When I was a sophomore in college, I took a lower division intro course in anthropology: Anthro 22. I admit – the class was pretty much just a schedule- and requirement-filler. I really had no intrinsic interest in the Study of Man...
I was fairly disappointed when I saw the professor, too. He was just a kid – not a whole lot older than I was at the time (19). This new prof was probably straight out of grad school. Great. What could this guy know? My expectations weren't high to say the least.
Well, I was totally wrong. The young professor proved to be absolutely brilliant.
I remember the lectures for Anthro 22 were Tues/Thurs at 1600. Since every day I started smoking pot at the stroke of noon, that meant I was pretty much completely wasted by the time I went to Anthro lecture.
Being stoned proved to be entirely to my advantage, though. Every lecture, I sat 4 rows up at far right in the center section of theUSB York Hall 2722 lecture hall, and I totally mind-melded with Dr. Tuzin. He was a little bit scatterbrained in his presentation, but I was a little bit scatterbrained myself, so consequently our thought streams aligned almost perfectly. I totally dug everything Dr. Tuzin said. Maybe others in the class thought his lecturing style left something to be desired, but the young prof made perfect sense to me.
So contrary to my low expectations, Anthro 22 turned out to be one of the best undergraduate courses I took at U.C. San Diego. I aced the class easily. If I hadn't been dead-set on becoming a biologist, Don Tuzin might very well have turned me into a cultural anthropologist.
So I was really shocked and saddened when I read the obituaries in the UCSD alumni magazine tonight and I saw that Dr. Tuzin had died.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/general/04-07TuzinPJ-L.asp
I could hardly believe it. Dr. Tuzin was just 62, only 9 years older than me. (So yeah, he really was straight out of grad school back then – I didn't know that for sure until tonight.) It's funny – I don't recognize his picture at all. I remember him as the skinny, geeky black-haired kid he was when he first started teaching at UCSD in Fall 1973...
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20070420/news_1m20tuzin.html
I fucking remember that kinship lecture! I still have the notes I took that very afternoon. God, how priviliged I was to have Dr. Tuzin as a professor. I'll never forget his class or what he taught me as long as I live.
*sighs* They're all dying now, my teachers of old. Even the young ones like Dr. Tuzin. It just serves to remind me how very fleeting life truly is...
I was fairly disappointed when I saw the professor, too. He was just a kid – not a whole lot older than I was at the time (19). This new prof was probably straight out of grad school. Great. What could this guy know? My expectations weren't high to say the least.
Well, I was totally wrong. The young professor proved to be absolutely brilliant.
I remember the lectures for Anthro 22 were Tues/Thurs at 1600. Since every day I started smoking pot at the stroke of noon, that meant I was pretty much completely wasted by the time I went to Anthro lecture.
Being stoned proved to be entirely to my advantage, though. Every lecture, I sat 4 rows up at far right in the center section of the
So contrary to my low expectations, Anthro 22 turned out to be one of the best undergraduate courses I took at U.C. San Diego. I aced the class easily. If I hadn't been dead-set on becoming a biologist, Don Tuzin might very well have turned me into a cultural anthropologist.
So I was really shocked and saddened when I read the obituaries in the UCSD alumni magazine tonight and I saw that Dr. Tuzin had died.
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/general/04-07TuzinPJ-L.asp
I could hardly believe it. Dr. Tuzin was just 62, only 9 years older than me. (So yeah, he really was straight out of grad school back then – I didn't know that for sure until tonight.) It's funny – I don't recognize his picture at all. I remember him as the skinny, geeky black-haired kid he was when he first started teaching at UCSD in Fall 1973...
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20070420/news_1m20tuzin.html
I fucking remember that kinship lecture! I still have the notes I took that very afternoon. God, how priviliged I was to have Dr. Tuzin as a professor. I'll never forget his class or what he taught me as long as I live.
*sighs* They're all dying now, my teachers of old. Even the young ones like Dr. Tuzin. It just serves to remind me how very fleeting life truly is...