The tragic story of the death of Tulane University student Margaret “Meg” Maurer is heartbreaking all by itself.

Maurer was killed in an astonishing freak accident on March 5 at a rest stop on I-10 in southern Mississippi. A dual wheel assembly from a passing tractor-trailer broke free, rolled 850 feet, and struck her as she was getting back into the car she was traveling in for a hiking vacation to the mountains of North Carolina.

Adding to the tragedy is a what an amazing talent the world lost as a result. Maurer was a gifted scientific illustrator, as seen in these examples:

I was reminded of the similarly tragic compound loss from long ago that I learned about at the Indiana Military Museum in Indianapolis last fall. They have a whole room dedicated to the history of the cruiser the USS Indianapolis, lost to Japanese torpedoes on July 30, 1945, after she’d dropped off the materials for the atomic bombs at Tinian.

One soul who perished in that sinking was Lieutenant Commander Earl O. Henry of Knoxville, Tennessee. He was a dentist, a birder, a self-taught taxidermist, and an exceptionally gifted painter. My somewhat rough picture below shows some of his work in capturing his favorite animals with his craft. You can see (and purchase) much better examples here.

Each of us brings something unique to this world. As Clarence the angel said in It’s a Wonderful Life, “One man’s life touches so many others, when he’s not there it leaves an awfully big hole.” Losing the amazing gifts of Meg Maurer and Earl Henry so painfully early leaves us two gaping caverns.