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"The Child is Father to the Man."

My goal as a professor is to have my students to lead professionally satisfying lives that give back to the society that pays my bills. I feel especially good about this when the student gives back to the profession in such a way that it benefits people who were good to me.

In this case, that’s me in the orange safety vest walking on a glacial moraine in the northern foothills of the Brooks Range, Alaska. I worked in the Brooks Range for most of two field seasons in 1974 and 1975, helping map the Chandalar, Phillip Smith, and Sagivinirktok quadrangles (each two degrees longitude by one degree longitude). The photo was taken by my supervisor, Thomas D. Hamilton of the U.S. Geological Survey, who was also my former M.S. graduate advisor at the University of Alaska .  Almost thirty years later, Rod Combellick, a geologist from the Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys, published Tom's photo as the cover image for his agency’s Professional Report 121 (2003).  Rod had been one of my former M.S. students when I taught in what used to be Tom's position at the University of Alaska.  In this case, the academic "grandfather" benefited by having a photo of the academic "son," published by the academic "grandson." 

There’s another generation involved as well.  In 1984, I replaced Robert F. Black at the University of Connecticut who, in an uncanny experience, encouraged me to apply for his his job. This took place just a few months before he died at a time when he seemed perfectly healthy. The good news is that he died the perfect academic death, painlessly in his sleep on one of the last nights of a year long sabbatical. After being hired to replace Black's expertise, and while cleaning and converting his former office/lab to meet my needs, I found on the shelf an original typewritten copy of Tom Hamilton’s master’s thesis, which I gave to him as a gesture of appreciation for his mentorship. In this case, the academic "great grandfather," Robert Black, bequeathed to the "great grandson," me, something to give to the academic "son." Education is the gift that just keeps on giving.