIP in mineral and gem heaven. Although the golden calcite location is since years caved in by millions of tons, we shall not give up but we shall keep finding those rare gem quality oddities in the Hindukush, Karakorum Mountains Range Pegmatites and elsewhere.

Yours Swedish friend since the 1980s.

[Riccardo Modanesi]

hi to everybody!
I had the luck of knowing Dr.Niedermayr in Idar-Oberstein in 1992. I always remember him as a very good teacher about minerals and gemstones. His departure has shocked me a lot. Thank you very much indeed for everything, Dr. Niedermayr!
Riccardo Modanesi.