I was a student in Rod's graduate E&M course circa 1994. He was a great teacher and mentor; his influences stay with me to this day in my work as an educator. He always had these wonderful, vivid analogies to augment his lectures. I remember "the ant physicist" (whenever he wanted to give a sense of local scale), "Mrs. Lockhart's class" (whenever he wanted to gently remind us that we should have known something since Kindergarden), and the famous "no-name quizzes" (a quick, anonymous in-class diagnostic that still terrified me for some reason). I remember asking him questions in office hours and having them followed by a long, awkward pause accompanied by a blank thousand-yard stare -- then a sudden burst of outrageous, animated response full of physic-y goodness. He had this knack of never really ending any conversation. Sometimes a week would go by and he would be suddenly start talking with me intently like no time had passed between sentences. Later, in more advanced courses, we encountered the Reid potential, reminding us students of his early contributions to nuclear theory.

He made a powerful impact on generations of his students; he will be missed.

--Tom

Thomas D. Gutierrez
Associate Professor
Physics Department
California Polytechnic State University
San Luis Obispo, CA 93407
805-756-2455
http://www.tdgutierrez.com