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Any attempt to adequately write about Archie Kalokerinos would need a
thousand pages and would incorporate many such adjectives as: far-sighted,
intelligent, sensible, observant, honest, caring, altruistic, congenial,
meticulous, brave, dogged, intrepid, and last but not least, the trite, but
well-deserved, "great".
I first heard about the great Dr Archie Kalokerinos from another
"great", the great Dr Irwin Stone. In 1975 he introduced me to
Archie's work with SIDS and convinced me to offer his book, "Every Second
Child" to the public through my mail-order company (Wholesale Nutrition).
Don't I wish I kept a few of those $8 Australian hard-cover copies since they
now fetch, with a fine dust jacket, about $100!
Archie, and his co-worker, Dr Glen Dettman, were coming on one of their
frequent lecture tours of the U.S. in 1979 and, since I was planning to put on
a Vitamin C seminar about that time, Irwin Stone suggested the date should
coincide with their visit, and that the goal of the seminar should be to
publicize Archie's pioneer work and successes with SIDS. This I did. Two
hundred persons attended this very successful seminar. The featured speakers
were, of course, Archie and Glen, along with Drs Irwin Stone, John F.
Catchpool, Bob Cathcart, Bernie Rimland, Wendell Belfield, and Bob Erdmann.
Never had I realized the value of such get-togethers for the mutual benefit of
all. Tremendous amounts of information flowed freely before, during, and after
the meetings. It was all repeated again 2 years later when our 2nd seminar
coincided with Archie and Glen's next U.S. lecture tour and with the release of
Archie's U.S. paperback edition of "Every Second Child" (Keats
Publishing), which is still available. Durk Pearson and Sandy Shaw also spoke
at this 1981 seminar and met Archie for the first time. Again, enlightenment
and friendship sprang from every corner for 2 days.
Over the years, Archie and Glen have toured the U.S. many times, always, of
course, stopping in California to lecture and to pay homage to another
"great", their good friend, the great Linus Pauling, who wrote a
2-page Foreword to "Every Second Child". In that Foreword, Pauling
agrees with Archie's conclusion that the high infant mortality rate among
Aborigines is due to immunizations and a low body content of vitamin C and
writes that "Dr Kalokerinos deserves much credit for making these
discoveries." Dr Pauling, in another fine Foreword, this one to the
forthcoming book by Dettman and Kalokerinos, "Vitamin C - Nature's
Miraculous Healing Missile", writes of his disappointment after nearly 20
years since "Every Second Child" first appeared, and that "even
today none of the many Crib Death organizations will even discuss vitamin C.
Perhaps they will change their minds after reading Dr Ronald Kilgour's
unsolicited letter in this present volume." And further on, Dr Pauling
continues, "It will be interesting to see if this book, for which I'm
honored to have been invited to write the Foreword, will turn the tide for
vitamin C."
Only once have I had the pleasure of visiting Archie and his understanding
wife, Catherine, at their home in Bingara, in the outback of New South Wales.
It's an old mining town, with a fine "Lookout Point" where you can
see 1000 square miles of barren wasteland. A few large pieces of rusting
100-year-old mining equipment, Archie's surgery (office), and the Bingara Tip
(Dump), were about the only tourist "attractions". But Catherine's
cooking was excellent, insuring a successful visit. Archie gave me a letter of
introduction to two of his old cronies, Bill Petrohelos and Peter Russo (you'll
read about them in "Every Second Child"), in Lightning Ridge and
Collarenebri, NSW, the centers for Australia's most beautiful opals. I should
mention that Archie is probably THE World authority on Australian Opal. One of
my most treasured possessions is his 1967 book, "In Search of Opal",
inscribed to me "in appreciation of your friendship". His second opal
book, "Australian Precious Opal", published in 1971, was the first
serious study of Opal, it's description, classification, and its evaluation.
It's a beautiful book, and its photos are superb, and it's out of print, and I
own a copy, and you can't have it, and I'm going to take it with me!
Anyway, his old cronies, Bill and Pete, showed me a great time in the opal
fields, down into the mines, drilling, cussing, eating, even a Saturday night
dance. Everyone remembered well of Archie and had many happy stories to relate
about the good old days of feast and famine (some of which are unprintable).
It's a life we'd all like to experience for awhile, and I expect Archie misses
it from time to time. But then, after just a few moments of reminiscing, he
must soon realize his real world, his best world, is his life with his
"great" wife, Catherine (the great?), and their two fine kids, in
Tamworth, NSW, where they've retired. Retired? As you read this, Archie is
scheduled to speak at an Immunization Seminar in Alaska. No, Catherine, nobody
really believes Archie will ever retire completely. Would you want it any other
way? We wouldn't!
No, we wouldn't ever want Archie to retire because we need him to fight with
us against all those strange, powerful, officials out there whose motives and
actions are incomprehensible to us. Despite all his years in the opal mines in
the Australian Outback, the only times I've ever seen Archie swear or get angry
is when he's discussing regulatory agencies, such as the FDA, who are clearly
killing more people than they're saving, and all those other ubiquitous,
near-sighted (or near-blind), bureaucrats of both Australia and the U.S. - whom
he refers to as "those bloody bahstards". Please, Catherine, take 99%
of Archie for Tamworth, but can you let us have 1% of him for the rest of the
world?
Copyr © 1993 Oscar Falconi, Saratoga CA, 18 August 1993
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