The Final Bear Hug is a continuation of the story in The Bear Hug. The story begins with John James Czermak and his wife, Margrit, returning to their home in Arvada, Colorado, after spending almost three years in Vienna, Austria, where John has worked for the International Atomic Energy Agency. John is a world-renowned scientist and contributor to the development of the neutron bomb and returns to his job as manager of Plutonium Chemistry Research and Development at the Rocky Flats Plant, where triggers for nuclear weapons are made.
About the Author: Dr. Navratil has four patents to his credit and has given more than 450 presentations, including lectures in more than 100 countries. He has coedited or coauthored nineteen books (most recently with Fedor Macasek, Separations Chemistry, and with Jiri Hala, Radioactivity, Ionizing Radiation, and Nuclear Energy), published more than 250 scientific publications, and served on the editorial boards of over a dozen journals. He has been instrumental in the founding of the journals Solvent Extraction and Ion Exchange (serving as coeditor for many years) and Preparative Chromatography (serving as editor), as well as the ACS's Subdivision of Separation Science and Technology and its award in Separation Science and Technology and DOE's actinide separation conferences and its Glenn Seaborg Award in Actinide Separations. Dr. Navratil has also organized or co-organized many conferences, symposiums, and meetings for the ACS, DOE, and IAEA. He is a diamond member of the Traveler's Century Club (www.travelerscenturyclub.org), having visited 305 countries and territories on the club list of 327. He also conceived the plots and assisted his wife, Sylvia, in writing The Bare Essentials and The Bear Hug and edited her book Chemistry Trivia. Sylvia Tascher has died on July 4, 2009, from pancreatitis. Her husband, James Navratil, has used some of her early writings, e-mails, and letters as well as excerpts from his e-mails and personal diary for writing The Final Bear Hug. He also thinks she has assisted him via mental telepathy to finish this book. He feels he could not have written such material as he is accustomed to only writing technical papers. Sylvia was a very prolific writer, producing two other novels, several books for children, a couple of technical books, and many musical scores and poems. Her talent for creative writing was inherited from her parents, both of whom were respected authors. More about Sylvia can be found in The Bear Hug.