Dear CMS Members: It is with great sadness that I let you know that Jim Kirkpatrick passed away on January 7, 2020. We have just lost a great scientist, an inspiring mentor, a colleague, and a very good friend. Over many years, Jim has contributed a lot to several areas of geoscience and materials science research, clay mineralogy being quite prominent among them. It was actually Jim, who first introduced me to clay science some 20 years ago, and inspired a lot of what we have done together ever since. The news of our last accepted paper came yesterday almost simultaneously with this sad unexpected message. Jim was the 2015 Distinguished Bailey Member of The Clay Minerals Society. I know he will be greatly missed by the community. Here is a link to Jim’s obituary. His family has expressed a willingness for us to share it with anyone we may have or plan to talk to about Jim’s passing. https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/east-lansing-mi/robert-kirkpatrick-8989757 Sadly, Andrey Kalinichev, CMS President (2019-2020)