My Bio by Charles Creekmur.

I want to introduce myself and tell you a little about my experience in the world of minerals.  My name is Charles Creekmur.  I live in the Piney Woods of East Texas.  Not much in the way of field-tripping close by unless you are interested in petroleum geology, red clay, a little low quality petrified wood and a few Eocene fossils. My interest in rocks and minerals  started very early in life and by the time I was nine years old, my parents were buying me mineralogy text books.  I received my geology education at Texas Western College (formerly the Texas School of Mines and now the University of Texas, El Paso). My focus was on mineral chemistry & optical mineralogy.  Later, in graduate school, I did most of my work in X-ray diffraction analysis.  I collected extensively in southern Arizona, New Mexico and West Texas during those college years.  I went on to do graduate work at Stephan F. Austin State University and taught some college level mineralogy courses for a few years.  I am a charter member of the 50 year old East Texas Gem & Mineral Society in Tyler, Texas.  Since I was involved in the family grocery business, I never made use of the geology education until I started doing gem & mineral shows in Texas in the mid 1980's.  Some of you might have seen me at shows in Dallas, Ft.Worth, Waco, Fredericksburg, Temple, Austin, Victoria, Texarkana, Corpus Christi, Longview or Tyler.  I attended the shows under the name ETEX GEM & MINERAL SUPPLY.  I have been involved in specimen mineralogy for over 50 years and am now going on the Web to offer years of accumulation of specimens from collecting, trading and  buying out old collections and rock shops.