After graduation in 1958, I had the opportunity to stay on at Williams for two more years as Assistant in the Admissions Office while working on an MA in English. I then taught a year of English and astronomy at my old prep school. After one year of teaching, I was appointed founding director of the St. Louis Planetarium. While in this position I also taught astronomy at Washington University, St. Louis University, and the University of Missouri at St. Louis.

In late 1965, President Sawyer asked me to come back to Williams to work on the development of the college's recently acquired Mount Hope Farm. Out of this effort came the Center for Environmental Studies and coeducation at Williams. I also spent a couple of years as a research associate at the Center before moving back to St. Louis to head up the Coalition for the Environment and its associated foundation.

Not long afterward I received a call from a former colleague at Williams suggesting that I apply for an environmental faculty position at a new institution, Sangamon State University, in Springfield, Illinois. I have been at the university for 34 years, with appointments in Environmental Studies (masters level students), English (mostly graduate students), and Astronomy/Physics. The university became the third campus of the University of Illinois in 2005 (together with Champaign-Urbana and Chicago).

We have been able to develop not only an on-campus observatory facility for introductory courses and for public "Star Parties," but also two research observatories 25 miles from the campus under dark skies, one dedicated to photometry and the other to spectroscopy. I retired in 2002, but still teach, direct the observatories, and do research.

I owe these varied academic activities to Williams and to the great teachers I had there: Don Gifford, Nelson Bushnell, Fred Stocking, and Ted Mehlin to name just a few who were the most influential on my career.

For fun, I like to fly-fish for trout and salmon in remote areas: New Zealand, Chile, Argentina, Labrador, Alaska, Siberia, and Mongolia to name a few recent destinations.

Two boys, Scott (wife Liz Ellrodt) and Bob (wife Lisa), plus four grandchildren, together with my lovely wife, Barbara, round out a productive, rewarding and wonderful 50 years since 1958.