Celebration

In case you're curious, the retirement celebration for my advisor was truly wonderful. There's something absolutely amazing about having so many people gathered in one place to pay tribute to another person. About forty people were there, I'd guess -- some current students and faculty, most of his former doctoral students, and other collaborators, from all over the country. (One delightful surprise was that a colleague who had co-edited a book with my advisor and me was there -- I hadn't seen him in a few years, and it was great to have a chance to catch up!)

There were a lot of entertaining and touching stories. It was really something to see the consistency in stories from the advisees from the 70's, 80's, 90's, and 00's. One of the classic stories about my advisor is him calling someone on the phone, and when they answer, saying, "I didn't expect you to be there. I had a message for your answering machine. Could you please hang up and I'll call back and leave the message?" (He can actually be a very charming conversationalist, but he has to be prepared for it!) Turns out that happened to more than one of us!

The other common threads were about his creativity, his broad intellect, and his dedication to pushing his students to achieve more than they ever thought they could.

I still have a warm glow just from being there. Sometimes people never have a chance to know how many people they've touched in their careers or their lives, and to see that kind of affection and gratitude expressed -- and received -- is truly special.