Ten minutes before the end his last class before retirement, math Professor Bob Foote was teaching a bunch of non-math majors about spherical geometry.<\/p>\n
Using two Hot Wheels cars on a globe he demonstrated\u2014to the audible amazement of several students\u2014that there are no parallel lines on a sphere. All lines eventually intersect, no matter how close together they may be.<\/p>\n
Senior Richie Abedin was having none of it.<\/p>\n
So Bob welcomed him to the front of the class, where Richie moved the\u00a0toy cars around the\u00a0globe to respectfully but passionately argue his point, to the delight of his teacher.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love the one-on-one part of teaching,\u201d Foote would say a few minutes later when his fellow profs and students crowded into the hallway in Goodrich Hall for a surprise reception marking his nearly 30 years at Wabash.<\/p>\n
Richie\u2019s challenge and attempt to demonstrate his point \u201cmay be one of my warmest memories of teaching\u201d Bob told me the next day. The back-and-forth between student and teacher was the perfect exclamation point to Bob\u2019s time in the classroom.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
His was the last of three retirement receptions I photographed last week,\u00a0each event revealing the gifts of the academic departments the professors were leaving.<\/p>\n
Theater students, alumni, and professors produced two films, recited lines from a play, and read from the work of Professor Dwight Watson to honor his time with them.<\/p>\n
Members of the Glee Club sang in gratitude to\u00a0departing director and music Professor Richard Bowen for his leadership and inspiration of that group on campus and around the world.<\/p>\n
All three receptions were reminders of the deep connections\u00a0formed here at Wabash between students and their teachers, and teachers and their department colleagues.<\/p>\n
But I was caught off guard when religion Professor (and former Glee Club member) David Blix \u201970 thanked Richard\u00a0not only for his work with students and alumni, but also for his friendship.<\/p>\n
And the next day Professor of Theater Michael Abbott \u201983, who was both a student and faculty colleague of Dwight’s, told those gathered to honor his mentor: \u201cI\u2019ve had a long time to think about what Dwight means to me, what I\u2019ve learned from him.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is the finest man, the best man I\u2019ve ever known. The kind of man I\u2019ve always wanted to be. Dwight taught me how to be a man without fear, how to live my principles, but Dwight knew I needed more than that. He gave me love, and he didn\u2019t ask for a receipt\u2014it\u2019s simple as that. He shows us quietly, diligently\u2014just live it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The kind of man I\u2019ve always wanted to be.<\/em><\/p>\n The next morning I thought of\u00a0those words as\u00a0I photographed psychology Professor Eric Olofson\u2019s Essential Questions class. He was talking about a tattoo of bamboo on his arm, how the plant bends in the wind but does not break. He told his students\u00a0the tattoo was a helpful reminder for him when he needs patience, calm, and wisdom, especially as a dad.<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes I\u2019m not the man I want to be,\u201d he admitted as he and the freshmen\u00a0talked about the philosophy, the words, the ways one reaches for to become a better father, a better man.<\/p>\n And so\u00a0the true and essential work of this place goes on.<\/p>\n I spent the last teaching week of the semester photographing it in classes like Olofson\u2019s, and Scott Himsel\u2019s, and Derek Nelson\u2019s, and Ann Bost\u2019s,\u00a0and celebrating it at\u00a0receptions for\u00a0Bob Foote, Richard Bowen, and Dwight Watson.<\/p>\n \u2014Steve Charles<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ten minutes before the end his last class before retirement, math Professor Bob Foote was teaching a bunch of non-math majors about spherical geometry. Using two Hot Wheels cars on a globe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":3501,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faculty-news-and-notes","category-uncategorized","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"w_featured_image_url":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2017\/05\/dwight-with-mike-1024x683.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3499"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3531,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3499\/revisions\/3531"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}