December 20, 1996 Contact: Robert Irion (408) 459-2495; irion@ua.ucsc.edu

LONGTIME COLLEAGUE OF CARL SAGAN ISSUES STATEMENT ABOUT HIS DEATH

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA--Frank Drake, president of the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute in Mountain View and research professor of astronomy and astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz, has issued the following statement about the death today of astronomer Carl Sagan. Drake and Sagan were close friends and longtime working colleagues, dating to their simultaneous tenures as professors of astronomy at Cornell University in the 1960s.

Drake's statement, which may be used with attribution, is as follows:

"The passing of Carl Sagan is a great loss not just to the community of science, but to the entire world. He cherished and advocated reason and honesty in human understanding of both the natural world and humanity itself. He had deep insights into the place and future of humans in the cosmos, and was outstanding at communicating those insights.

"At the SETI Institute, there is now a sad vacancy on our Board of Directors; we valued his guidance very highly. He was a dedicated advocate of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, and did much to bring into being the great respect now enjoyed by this field. The world has lost a true irreplaceable leader."

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