Twice in my life have I become teary over the death of people whom I had never met. The first was over George Harrison, as I was a fan of the "Quiet Beatle." The second time was yesterday, upon hearing of the death of Arthur C. Clarke.

It was in eighth grade...Ms. Wheeler's English class...that I was obliged to read the book "2001: A Space Odyssey." Most of my classmates approached it with dread. It had a boring cover. It had lots of science terms on the synopsis. But I was a good student, and it had been assigned, so I read it.

It began a love affair with science fiction that has lasted 26 years. Though I have branched far and wide in science fiction, from the classics -- Bradbury, Heinlen, Asimov -- to the admittedly somewhat schlocky, I held Clarke nearest and dearest to my heart. There has seldom been written a more prophetic science fiction novel than "Childhood's End" (in which Clarke predicted communication via fax and e-mail...in 1953) or a more perfect sci-fi book than "Rendezvous With Rama." My personal favorite, however, remains "The City And The Stars," a novel that takes place a billion years into Earth's future and theorizes what may come of both human technology and human social interaction.

But we have a lot more to thank Clarke for than his science fiction, as worthy a contribution as it was. It was Clarke, who was also a physicist and a mathematician, who popularized the idea via a 1945 essay entitled "Extra Terrestrial Relays" in Wireless World magazine that satellites in geostationary orbit (an orbit that allows the satellite to remain above a specific point on earth at all times) would be perfect for carrying telecommunications traffic. To this day, the orbit that telecom satellites travel in, geostationary orbit, is also known as the "Clarke orbit."

Clarke never patented the idea of the telecommunications satellite, primarily because his lawyer thought the idea was so outlandish...communication relayed to space and back to earth again...that the lawyer felt it would have been a waste of time. Clarke later recounted the error in an essay entitled, "A Short Pre-History of Comsats, Or: How I Lost a Billion Dollars in My Spare Time."

Rest in peace, Sir Arthur Clarke. I, for one, will go home today and drag out my old copies of your books and be inspired.

TES