Since 1995, during the annual association meeting and auction in Tucson, when someone suggested that Bill Mason auction off his PaleoBond Lab coat, Bill removed the coat, and since then, it has been auctioned off over 28 times, and has traveled home to nearly a dozen different states as well as Canada, the UK and Morocco, always returning to be re-auctioned. During the 2017 annual meeting in Tucson, Neal Larson, past-president of the AAPS, recommended that we honor the person or company that successfully bids on the PaleoBond Lab Coat, and the designation of AAPS Advocate was born.
Over the years, the coat has been signed by guest-speakers, notable members and visiting paleontologists. The winner has the coat for one year and is required to bring it back the following year to be auctioned again. Not only is the successful bidder recognized as the AAPS Advocate for the year. They will have a company profile published in the following year's AAPS Guide, distributed in Tucson during the Mineral and Fossil shows.
The first recipient of the AAPS Advocate recognition during 2017 was Bill Murray of PaleoTools®. Bill began like most of us, with an interest in fossil collecting and preparation, early on he was bitten by the paleo bug. Fortunately for Bill, he and his wife Jane are residents of Utah, the state with more dinosaur species discoveries then all the other states combined. They enjoyed both the search and discovery of these ancient treasures. Bill discovered a Hadrosaurid dinosaur during 1995 and assisted with the collection and preparation of the specimen (collected by the University of Utah). It was during the preparation of these fossils that he realized the short-comings of the tools available to preparators.
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