Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion A sad day for petro history

I got word through John Cirillo that noted gas & oil historian Earl Ma has passed away from complications of cancer. His many articles for "Check the Oil!" magazine detailed facets of oil history that we may have never otherwise known.

Earl was a special person who had a real passion for petro history. His research and published articles have been a great resource for us.

I thoroughly enjoyed the visit I had with Earl in Honolulu in 2005. Earl shared local oil history as well as some travel tips for us that really helped. He had an upbeat way of talking that didn't hint at his serious health problems. He was only 36 years old.

Earl will be missed. I imagine he left a long list of unfinished projects that we all would have appreciated. My prayers are with his family and friends.


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Jim "Oldgas" Potts
Your host and moderator

Very sorry to hear of Earls passing. Although I never met Earl in person, we corresponded through the mail. I too always enjoyed reading his articles. Ed

I was also saddened to hear of Earl's death at such a young age.

I didn't know Earl very well but he recently visited me in late April. He was here to cover the Champ Car race in Houston and visit his aunt. He viewed my sign collection and we talked about old gas station chains and topics in the hobby. Earl never let on that anything was wrong with his health.

The hobby will greatly miss him!!

Paul

I to enjoyed Earls articles you would have never known that he had a problem, he will be truly missed by his family and his extended family here at Oldgas, My family will include him in our prayers, may he enjoy eternal life with the good lord

I am very saddened by the passing of Earl. While I have knowned him for a number of years, it wasnt't until this past year that we started working together. I helped him write the article that appeared in CTO on the DX stations. I also supplied him with all the items he used to write the article about the gasomat stations.
I am not stating these things to bring light to what I did, but to say that I thought I finally found a person I could help write the many articles that were available using my files of literature. I was ready to present him with another idea for an article when I heard this.
Earl was one of those people that slip througt a hobby, not making many friends, but making a great deal of infullance. His articles were well written because he did a great deal of research to make sure the fact were straight. Besides a few cans, he did not leave a building fill with pumps and signs, but he left us with a great deal of literature. Go back and read his articles, you will see, he did his reasearch. My kind of writer.
Jack Sim, Author, Gas Pump Identification book and Air Meter Identificaiton book www.petrilianacollectibles.com

[This message has been edited by Jack Sim (edited 06-09-2007).]

Earl was an auto racing fan and writer as well. Check the eulogies on the Racing Press site.
http://www.racingpress.com/

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Jim "Oldgas" Potts
Your host and moderator

I am sad to hear this as he stopped in back in January and interviewed myself and my dad for an upcoming article in CTO. For those of you that did not know him he was a super guy. Rich B

Someone posted a nice Earl Ma bio/tribute here: http://www.smackforum.net/showpost.php?p=23966&postcount=35