******************************************************** Pepe Pizzarello February 9, 2001 ******************************************************** February 12, 2001 Bill, Following is an obit for Pepe Pizzarello who recently passed away. He worked for GSI during the early days of the seismic digital revolution. He worked in Dallas, Midland, Houston, London and all over South America. I know Pepe would personally appreciate that his former associates, colleagues and friends would be notified of his passing. Also, if anyone has an e-mail address for the Dallas or Houston geophysical societies, I would appreciate it if someone could send them a notice as well. Thank you, Bob Kopicki JOSE CARLOS (PEPE) PIZZARELLO-1927 to 2001 Last Friday, February 9, 2001, Pepe left us to go on his final adventure. When I last saw him over the Christmas holidays, he felt this would be his last Christmas with friends and family. He commented that this was the only challenge he had left to face and had been preparing all his life to make the trip. He passed away in the Tandil hospital, in Argentina, not far from the small estancia that brought him so much joy and pleasure. It was the place that provided solace and escape when he sought relaxation and a place to hide-away and indulge his hobbies. He and Adriana were in the process of making it their permanent residence instead of the summer retreat from Buenos Aires. He will always be remembered by many as an amazing individual--astonishingly unique. Despite the seemingly broadband connotation of the title, "Renaissance Man", he was much beyond it in so many ways. Pizzarello is an Italian name; he carried a British passport, traced his family origins to Gibraltar, spent a large part of his working life in the US, the UK, all over South America and called Argentina home. If you really tried to get to know him or simply understand him, you would have to isolate the pieces that really comprised Pepe. The process of taking him apart would undoubtedly leave you with so many parts that you would have doubtful success of ever reconstructing him to represent the person that you thought you knew when you first started. His acceptability and unforgettability, by so many, after the briefest of encounters had much to do with the spontaneity that he exhibited and the laughter he provided in translating Spanish jokes into English. If you ever spent a night partying with him, you would realize that he could go on for hours, and maybe even days and never repeat a joke-ever. This skill combined with his piano versatility, which was near concert quality, often had him characterized as the Argentine Victor Borge equivalent. He seldom played with music and had an ear and a memory and an ability to ad lib whatever he heard and make it sound like the original composition. His other talents, expressed in his hobbies, were equally impressive. He was a self-taught artist and his charcoal pencil drawings and oils have perspective and museum quality that will endure long beyond his achievements in geophysics. His contributions to the geophysical projects he worked on should have a similar enduring quality. He devoted his life to them with the same energy and effort to doing them right that he expended on his faith, family and living life. He solved some pretty difficult seismic acquisition problems; helped in progressing the development of digital technology after it was first born; mentored and trained many people over the 30 plus years of his career in the seismic industry; and participated or led the teams that defined many successful drill locations worldwide. Pepe could have made a living doing any of the following and he leaves behind the relics of his efforts: architect, artist, pianist, humorist, pocket watch and clock restorer, mathematician, potential fields expert and of course, geophysicist/processor/interpreter. The geophysical industry was fortunate to count him among their members but he will surely be missed by many that go well beyond his chosen career field. He leaves behind his wife, Adriana, and three sons, John and Horace who reside in the Dallas, Texas area with their wives and children and Carlos who resides in Tandil, Argentina with his wife and children.