Editing Eugene Merle Shoemaker (section)

==Early life and formal education==
Shoemaker was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of Muriel May (née Scott), a teacher; and George Estel Shoemaker, who worked in farming, business, teaching, and motion pictures.<ref>{{cite book|url=http://www.bookrags.com/biography/eugene-m-shoemaker-wop/|title=Eugene M. Shoemaker Biography|access-date=31 March 2018|archive-date=February 7, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150207003901/http://www.bookrags.com/biography/eugene-m-shoemaker-wop/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.aip.org/history/ohilist/5082_1.html|title=Oral History Transcript – Dr. Eugene Shoemaker |website=www.aip.org|access-date=31 March 2018|archive-date=March 14, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150314230408/http://www.aip.org/history/ohilist/5082_1.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> His parents were natives of Nebraska. During Gene's childhood they moved between Los Angeles, New York City, [[Buffalo, New York]] and Wyoming, as George worked on a variety of jobs. George hated living in big cities, and was quite satisfied to take a job as director of education for a [[Civilian Conservation Corps]] (CCC) camp in Wyoming. His wife soon found life in a remote cabin quite unsatisfactory. They compromised, when Muriel got a teaching job in Buffalo. She could teach in the Buffalo [[Laboratory school|School of Practice]] of the [[Buffalo State College|State Teachers College at Buffalo]]<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NQBPj1s0G1wC&q=Practice&pg=PA17|title=Shoemaker by Levy – The Man Who Made an Impact|first=David H.|last=Levy|year=2002|publisher=Princeton University Press|via=Google Books|isbn=0691113254}}</ref><ref name="nasonline.org">{{cite web |url=http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/shoemaker-eugene.pdf |title=Biographical memoir |last=Kieffer |first=Susan |date=2015 |website=www.nasonline.org |access-date=2019-10-26 |archive-date=July 22, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170722105236/http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/shoemaker-eugene.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ahernfuneralhome.com/condolences/?m=201103|title=2011 March – Ahern Funeral Home Condolences|website=www.ahernfuneralhome.com|access-date=31 March 2018|archive-date=October 19, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171019220803/http://www.ahernfuneralhome.com/condolences/?m=201103|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://suny.buffalostate.edu/history|title=History – SUNY Buffalo State|website=suny.buffalostate.edu|access-date=31 March 2018|archive-date=May 3, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170503092533/http://suny.buffalostate.edu/history|url-status=live}}</ref><!-- search : "Teachers-College"|"Normal-School" "School-of-Practice"|"Model-School" --><ref>[[Eliza Kellas]]</ref> during the school year while keeping Gene with her, then both would return to Wyoming during the summers. Gene's passion for studying rocks was ignited by the science education courses offered by the Buffalo Museum of Education.{{efn|Buffalo Museum of Education likely refers to the institution now known as the [[Buffalo Museum of Science]].}} He enrolled in the School of Practice in the fourth grade, and began collecting samples of minerals. Within a year, he was also taking high-school-level evening courses. The family moved back to Los Angeles in 1942, where Gene enrolled in Fairfax High School at the age of thirteen. He completed high school in three years. During that time he also played violin in the school orchestra, excelled in gymnastics, and got a summer job as an apprentice [[lapidary]].<ref name="Kieffer">{{cite web|url=http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/shoemaker-eugene.pdf|last=Kieffer|first=Susan. W|title=Eugene M. Shoemaker (1928–1997)|work=Biographical Memoirs|publisher=National Academy of Sciences|year=2015|access-date=April 22, 2017|archive-date=July 22, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170722105236/http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/shoemaker-eugene.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>

Shoemaker enrolled in the [[California Institute of Technology|Caltech]] in 1944, at the age of sixteen.{{efn|Astronomer and co-discoverer of the Shoemaker-Levy comet, David H. Levy said that Shoemaker had never considered going to any other university than Caltech.<ref name="Kieffer"/>}} His classmates were older, more mature and on a fast track to graduate before serving in World War II. Shoemaker thrived in the fast pace and earned his bachelor's degree in 1948, at age nineteen. He immediately undertook the study of Precambrian metamorphic rocks in [[northern New Mexico]], earning his M.Sc. degree from Caltech in 1949.<ref name="Kieffer"/>