Monday, August 22, 2016

Alex Fraser, the Professor

Although Alex Fraser was a long-time tenured full professor, there was a single moment which showed his passion for the acquisition of knowledge better than maybe anything he ever did.

Obtaining a B.S. in a hybrid program didn't impress me all that much even though the knowledge then and through my life has been tremendously important to me.  Naturally my ol' Dad congratulated me as that's part of life and my dumb ass finally did something besides scaring the bejeebers out of them by risking getting my ass shot off.  There's no need to continue with that because it's not the point.

Note:  briefly, the reason it didn't impress me is he had more degrees than seem humanly possible.


Before going anywhere with it, we've already reviewed he did seminal research and was one of the leading geneticists in the world.  But he was also a teacher and he loved it.  Here's some evidence of how much.


Cadillac Man has said to me more than once and it's not like he constantly gushes but the moment impressed him and it's probably not more than a month since he reiterated it.

Cadillac Man graduated in '75 right in the same class and his field was history but Alex knew him from years and maybe most from the chess tournaments along the path to the front door of the house.

Alex sought him out and found him to personally congratulate him on his success.  In the same words he welcomed him to the club because you made the cut and you earned it.


In fact, there were students who said coming over to the house to see Alex was the first time they had ever been in a professor's home and particularly by invitation.


It felt like I carried that forward a little bit even without his enormous academic qualifications after seeing #WomenWithDegrees on Twitter.  One after the other, they had pulled off major degrees and not in fields some regard as 'soft.'  Therefore, send congratulations to as many as I could along with best wishes for success in their fields.

I'm a pissant relative to his academic qualifications and reputation but it never hurts to congratulate someone and wish them well.  I'm glad I saw that thread.

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