caption other_names birth_date image article_title name
c. georgia , october 2005 . leroy ellenberger at fernbank museum , atlanta , c. leroy 1942 leroy atl.jpg c. leroy ellenberger
 charles leroy ellenberger
c. leroy ellenberger

charles leroy ellenberger -lrb- born 1942 , known as c. leroy -rrb- is perhaps best known as a one-time advocate , but now a critic of , controversial writer immanuel velikovsky and his works on catastrophism .
he first read `` worlds in collision '' in august 1969 after discovering it while browsing in the b. dalton 's bookstore in crestwood , missouri .
in 1979 , he became a contributing editor -lrb- and later senior editor & executive secretary -rrb- to the velikovsky-inspired kronos journal , and has contributed material to many other publications .
in 1980 he was selected by the editor of `` astronomy '' magazine to debate james oberg on velikovsky .
his confidence in the validity of velikovsky 's ideas was shaken in january 1982 when kronos sponsored his attendance at the semi-annual aaas meeting in washington , d.c. , in order to distribute information on velikovsky .
in a wide-ranging conversation with jeremy cherfas , then a writer for the british weekly science magazine new scientist over how the press misunderstood velikovsky , cherfas had counter-arguments to many points that ellenberger was not able to rebut .
according to professor of social theory alfred de grazia at new york university , `` by 1983 ellenberger was preparing to abandon much of quantavolution and found now that the story of velikovsky was not without its shady tones , and more important , that arctic ice cores and bristlecone pine dating technologies were directly contradicting holocene quantavolutions ... ; further , that gentry 's studies of the surprising ` instant ' polonium halos of creation ... were probably invalid . ''
henry bauer described ellenberger 's role in the velikovsky scene as follows : '' ... was a confidant to velikovsky , a frequent visitor -lrb- often with camera -rrb- from april 1978 to his death in november 1979 , and a senior editor of the velikovskian journal `` kronos '' , until the evidence forced him to conclude that velikovsky 's scientific claims were baseless .
velikovsky inscribed his copy of `` ramses ii and his time '' ` to leroy who is consumed by the sacred flame of search for truth ' , 20 may 1978 , and gave him permission to sell ` velikovsky 's right ! '
t-shirts .
alfred de grazia , impetus for `` the velikovsky affair '' -lrb- 1966 -rrb- , appointed him chronicler of the continuing velikovsky controversy in 1980 .
ellenberger 's last contact with velikovsky was a phone call from him two days before he died . ''
also , he `` has tried unceasingly but to little avail to have his former colleagues acknowledge the accumulating evidence , for example , from greenland ice cores , that velikovsky 's claimed catastrophes did not in fact occur .
ellenberger points out , too , that velikovsky 's writings have become superfluous : astronomically plausible argument and speculation about relatively recent cosmic catastrophism can now be found in the work of victor clube and bill napier -lrb- `` the cosmic serpent '' , 1982 ; `` the cosmic winter '' , 1990 -rrb- , where the testimony of myth and historical records is also taken into account . ''
ellenberger has degrees in chemical engineering and finance & operations research -lrb- b.s. , washington univ. ; m.b.a. , univ. of pennsylvania -rrb- .
he is currently a medical article retrieval specialist in st. louis , missouri .
