November 27, 2000 will be a day that I will always sadly remember. For on
that day I received an electronic mail telling me
that my dear friend, Vasily V. Martynenko had passed away. I had
cooresponded with him since the early 1970's and we
shared our love for astronomy especially meteors. I received books and
journals from him about science in the Soviet Union
and picture albums of the Crimean region. I sent him astronomy journals in
return. Vasily loved to do scenic paintings of certian
areas in the Crimea. He and his students went on many meteor expeditions
to various areas of the Soviet Union and they also
made solar and planet observations. One of their feats was the making of a
12 inch refractor which is still used. The irony was
that I received his last letter on November 24, 2000 and in it he told me
he was very happy that he had received my astronomy
calendar for 2001 and also had been awarded a medal and diploma from the
Supreme Soviet of Crimean Autonomous
Republic for "Meritorious Worker of Education of Crimean Autonomous
Republic." He had just celebrated his 70th birthday
on July 31. He was also one of the co-founding and council members of the
International Meteor Organization -IMO. He will
be missed by all who knew him and especially by me. I have lost a very
dear friend and collegue. When I see a meteor I will
remember you in my thoughts. Farewell Vasily, you are now among the star
in the Cosmos ( "Kocmoc" ) that was your life long
passion. This is a group photo of the Soviet meteor group
and in the photo Vasily is standing at far right along with the other
Soviet amateurs Soviet meteor group
            

 Also, there is a main belt asteroid named after him:
asteroid


19962 Martynenko           	

Discovered 1986 Sept.7 by L. I. Chernykh at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory.
Vasily Vasil'evich Martynenko (1930-2000) was a researcher of meteor streams, an organizer of annual 
meteor expeditions and author of many papers and books. He organized an observatory for young amateurs in Simferopol, 
a studio of space paintings and a mineralogical museum.