A Few Thoughts on Posterity (or Geo-Posterity)

 The bad news is:

1.) You ain't gonna live forever; and

2.) You can't take it with you.

Some good news, even if you can't make any significant cash donations to schools, museums, and/or other "centers-of-learning", there are things you can do to further the advancement of science, even if it is on an individual basis.

If you don't at least "write out" some tangible instructions, if you pass suddenly, your immediate survivors will know little or nothing about your wishes or even which specimens are to be specifically bequeathed vs. which ones can be consigned to being "yard rocks".  

You know so many of your specimens by sight, but your survivors don't and the greater the load (quantity), the more likely that they will run short of patience and just send the smaller ones to the trash, to be ignomineously buried forever in a landfill.  

Aside from being donated to schools or museums, some can be given to local mineral clubs, to be used as raffle prizes.  Make sure to label them, the more info associated with each specimen, the greater the scientific value.  

When facing our own mortality, it is tough to admit the truths listed above.  If there are interesting specimens that you collected yourself, before donating them, perhaps photograph them well, to help preserve those memories of the places and perhaps people you were with.  

If you have grandkids or grand-nieces/grandnephews, who are too young to responsibly keep them, hopefully for years, perhaps you can entrust a small "care package" to their parents for when the kids reach a more mature age.  In other words, someday, they may care.

That being said, there are no guarantees.  I still have a sample of chilled basalt from the 1944 eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, that was given to me by one of my Dad's friends, when I was probably 8 or 9 (1962 - 1963).  

On the other hand, during home renovations about 10 years ago, I managed to lose a tiny nugget of Platinum I collected near Auraria, Georgia, probably about 1969, when I was 15.  I also lost a small Diamond I found in Murfreesboro, Arkansas, in 1973, when I was 19.  Both were lost because of improper labeling and/or storage.  Just damn.

Being a book lover, the same goes for Geology and other Science books.  I donated a couple of heavy boxes of books (as well as rocks and fossils) to my undergrad alma mater, Georgia Southern University, almost four years ago.  

While travelling this last summer, I donated a few rock samples to a Geology teacher at Northwest Michigan College, in Traverse City, Michigan.  I wanted to do the same for North Dakota State University, while we were in Fargo on the same journey, but I ran out of time to retrieve samples from our deep basement to take with us.

In closing, it is human nature to want to be remembered after "we shuffle off this mortal coil" and whether or not your name is associated with the gifts or not, at least you have kept these items from going to the landfill.

So, follow my advice, while avoiding my mistakes and think of how you might help inspire a future scientist or two, whether with a book or a rock or fossil.