Passing... Rowland "Ron" Mowrey aka PE, Photo Engineer, Feb. 15, 2020

Very sad news. Great loss for us all photopgraphy enthousiasts.
Thank you for all you shared with so many mister PE.

Such very sad news.
PE was a wonderful contributor to the forum and I enjoyed his posts greatly (even though some went waaay over my head in the chemistry stakes).

Such a great loss to the film community, my thoughts are with his friends and family.

I am going to miss PE. He would always offer the right answer when some questions got bandied back and forth.

Now we’ll never know why gray cards are 18%.

I had the pleasure of Skyping with him several years back. I checked but don’t have any history from those conversations to share.

Very sorry to read this but good to hear all of the stories about the mark PE left.

He was always well founded in his opinions and firm but polite about it. We could all pay tribute to him by taking that to heart - argue less, inform more.

Do you recall the classroom lesson where the teacher asks her students "Where does your dinner come from?" And the young city child answers "The grocery store." Then the rural farm child quietly raises his hand and says "No, there's a little bit more to it than that..."

This, I think, summarizes well Ron Mowrey's most enduring contribution to APUG. Before PE, I daresay for the vast majority of us who use film, it simply came from a camera store. Or perhaps Rochester, New York, if we fancied ourselves extra knowledgeable on the topic.

It seemed to be a pretty simple deal. Just endless strips/rolls/sheets of the stuff available everywhere. All sprayed with some flubber-like concoction mixed up by elves in a little workshop somewhere. No big deal. Starbucks orders were more complex.

But Ron knew better that we didn't know better.

They say there are four distinct levels of competency in any field of knowledge. The first level is not knowing how much one doesn't know. The second is knowing how much one doesn't know. The third is not knowing how much one does know. And the fourth is knowing how much one knows.

Ron was an emeritus member of that fourth master level. While most of the rest of us were wading around randomly in the shallow end of the first level, simply clicking the Submit Order button. He knew this.

To his credit and legacy, PE sought to change that dynamic. So he listened. He discussed. He corrected. He simplified when appropriate. He expanded when necessary. He offer suggestions when he saw a way forward. And he called dead ends when he didn't. He did this both publicly and privately. Always with patience and good cheer. Even when we were all collectively clueless.

The aggregate effect over his years on APUG?

I'm convinced that a truly significant number of us -- myself included -- were literally pulled up from that first level to at least the second level. A transition that often made me wide-eyed in newfound amazement at the enormous scope of the "little bit more to it than that..." which was required to put a roll or sheet in my hands.

And a lucky few may have even been pulled to that third level and are now happily mixing and tweaking their own DIY photographic emulsions. Perhaps someday with Ron's legacy knowledge and assistance I can get to this point myself. I do intend to try.

After PE, I now realize that this film stuff turned out to be one of the most highly technological creations ever attempted. Tolerances and subtleties and voodoo almost beyond measurement. Or comprehension. Incredibly delicate to make. Incredibly robust to use. Incredibly easy to take for granted.

It's a worthy legacy beyond any that I'll ever be able to leave. I'm really going to miss that guy.

Ken

Ken that's a beautifully written piece
Thanx!

This is very sad. He was always responsive and helpful to all and he treated everyone with great respect. There were never dumb questions, he always answered with kindness. Words cannot convey my profound sadness and lose.

It is now to us to carry on his memory and knowledge to the world.

138S said:

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Thank you so much.

Even though we never spoke in person, or replied to one another on this forum, I often read threads where he had comprehensive posts and I learned more from his posts than from regular sources on the net. May he rest in peace.

With the passing of Ron Mowrey, our community has truly lost a great source of knowledge and information but, most importantly, a real gem of a human being. The first word that comes to mind when you think about Ron, —as proven, here, by the number of times you see it in our group eulogy— is generous. And very much so.

I called him in November of 2017 to thank him for a sensitometer he’d sent to me here, in France. We spoke for over 30 minutes and, if I remember correctly, he told me about some of his experiences here and -what’s for sure- he spoke some of his rusty French to me! He was already having serious health problems at that time, but didn’t want to go into, and I didn’t push him on it. (By the way, I also remember that he [rightly] groused about Kodak reducing retirement payments to those, like him, who were already out the door. It didn't make his life any more comfortable).

Ron was remarkable; even though he was in retirement and in failing health, he really went out of his way to help us and I think most of you would agree how fortunate —and, in my opinion, absolutely privileged —we were to have, in our presence and within our realm of contact, someone of such great knowledge, talent, technical competence and —again, because his great generosity— humanity.

He’ll be sorely missed. I hope he'll rest in peace; I know he'll rest in our hearts and minds.

//
Christopher

Ouch. This is gonna hurt for a while. My condolences to his family and friends. I didn’t know him personally, but he has been pretty responsive and informative to me here on Photrio. I wish there were a lot more people here on Photrio like him, but sadly, he was in many ways one of a kind.

The past few years I haven't been on here all that much..but I always knew Ron would be there with answers! RIP our old friend.

M-88 said:

Even though we never spoke in person, or replied to one another on this forum, I often read threads where he had comprehensive posts and I learned more from his posts than from regular sources on the net. May he rest in peace.

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I often read his posts in depth! He was one who had literally forgotten more about photo chemistry than I will ever know! Several of his posts were fairly rigorous refreshers for the long-forgotten organic chem classes from decades ago.

He was also very good at debunking the misinformation (particularly about Kodachrome) that is circulated on the Interwebs.

RIP PE!

Sirius Glass said:

Thank you so much.

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Not at all.

I'd encurage to everyone to post a message in his tribute wall: https://bartolomeo.com/tribute/details/12929/Rowland-Mowrey/condolences.html#content-start

It would be nice his family knows how grateful we are to him.

He was exemplary in many ways.

I will miss him.

Geez, I haven't been on APUG in a while, and I come back to find this. Ron was truly a great teacher, and always willing to share his knowledge with others. I've often said on other internet sites that Ron had forgotten more about photo chemistry than most of us will ever know.

Being of an engineering background, I had occasion to share my dry, nerdy humor with him from time to time. He always managed to come back with a witty joke or two of his own.

We all knew this day would come, we just didn't think it would come so soon. My sincere condolences to his family during this difficult time. Ron will be missed by many, myself included.

RIP, PE.

RIP. The Legend.

Ron Mowrey, aka Photo Engineer, gave a great deal to Apug and now Photrio, and his ability to teach through his own experiences, meant a lot to me, as I considered him a rock solid source when it came to getting down to the facts and realities of our materials and the various applications these tools give us today.

I hope all is well with his family as they move ahead with their own lives, and the void he once filled in their lives, none too painful or insurmountable too bear.

Cheers for all you did, Ron, your voice will be missed.

A huge loss to this community, condolences go out to his family & hope he will RIP!

138S said:

Not at all.

I'd encurage to everyone to post a message in his tribute wall: https://bartolomeo.com/tribute/details/12929/Rowland-Mowrey/condolences.html#content-start

It would be nice his family knows how grateful we are to him.

He was exemplary in many ways.

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Done! Thank you for the link.

138S said:

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Thanks for this video. Those pictures form army have this "larger than life" feel it to it. Work from PE will stay with us.

Bummer, I just found out today about his death from Nicos Pnotography Show's video he posted today

I just found out about this from a friend who attended a memorial for him at RIT. I met Ron at Kodak in 2009 and found him to be a gentle but highly knowledgeable man in all things film.

He had a presence here that was precisely the same online as he was in person....you could simply count on him and it showed in every post.

He will be greatly missed here but through a site like this, his wisdom lives on...

RIP Ron.

I’m very sad to hear of his parting. I learnt a lot from him just reading different posts but never got the chance and now never will. A very sad day for Photrio and film photography

I had to pull myself together for some days to post here.

Loosing a human life with all it’s unquantifiable amounts of abounding knowledge, notions and feelings, is always beyond mere sadness. Beyond one single emotion.
And also beyond comprehension really.
That goes double for a life so rich, and for loosing an inner universe so well furnished as Ron’s.

Whenever someone I care for passes, whether I knew them personally or not, I always have an urge to salvage and save what can be saved of scraps of knowledge and wisdom for posterity.
In this case we have a unique chance, in that we have an, although doubtless very small part of Ron’s mind scattered all over this board.

Wouldn’t it be a fitting honor to him to index all of his posts, in a way that is more accessible and browsable than what is the case with the clumsy and cumbersome search function?

Ron was sick for quite a while, taking some heavy medication, amongst other adrenocortical steroids, which is not something you do for long periods without unpleasant side effects.
That he continued his postings here unabatedly and to the same high standard, speaks to his character.
I think this forum meant the world to him.
In his last years it was an escape from some of his worries and a way to do something, when he could do nothing to improve his own health.

He will be missed greatly.
Here’s to one of the last great Lensmen, now gone to the third stage.