Shawn Carlson Obituary

Obituary published on Legacy.com by Jacobs Funeral Home and Cremation Services - Iron Mountain on Oct. 8, 2023.

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Crystal Falls – Shawn M. Carlson, 55, of Crystal Falls and Iron Mountain, Mich., passed away unexpectedly on Sunday, October 1, 2023, at his home.
Shawn was born on August 9, 1968, in Iron Mountain, Mich., the only child of the late Charles and Patricia (Berg) Carlson. He grew up in Crystal Falls and graduated from Forest Park High School in 1986. He graduated summa cum laude from Michigan Technological University in 1991 with a bachelor's degree in Geology.
Shawn was a gifted scientist and worked in diamond, uranium, and other types of mineral exploration throughout the US and internationally, particularly in Canada. He authored and co-authored 38 articles and scientific papers and co-authored the 2013 Minerology of Michigan Update. He was responsible for the discovery of 11% of all mineral species known to occur in Michigan and was involved in the discovery of seven previously unknown minerals.
In recent years, Shawn taught elementary students at Holy Spirit Catholic School in Norway and Bishop Baraga Catholic School in Iron Mountain. His hands-on lessons and seemingly endless scientific knowledge surely made a positive impression on his students.
People who knew Shawn will remember his kindness, his generosity, and his brilliant mind.
He is survived by his loving wife, Audrey Smith; several in-laws, eleven nieces and nephews, several cousins, and devoted friends.
Visitation will be held from 3:00 until 5 p.m., on Tuesday, October 17, 2023, at Jacobs Funeral Home, Iron Mountain, Mich., with Father Michael Chenier reciting prayers at 4:45 p.m.
Friends may leave condolences and tributes for Shawn's family online at www.jacobsfuneralhomes.com
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests that donations may be made to The Trevor Project, Dickinson Trail Network, or any charity that supports science education.
The family has chosen Jacobs Funeral Homes and Cremation Services, Iron Mountain, Mich., to honor Shawn's legacy of life.

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Recent Activity

February 4, 2025

Shawn and Anne Enright posted to the memorial.

January 29, 2024

Reg Klubeck posted to the memorial.

October 17, 2023

Josiah Heyman posted to the memorial.

4 Entries

Shawn and Anne Enright

February 4, 2025

I am so sad to hear of my exploration buddy and friends passing. Shawn was one of the most brilliant geologists when it came to minerology that I had ever meet. We meet when I was working as a consultant geologist looking for Kimberlites in Colorado. He was assigned to be my technician on a hot prospect near Estes Park Colorado. Shawn loved everything about minerology and became a close friend during our work in Colorado. He had one of those funny UPER sense of humor. He was curious about so many sciences as well. My wife and I both cried when we found out.
He liked to play with so highly energetic compounds in chemistry which almost got him a couple times. I remember me and him hiking into this remote canyon to do some ground truthing and we found some tiny piece of rock shards that looked suspiciously like un-weathered Kimberlite, and we found one shard that had what appeared to be a garnet possibly pyrope. But without an optic microscope we could be sure in the field as it was only the size of maybe a grain of sand. We sat down and he asked if my sunglasses were polarized, and I said yes. So, between the two hand lenses, a flashlight and the two lenses from my glasses he builds a makeshift optical microscope, and he had memorized the optical properties from a textbook, so he proved that it was a garnet of interest and two days later working our way up the mountain slope we found a Kimberlite dike. And by the time we were done in that canyon we had found three other dikes as well. That amount of talent is a very rare and to be so humble and generous as well.
This is a wake-up call to stay more in touch with your true friends.

I send my deepest condolences to his wife and friends; he will be forever missed by many and me and my wife.
Sincerely
Shawn and Anne Enright

Reg Klubeck

January 29, 2024

Audrey,
So deeply sorry for your loss.

- Reg

Josiah Heyman

October 17, 2023

I remember Shawn with great fondness. I had him in a class in my first year teaching at Michigan Tech (anthropology, not geology). He was an outstanding student. Later, when he came back from Canada, he kindly took me and my family out collecting in the U.P. We had a great time. We talked about this news, and we all miss him. Thank you, Shawn.

Donald B Kelman, MD

October 15, 2023

As a neurosurgeon, (active then and retired now), mineral collector and rockhound, I had a number of opportunities to trade specimens with Shawn, over several decades, and I and my wife Cindy, even field-tripped once in the Keweenaw Peninsula, on a mine-site tour, guided by Shawn. We still have the specimens. Shawn was unique, and truly brilliant, and loaded with knowledge, especially science, and was a nice person. He was generous with specimens from his collecting, even sending unusual specimens spontaneously, to us.
A humorous event I recall, that involved Shawn, happened at our Marshfield club show, when one of the local rockhounds showed up with a tiny diamond he had found at a State Park while panning for gold. Shawn was looking at it when it slipped and fell to the hardwood floor, becoming undetectable. Shawn already had some $100 bills out to pay the owner, when we found the diamond in floor sweepings of the area. (That was my only successful diamond hunt. ever!)
He has passed far too soon, and truly will be missed by the geoscience and rockhound communities, and his many friends.
Donald Kelman MD, and Cindy Kelman, Marshfield WI