Mark Crabtree
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- Apr 21, 2009
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I had a short visit with Patrick A. Gainer a few weeks ago and thought folks here might like an update. I don't know him well, but have visited him a couple times and we have spoken on the phone a couple more.
Patrick's father, Patrick W. Gainer, was quite a well known figure in West Virginia
http://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/2077
When I saw the name Patrick A. Gainer (from a very small town in W.Va.) in the old Photo Techniques magazine I thought there must be a connection and hunted him up at one of the W.Va. State Folk Festivals in Glenville, founded by his father. I spotted him easily at an event in his father's honor. I'm pretty sure we were toting the only Leicas in town that day. That was probably 10 years ago. He had some serious health issues not long after that that affected his memory, but he has always been helpful and generous with me. He had sent me scans he'd made of old glass plates shot by his grandfather, and I arranged to have them published in Goldenseal Magazine, a state culture and history publication.
With more health issue and moves I've wondered about him for a while now and finally sought him out after this years folk festival. He is living with his daughter in the house his father built about 8 miles from Glenville. As I've said, I don't know him well, so these are just my impressions from a brief visit. Patrick seems to be mostly bed ridden, but did say he can get around a little with help. He seems to keep busy and is very clear thinking, but with lots of gaps in his memory from the health problems. He has a Canon digital camera and his laptop computer with him all the time and his cat, Patches (IIRC), as a ready subject. He also showed me prints of some visitors playing music on the little patio just outside his room. He has a window view right by the bed, plus the big glass doors to the patio, which also let him go out on the patio easily.
We talked about a lot of things, but probably the most interesting was about his work with the Mercury space program. He told me in fascinating detail about creating star charts for the astronauts to use from the Mercury space capsule. The terrestrial charts didn't work for that, so it was a whole new concept and as best I understood had to take into account the angle of orbit and other factors. Printing was a major issue since all they had were simple plotters that printed alpha/numeric characters. The used things like o and x then hand colored/filled them to indicate magnitude. His father was so well published that it is a bit hard to find much about Patrick on the net, but if you search Patrick A. Gainer and NASA you'll find a lot of technical publications with his credit.
Patrick's darkroom is still in the upper level of the house somewhere. He misses that and hopes to get up there just to poke through the stuff sometime. He thinks there is even a sample of the Mercury era star chart stored in there. At the same time, he says that digital has been wonderful for letting him continue working with photography when he wouldn't be able to otherwise. And of course he is a technical person and likes something to figure out.
His daughter says that he hasn't been able to use the forums some time, so I thought I'd post this brief update for the folks here who remember Patrick's regular contributions.
Patrick's father, Patrick W. Gainer, was quite a well known figure in West Virginia
http://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/2077
When I saw the name Patrick A. Gainer (from a very small town in W.Va.) in the old Photo Techniques magazine I thought there must be a connection and hunted him up at one of the W.Va. State Folk Festivals in Glenville, founded by his father. I spotted him easily at an event in his father's honor. I'm pretty sure we were toting the only Leicas in town that day. That was probably 10 years ago. He had some serious health issues not long after that that affected his memory, but he has always been helpful and generous with me. He had sent me scans he'd made of old glass plates shot by his grandfather, and I arranged to have them published in Goldenseal Magazine, a state culture and history publication.
With more health issue and moves I've wondered about him for a while now and finally sought him out after this years folk festival. He is living with his daughter in the house his father built about 8 miles from Glenville. As I've said, I don't know him well, so these are just my impressions from a brief visit. Patrick seems to be mostly bed ridden, but did say he can get around a little with help. He seems to keep busy and is very clear thinking, but with lots of gaps in his memory from the health problems. He has a Canon digital camera and his laptop computer with him all the time and his cat, Patches (IIRC), as a ready subject. He also showed me prints of some visitors playing music on the little patio just outside his room. He has a window view right by the bed, plus the big glass doors to the patio, which also let him go out on the patio easily.
We talked about a lot of things, but probably the most interesting was about his work with the Mercury space program. He told me in fascinating detail about creating star charts for the astronauts to use from the Mercury space capsule. The terrestrial charts didn't work for that, so it was a whole new concept and as best I understood had to take into account the angle of orbit and other factors. Printing was a major issue since all they had were simple plotters that printed alpha/numeric characters. The used things like o and x then hand colored/filled them to indicate magnitude. His father was so well published that it is a bit hard to find much about Patrick on the net, but if you search Patrick A. Gainer and NASA you'll find a lot of technical publications with his credit.
Patrick's darkroom is still in the upper level of the house somewhere. He misses that and hopes to get up there just to poke through the stuff sometime. He thinks there is even a sample of the Mercury era star chart stored in there. At the same time, he says that digital has been wonderful for letting him continue working with photography when he wouldn't be able to otherwise. And of course he is a technical person and likes something to figure out.
His daughter says that he hasn't been able to use the forums some time, so I thought I'd post this brief update for the folks here who remember Patrick's regular contributions.
Thanks for the update.
