A bit late for the annual celebration of Clair Patterson's life, but here we go.
Courage: It takes a lot to face down huge companies.
Lead: The thing he worked tirelessly to get removed from our gasoline.
Air: The stuff we breathe. Now with less lead because of him!
Isotopes: He helped calculate the age of the Earth with surprising accuracy with the help of different isotopes of lead! (Note: He worked on the Manhattan Project too, which cannot be ignored, but this is a celebration of his work with lead and its removal from our gasoline. Other people will talk about his involvement there.)
Regulation: With his help, a lot of regulations were put in to remove lead from our food cans as well as our gasoline!
Peace: The removal of lead from our air caused a massive decrease in violent crime! (It still happens, but at a much lower rate, thanks to the decreased lead levels)
Awards: he won the J. Lawrence Smith Medal for investigations of meteoric bodies in 1973, the V. M. Goldschmidt Award for achievements in the fields of geochemistry and cosmochemistry in 1980, and the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement in 1995 for his work with lead.
Tenacity: It takes a lot of tenacity to regulate massive oil companies!
Trials: Trials and tribulations abound. It was not easy to take those corporations down a peg! He was refused contracts with many scientific studies after his public criticism of the lead industry!
Ethyl Corporation: One of his main rivals. A whole corporation! Imagine how much determination it takes to keep fighting against such big players!
Resolve: He did not stop. He would never stop until he got lead from gasoline.
Service: His service to humanity as a whole for decreasing the amount of lead in our air must always be remembered! Clair Patterson! Remember that name!
Obscurity: Today, many corporations are trying to make us forget him! Do not forget this man! Clair Patterson! Remember him!
Never Forget: Never forget Clair Patterson and how hard he worked to get lead out of our air! Never forget that the reduction in lead levels contributed to a reduction in violent crime! Never forget him, no matter how much he is erased by the corporations that hate his legacy!
