I was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin December 7, 1944. As a young boy I started my rock collecting on the shores of Lake Michigan; 1st in Kenosha County, then in Door County, Wisconsin. On the beaches I found various silicified corals and pulled iron ore out of the sand with magnets. Of course most of the coral was junk, but a few pieces were cuttable pieces of hexagenaria, which I still have in my collection to this day. The magnetite was just a curiosity, but the small things generated a love for rocks which became insatiable. As a teenager I collected museum piece specimens of petrified coral from the top of the Niagara Dolomite that stretches the length of Door County. While in college at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Pharmacy I wandered into Burnie‘s Rock Shop in 1964; married Ramona Vidas in1967 and received a B.S. degree in1968. In the shop, Burnie Franke showed me a piece of Barbosalite and Metastrengite from the Bull Moose Mine in Custer, South Dakota. That night, I woke up dreaming about Barbosalite and Metastrengite! The next day I went to the shop and bought the damn thing! I still have it! I was hooked! Later that year Burnie showed me a piece of what I now call the UglyBlackRock® (UBR) better known as Psilomelane from the Silver Crown Mine near Chihuahua, Mexico. This messy material entered my blood stream and now is with me constantly. Burnie taught me how to cab. I started cabbing the UBR! What a mess, but boy do I love the finished beautiful UBR!

I never practiced Pharmacy; instead I became an accomplished Staphylococcal Enterotoxin scientist. In 1980, I was the first person to isolate and characterize Staphylococcal Enterotoxin F (SEF). We were able to demonstrate that this toxin was the causative agent in tampon related Toxic Shock Syndrome. Foolishly we consented to rename the toxin Toxic Shock Syndrome Toxin-1 (TSST-1).

While at the UW, Ramona and I established a family, Laura (PhD. Geochemistry) and Raoul II (PhD. Kinesiology). When they were old enough, we dragged them out West every summer to collect my beloved rocks! Prairie Agate, South Dakota. Dino Dung, Colorado & Utah, Turatella Agate, Delaney Rim, Wyoming. Petrified Wood & Algae, Oregon Buttes, Wyoming, Petrified Cycadeoidales, under the Beaver Rim, Wyoming, Et Cetera. Once we came back from our expeditions with 66 pounds short of a ton of rocks.

I have attempted to establish a lapidary since 1971, Raoul’s Custom Lapidary; however, my other business, Toxin Technology, never gave me enough time for a lapidary business. Now I am making another effort to do so. In 2002, Vaughn Nagel, Serendipity Artistry, introduced me to David Salyer, AZInterco, as his supplier of the UBR. David and I struck up a friendship via the Internet. In 2003, David escorted Ramona and me to Chihuahua to meet one of the Silver Crown Mine’s co-owners, Pedro Sienz and visit the Silver Crown Mine. Ramona and I are 2 of only 4 Gringos to ever be in the mine. After the visit we commissioned Pedro to get us a run of UBR. I purchased over half of what was mined at that time. Later I purchased the remaining material from that run. I then learned that the mine was severely damaged in recovering the material and had to be closed. Until it can be opened again, Raoul’s Custom Lapidary, AKA Ra’s Rocks has the only large cache of the UBR. (David renamed me Ra!)

In October of 2004 after our 2nd visit to the mine area, Pedro asked for a grubstake so that he could file a claim on the silicate bearing hills just west of the Silver Crown Mine. The Roca RaRa Mine (Special Rock Mine) was born! The Roca RaRa includes the Gold Crown, Raspberry and Ra’s Hill areas. The Gold Crown has fine cutting agate, the Raspberry has Grizzly Geodes™ and fine Druzy Specimens; Ra’s Hill has them all as well as Ra’s vein that yields plates of fine banded agate covered with Druzy Quartz.

It is the intention of Ra’s Rocks to provide these fine materials to all Lapidaries who would like to work with them.