Summer 2002, Volume 38, Issue 2

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Remembering Gemology’s Renaissance Man: John Sinkankas (1915-2002)
Alice S. Keller

Gems & Gemology mourns the passing of associate editor John Sinkankas, who died in San Diego, California, on May 17 after a brief illness. John had celebrated his 87th birthday just two days before. John Sinkankas was the quintessential "Renaissance Man" of gemology. He was a prolific author, a renowned lapidary, the undisputed bibliophile in his field, a gem and mineral connoisseur, and a successful miner. He was also an accomplished artist in watercolor, and several of his paintings of gems and minerals appeared in his books. Add to that his more than two decades of contributions to G&G, and it is safe to say that there will never be another John Sinkankas in gemology. A native of Paterson, New Jersey, John began collecting minerals from the local quarries by the age of seven. After graduating in 1936 from the New Jersey State Teachers College (later William Paterson University), John started his 25-year career as a Navy pilot. He married his college sweetheart Marjorie Jane McMichael in 1940. John rose to the rank of captain before retiring in 1961, whereupon he and Marge settled in San Diego's Pacific Beach community. This positioned him well for his many forays into the local gem pegmatites. John's childhood interest in gems and minerals continued throughout his naval career. After World War II, he enrolled in correspondence courses from GIA and the American Gem Society (AGS). A self-taught lapidary, John began cutting gems in 1947. Today two of his most important gem carvings, a 7,478 ct quartz egg and the world's largest faceted golden beryl (2,054 ct), are on permanent display at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. Inspired to light the way for others, he began writing an amateur lapidary column for Rocks & Minerals magazine in 1951. His first book, Gem Cutting—A Lapidary's Manual, was published in 1955. More than a dozen books followed, including Emerald and Other Beryls (1981), Gemology: An Annotated Bibliography (1993), and the three-volume series Gemstones of North America (1959, 1976, and 1997). John once described his approach to writing: "It's really quite a thrill when you find little bits of information that you didn't know, that you've never seen before. And you have a great deal of satisfaction in putting it down in black and white so everybody else can share that information." As John's writing projects expanded, so did his and Marge's private library. At the time GIA purchased their 14,000-item library in 1988, it was the world's finest private collection of gem and mineral literature. Now housed in the Institute's Richard T. Liddicoat Library and Information Center in Carlsbad, California, the Sinkankas collection includes thousands of rare and important books (see D. Dirlam et al., "The Sinkankas Library," Spring 1989 G&G, pp. 2-15). In 1982, John was awarded an honorary doctorate from William Paterson University. Two years later, a new pegmatitic phosphate mineral was named sinkankasite in recognition of his extraordinary contributions to the field. John received the Carnegie Mineralogical Award in 1988, and was named an Honorary Lifetime Member of the American Gem Trade Association (AGTA) in 1992. John's contributions to Gems & Gemology were immeasurable. A member of the editorial review board from 1981 to 1983, and associate editor since 1984, he not only contributed numerous articles and book reviews, but he also diligently reviewed (and sometimes even rewrote) dozens of manuscripts. As a friend of John's for more than 25 years, I treasured his dry wit and unassuming personality. He was generous with his encyclopedic knowledge and had a unique ability to take complex concepts, such as crystallography, and put them in terms that a layperson could understand. His influence was global, especially in the lapidary arts, where many who never even met John spoke of him as their mentor. John Sinkankas is survived by his wife, Marjorie; daughters, Sharon J. Tooley of San Diego and Marjorie E. Coates of Virginia; sons, John W. Sinkankas of Los Angeles and George M. Sinkankas of Tennessee; nine grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren. At the request of the Sinkankas family, GIA has established the John Sinkankas Library Fund. If you would like to contribute to the fund, please send your donation to: Dona Dirlam, Liddicoat Gemological Library and Information Center, 5345 Armada Drive, Carlsbad, California 92008 (ddirlam@gia.edu).

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