Buz Overbeck
A Man of Many Talents
Buz Overbeck’s interests were wide and varied. He was a musician (drummer), an astrologer, and the author of many articles in several fields.
In 1989 he and his wife, Joanie, created the Grief Resources Foundation, started several support groups at local hospitals, published a list of grief resources, counseled and directed many people to these resources, and conducted many seminars for healthcare professionals. He was a sidereal astrologer with interests in Uranian and Tibetan astrology.
His Tibetan eCalendar was a huge success throughout the world and is widely used by Tibetan Buddhist practitioners. To learn more about his various interests and articles he has written or coauthored, link to: http://home.valornet.com/overbeck
He is survived by his adoring wife, Joanie.
Much more could be recounted here, but the tributes below round out the missing pieces.
Articles:
Ayanamsa Statistical Study KP Astrology International Journal, Vol. 1, Issue 1 - KP Astrologer's Forum, India - January 2008.
The Sun in the Lunar Mansions. Cosmocology Bulletin #10/11 NY - 1980.
Uranian Astrology - a Sidereal Perspective. The Siderealist, NY 1979.
Transits in the Sidereal. The Saturn Return, Dallas Texas - 1978.
Modern Uranian Techniques. Workshop was given at the AFA - ACT Convention, New Orleans LA 1980.
The Uranian Houses. Workshop was given at the AFA - ACT Convention, New Orleans LA 1980.
Harmonic Astrology Guide. Matrix Magazine, Issue 1, 1978.
Conversational Math, Matrix Magazine, Issues 6 and 7, 1979, 1980.
Publications available through the GriefNet Bookstore:
What To Do When Someone Dies? by Joanie and Buz Overbeck
Helping Children Cope With Loss by Joanie and Buz Overbeck
Starting/Running Support Groups by Joanie and Buz Overbeck
Buz the Musician
From All-Music Guide
Born of show-business parents (a bandsinger/radio personality and a vaudeville entertainer), Buz Overbeck started playing professionally at age 15. He studied at the Cincinnati College/Conservatory of Music and became the show drummer at Cincinnati's Gaiety Theater, the last of the authentic vaudeville/burlesque houses. He worked with Pete Fountain in New Orleans in the early 60s, then as a freelance studio, recording, and show drummer in Hollywood. He also led his own bands and was in great demand due to his ability to play all types of music, including big band, jazz, country & western, polka, continental, and shows. He toured with the Freddy Martin orchestra in the 70s, then formed his own jazz/rock-fusion band and later was featured with various show bands. He was well-informed on the playing and career of Buddy Rich. From his bio in the players in the “Lady Luck” group, (received in October 1977): “[Buz is] the newest member. His voice is smooth, rich, and captures women’s hearts. He’s a drummer, but not just any drummer. He’s worked with such notables as Pete Fountain, Les Brown, Henry Mancini and Freddy Martin. He plays fast, clean and varied solos that invariably win grand ovations from his audiences. A professional’s professional. A dry humor, so watch him; he’s quick there, too.”
Buz the Astrologer
(from Michael Erlewine):
Buz Overbeck studied, practiced, programmed and taught astrology since 1972. He was familiar with many different systems of astrology including Western tropical and sidereal, Harmonics, Uranian astrology and Jyotish. He began programming astrology routines in 1976 when Hewlett-Packard introduced the HP-97, a state of the art programmable printing calculator. Through his association with Matrix, an astrological software company, he was sent an early Commodore PET 2001 microcomputer on which he translated the HP programs and developed many, new programs including the first Hindu astrology program for micros, and a complete Harmonic Analysis program. His collaboration with other astrologers includes Michael Erlewine, Charles Jayne, John Addey and James Neely. In 1981 he authored “An Introduction to the New Astrology - Matrix Seminar Series, as well as articles for many technical journals both East and West. An extensive interview of Buz by Michael Erlewine can be found at: http://www.astrologysoftware.com/community/interviews/get_interview.asp?person_show=11
Tributes to Buz Overbeck:
Michael Erlewine says: Buz was an expert astrologer and friend of mine since sometime in the 1970s, I can’t remember just when. What I can remember is that Overbeck was an expert Uranian astrologer, who was also skilled in Jyotish (Indian astrology), and many other quite technical areas of astrology and astronomy. And he was a siderealist! I should know because he liked to test just about every new program that Matrix Software produced, I always saw to it that he had a copy. It was kind of a running joke when we sent Overbeck a new program. If there were bugs in the program, Buz would find them, especially if they related to any of his areas of expertise. Nothing much got by Overbeck when it came to Beta testing. He was a real nit picker, most of all relating to (what I might consider) esoteric sidereal techniques. Overbeck was very active with the original Matrix Journal, along with folks like myself and James Neely. Although I met Buz several times in person (and he visited our center and home at least once), most of all I knew him on the phone and by email. In recent years, Buz and I were not in touch as much as in those wild early 1970s and 1980s, but that is true of most of my friends. And like myself, he became very interested in Tibetan Buddhism, another area we had in common. I will miss Buz personally, and astrology will miss his many contributions and discriminating mind. Michael Erlewine----------------------------------------------
Kyle Pierce remembers: Buz read on my Matrix blog about my interest in research, and wrote me to say that he shared the same interest. He created a thread on the ACT Sidereal Astrology forum to address research being done on the tropical vs. sidereal issue. He invited a researcher from Helsinki, Finland to join the discussion and she had posted extensively on her findings. Buz wondered if I would be interested in reading and maybe responding to her posts, He wrote, "I know she would be thrilled to hear from you along with whatever comments you might have on her work". Needless to say, this made me feel very flattered and I did indeed read and respond to her posts. There was quite an enjoyable exchange among several of us and I was glad that Buz initiated it and gave me such encouragement. In my response to Buz, I wrote: "We each have our special areas of interest but I'm guessing we have a lot in common when it comes to the question of what the proper role of research is. Besides, I really enjoy exchanging ideas among a group of people who know their subjects well and have a healthy respect each other's knowledge. This could happen in the ACT forum, I think. Your thoughts are always welcome." So I knew Buz as a man of knowledge who didn't mind standing on his own, and who demonstrated a healthy respect for the knowledge of others. Kyle Pierce----------------------------------------------
Laura Clarson recalls, I first met Buz in the summer of 1975 when he had first moved to Dallas and was living just across the street from an astrological bookstore called the Constellation where I worked. I had been an astrologer since 1971 and was thrilled when I discovered Buz' vast knowledge of areas of astrology that I knew very little about - Sidereal astrology, Transneptunian astrology, and Cosmobiology. My friends and I took classes in all three areas from Buz and learned volumes from each class. Even though they were complex and technical approaches to astrology, Buz managed to make the material fun to learn through his use of case studies and specific event charts. He always stretched our abilities by emphasizing critical thinking in our learning. Later Buz offered classes in Numerology and Number Theory that I found fascinating and he founded a society for numerological research. Buz was instrumental in leading me to the use of computers for astrology. His encouragement led me to purchase a TI handheld calculator that could compute the positions of the planets and houses and later the Commodore Pet computer. It was such a relief to put logarithms away! When I researched Esoteric Astrology and discovered a formula to convert the Natal Chart to the Soul Chart, Buz created a computer program for me to calculate the Soul Chart. Buz and I became good friends who both enjoyed doing astrological research and sharing theories and ideas about many areas of metaphysics. Whatever area of interest or research I might be exploring in metaphysics that he might jokingly call "woo-woo", he always had an open mind and spirit of adventure in his willingness to try a past life regression session or hear what his Soul Chart had to say about him. He was skeptical of nebulous, vague metaphysical claims but explored any area that had a shred of substance out of a lifelong fascination with the mystery behind reality. Buz had a very clever, dry sense of humor and used it to balance out the drama and ironies of life. He could always make me laugh, no matter how dire outside circumstances might look. I always marveled that despite his brilliant mind and vast knowledge in so many areas, Buz always shared what he knew so generously and was self-deprecating about his talents and accomplishments. His contributions in the areas of astrology, numerology, computer science, grief counseling, Buddhism, music and so many other areas are living proof of the quality of his life and work. I will always be grateful that he was my friend and mentor. Laura Clarson----------------------------------------------
James Neely says: My first contact with Buz was in Sept. 1976 when he wrote me regarding the astrology programs I had contributed to the Hewlett-Packard HP-65 Users' Library and asking if I planned to update them to the newer HP-67/97 programmable calculators. This started a very heavy exchange of mail (thank goodness we didn't have e-mail in those days for our correspondence would have been long lost due to computer bugs, glitches and file corruption). It rapidly became evident the first six months that his interests were broad and varied. Not being an astrologer, the subject of interpretation never entered our exchange. However Buz had numerous things he wanted to calculate, and I could usually provide the mathematics to solve problems of interest. Among the things he introduced me to were the Trans Neptunian Planets, Sidereal astrology, Cyril Fagan, Mundoscopes, Octoscopes, Donald Bradley, Gauquelin, Ayanamsas (on which he continued to do statistical research), and several varieties of numerology. In some of our early correspondence, it seems he founded the National Society for Numerical Studies because of his interest in numerology. In October 1976 he wrote that he had created his first computer program. From then on his knowledge of computers and their operating systems grew. He was always suggesting new utility applications to make interfacing with the computer that much easier. When I got into trouble and things weren't working the way they should, he could always find a solution. I'm thankful that I still have our early correspondence which I enjoy rereading, not only for the technical information but to relive his marvelous sense of humor. One curious coincidence in our relationship is that we were born in the same hospital, but about seven years apart! I miss you, my good friend. James Neely----------------------------------------------
Ken Irving adds this: Buz remains with me through a series of mental snapshots of small slices of my life, all of them good memories. They go all the way back to 1974 when I had just moved to Tucson and started working for American Astrology. I think I met him through the lady who worked as production manager at the time, as she did quite a bit of introducing for me when I came to town. However, my clearest memory of Buz is running into him one time on Dodge Boulevard, the street where I lived for the first few months, as he walked one way and I walked the other, both of us probably a bit nuts to be out at that time because that fabled dry heat of the desert was pumping up out of the pavement we walked on (no sidewalks on Dodge then), and it must have been noon without a cloud anywhere. I remember him with his hair all kind of permed up, a real nice tan, some kind of light, broad-striped crew-neck, and a big friendly smile. Despite the earlier introduction, the conversation we had in the full blaze of the Arizona sun was when I really got to know him. And what did we talk about? I couldn’t tell you – except that it was astrology, which is mostly what we talked about. Some time after that, Buz left town, but on occasion we would talk on the phone, and despite the contact we kept up over the intervening years, I think that was the last time I saw him in person. And I have to confess, being the person that I am, it easily could have been the last time we communicated, were it not for the fact that Buz, friendly and welcoming soul that he was, would call or write from time to time to loosen up the bubble around the perpetual time warp I live in. In doing this, he often helped me find solutions to problems here and there, and also at times helped to make some sad parts of my life manageable. In the solutions category, I remember very clearly the way he bridged a software gap for me around the time I had begun writing a series of articles on the work of Michel Gauquelin. At that time, little if any software would either calculate or display a chart in Gauquelin’s sector format. Buz wrote a little DOS program that bridged the gap, and also contacted Walter Pullen of Astrolog fame to ask him to include this feature in his freeware program. He did, and frankly to this day it is still my most-used software because of that feature alone. And where making the sad parts of my life better is concerned, some years after that when my first marriage was crumbling and beyond repair, it just so happened that Buz was working as a grief counselor at the time, so he not only helped me over the phone, but sent some materials he had written that helped me understand what was going on, and get through it to the other side. I’m grateful that I knew Buz, grateful for the personal warmth that came through in person, in phone calls, and in emails. I’m so sorry that he is gone, and too soon, but each of those all too brief snapshots of my contacts with him remain with me, like Kodachrome, as colorful and clear as the day they were taken. Ken Irving Editor of the Horoscope Guide
Birth and Death Data:
BIRTH: Born October 12, 1937 at 11:47 PM in Santa Monica,CA, 118W29’25”, 34N01’10”.
DEATH: Passed away March 26, 2010 at 07:38 PM in Glen Rose, TX, 97W45’18”, 32N14’04”
Memorials L-Z, Continued
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CREDITS: Memorial written by Rex (James Neely) and created by Liz Houle with graphics from WordofMouth web design.