2015 Monday -- Arend's Office

When I walked toward my office today, I noticed my colleague's office which is two-doors from mine. I wondered whose name will be there next year. As of June 30th Arend will be retired. I wrote about Arend last Wednesday and expressed some thoughts about our 24 years of teaching together. Today I'm going to post his farewell words to our department:

From: Flick, Arend
Sent: Saturday, June 06, 2015  8:30 AM
To: Anderson, Kristine; Bader, Melissa; Brockenbrough, Celia; Capps, Nicole; Comstock, Tami; Elizalde, Andres; Harris, Vivian; Lewis, Mark; Mills, David; Miter, Carol; Muto, Jan; Nelson, Lisa; Olaerts, Ana-Marie; Shirinian, Margarita; Sloniger, Mitzi; Tschetter, Sheryl
Subject: So long and thanks!

Dear colleagues,

I will not be able to see and greet you at graduation this year, since I’ll be in Chicago for my niece’s graduation.  (The poor kid has “Arend” as her middle name so I really owe it to her.)  But I do want to thank you, profusely, for the card (and the kind sentiments expressed therein), as well as the amazing first edition of  “In the Cage.”  James has been one of my favorite writers for a long time; I wrote a chapter of my dissertation on him.  It’s going to be fun to return to a book I haven’t read in 40 years.

It seems like yesterday that Carol, Celia, and I piled onto a bus in Riverside with about 30 other new hires and traveled for a tour of the new satellite campus just opening up in Norco.  I can’t say I’ve enjoyed every minute of the past 24 years, but I am profoundly grateful for the opportunity I got to work here.  Embarking on this new journey, I’m not going to miss grading papers, but I am going to miss the classroom, and the students (most of them, anyway), terribly.  I’m not going to miss the meetings, but I am going to miss you.

Ave atque vale!  (Four years of high school Latin, finally put to use.)
Arend

I didn't mention in last week's blip so I will now that Arend graduated with his B.A. in Literature from the University of Chicago and next from UC Berkeley with his Ph.D. He is very educated and certainly a scholar. I think I expressed it on last Wednesday's blip, and I'll do so again, saying goodbye to him as a colleague is more than difficult. 

Rosie (& Mr. Fun), aka Carol