Sholto Hamilton “Dick” GEORGESON
May 7, 1922 – March 27, 2014
It is with a heavy heart that I write this blog posting. On Thursday March 27, 2014, the world lost a lovely man, Dick Georgeson. His full name was Sholto Hamilton Georgeson but everyone called him “Dick”.
Dick grew up in New Zealand and was a pioneer New Zealand glider pilot. He discovered the potential of the Makenzie Country (near the center of the south island of New Zealand) mountain wave system and even diagrammed it out on paper.
On December 16, 1960, Dick set a world height record and soared his wooden Skylark 3F Glider, registration ZK-GCF, to 34,395 feet (10,484 meters). For the next twenty years Dick went on to set many more world records and New Zealand records in various gliders.
Dick was so enthusiastic about the weather, discovering new things and was always sending me unusual cloud formation photos that he and I would then spend time trying to figure out how/why they formed.
Dick was so excited about the Perlan Project and had such wonderful insight into the mountain wave when we were flying out of Omarama New Zealand.
Einar Enevolson, the Perlan Project Founder, and I were talking about Dick on the phone yesterday and Einar made a wonderful comment that pretty much sums things up. He said “Isn’t it great that we knew Dick!”
My thoughts and best wishes go out to his family including his children, grand-children and his wife, Anna Wilson. He will be missed dearly!
Elizabeth Austin Perlan
Project Meteorologist
