Rod was my PhD advisor from about 77 to 84.
Charles Hunt

20 Feb. 2012

Hard to accept that Rod is gone. He was a great teacher, a patient advisor, and a good friend who was always enthusiastic about everything he did. He was the perfect advisor for me as I slowly worked on my dissertation while teaching full time and starting a family. I remember how much effort he put into preparing for each class.

But I have to share one story. I ranked instructors by the number of pages of notes I took in their class. Rod taught a graduate Statistical Mechanics class and was a consistent 4 pager. But one day, as class began, I discovered that I only had one sheet of paper. OK, I can write on both sides and write small and it will be fine. And it was. Halfway through the class and Rod is going slower than usual. I haven’t even filled up side 1. 15 minutes left and I’m only a third of the way through side 2. And Rod looks up at the clock and notices that the period is almost over. Suddenly the chalk is clicking across the chalkboard at an awesome rate. I filled up page 2. I filled up the margins. I filled up every square centimeter. Finally the clicking stopped. From behind me somebody said “My pencil is on fire.” At the end of the year Physics party, somebody from the class gave Rod a large piece of chalk with copper tubing wrapped around it as cooling coils for when he went into overdrive at the board.

I haven’t seen Rod in years, but it still hurts that he is gone.

Charles Hunt
Physics Instructor, retired
American River College