Huge loss on many levels

I just got the word that one of my favorite professors died earlier this evening.

He was almost in his seventies (he's been teaching here since 1969), but it had never occurred to me that he could be anywhere near the end of his life, he was just so full of enthusiasm and energy all the time...

I feel terrible for the loss to his family, especially the week before Christmas. His wife is a professor also, and both of them are definitely among the absolute best teachers I have ever had. They are both known for being favorites among students, they take a genuine interest in making students care about their subjects, and really inspire a sense of wonder and fascination for science and the natural world.

This is also a big loss to the university as a whole and our biology students in particular. His Evolution & Systematics course is required for almost all the different majors in the Biology department, and whoever takes over the course will have huge shoes to fill. I truly feel sorry for any students who missed out on a chance to take a class from him.

He was not only a great teacher, but a great mentor as well. When I had my "Quarter Life Crisis" sophomore year and decided to forgo vet school and pursue a career in research/academia instead, I agonized over making the decision and went to him for advice, with questions about the process of becoming a zoologist and making a living at it. He literally sat there for four hours listening to my concerns, answering all my questions, and giving me encouragement. I definitely think I made the right choice, absolutely no question in my mind, and he was a huge help in getting me over that hump of anxiety during the process of shifting my career path.

I also think that it's a loss to something larger, too, something I can't exactly define. There aren't many scientists like him left. He was one few remaining classic naturalists (we sometimes called him an "omni-ologist"). You could go out in the field with him and there wasn't a plant, bird, reptile, fungus, etc that he couldn't identify and give you a full natural history lecture about. He never lost his sense of wonder, and was an expert at infusing that appreciation and fascination with nature into his students. I loved it when someone asked a question in his class that he didn't know the answer to, because he would get so excited, really setting a great example for the type of mindset a scientist should have: "This is wonderful! I have no idea! Fantastic, now we have something we can work on figuring out..."

It is a loss on many levels. I don't even want to say "he will be missed," because that is such a gross understatement. I wish I could make some kind of profound or at least semi-articulate statement that did justice to everything he contributed to thousands of students during decades that Auburn was lucky enough to have him....but I'm still slightly reeling from the news.