Thursday, March 20, 2008

Science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke dies at 90 in Sri Lanka

 

Associated Press,
Tue March 18, 2008 18:07 EDT .
RAVI NESSMAN - Associated Press Writer - COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - (AP) Arthur C. Clarke, a visionary science fiction writer who won worldwide acclaim with more than 100 books on space, science and the future, died Wednesday in his adopted home of Sri Lanka, an aide said. He was 90. Clarke moved to Sri Lanka in 1956, lured by his interest in marine diving which he said was as close as he could get to the weightless feeling of space.

``I'm perfectly operational underwater,'' he once said.

He was the co-author with Stanley Kubrick of Kubrick's film ``2001: A Space Odyssey,'' but he was regarded as far more than a science fiction writer.

He was credited with the concept of communications satellites in 1945, decades before they became a reality. Geosynchronous orbits, which keep satellites in a fixed position relative to the ground, are called Clarke orbits.

He joined American broadcaster Walter Cronkite as commentator on the U.S. Apollo moonshots in the late 1960s.

When we 1st lived in Sri Lanka I met this man @ a sports club. I remember drifting over to the old man as he sat kind of slumped over in his chair. I sat down and began to chat with him and he asked me if my home was from the southern states in America… I wonder how he figured that out. He asked what brought me to Sri Lanka and I boldly just told him about God's destiny on our lives and he smiled… then he asked me if I knew who he was. I smiled as I was looking @ him as an old man that needed some company but he thought he was old man that deserved fame. I had no idea who he was until a year had passed by and his name came up in the papers. He asked me to play ping pong that day and in his crippled state of body, I kind of laughed… that old man made me have to work to beat him but he still beat me one game from a wheel chair. I will never forget afterwards as I got to share God's love to him as he allowed me to enter his world for a moment through a bold gesture from a redneck from Mississippi to a world famous visionary. Jesus allowed me to tell him the gospel and he smiled as I began to leave and said I will take your time and words under consideration. You just never know do you…

1 comment:

Card By Monica said...

Sadly, he wanted to be buried as an atheist and not have any form of religious rites at his burial.