Fog is neat! (Quinn Biesinger (Hopkins, 1996-97)

Despite the advances in technology and the resulting speed with which we can now communicate, I have just now learned of Dr. B’s retirement. Although my life still has me landlocked in Utah and my career has nothing to do with marine biology, my wife and I have managed a nearly annual trip to the coast with our family to enjoy the ocean and all the “critters” to be found there. On our last trip we were in Oregon and were excited to visit the tide pools, so we consulted the tide tables and found that the low-low tide was very early in the morning. We considered settling for the high-low, but the words of Dr. B resounded in my head, “When it’s low, we go!”  So we loaded 7 kids into the van and headed to the beach. The kids were initially excited about the countless sea stars (“they are not starfish”) and Strongylocentrotus purpuratus (yes, I still amaze people with my knowledge of scientific names for sea creatures) but I encouraged them to look closer to see the mini wonders. After staring into one small, neglected pool for several minutes I found a beautiful specimen of the wonders of the sea. Wildly gesticulating, I called for the kids to come and look! With several heads bent over this tiny pool, noses just inches from the water, a passerby hurried over excitedly and asked what we were all gawking at. I lifted my head and said enthusiastically, “A nudibranch…a sea slug!”  With a “humph” she walked away in disappointment and disgust as I described its translucent body, the brown stripes and the cerata with bright fluorescent yellow tips. I knew Dr. B would have been proud of my tiny find.

After my wife and I spent a semester in Monterey as students, Dr. B let me come back the next year as one of his divers. Shortly after arriving I developed an ear infection and ruptured my ear drum, which severely limited my diving time. I felt terrible and I could only imagine how disappointed Dr. B must have been, but he never let it show. He only expressed concern for my well-being.

Like others have mentioned, I will always look back on my time with Dr. B as my most educational, enjoyable and meaningful time at BYU.

“Fog is neat!!!!”

Quinn Biesinger, ’96 & ’97 as student then diver, Real Estate Appraiser in Kaysville, Utah.

"The Old Man of the Sea" (Poem shared by Mike Aley)

(Mike Aley shared this poem at the recognition session during Dr. B's retirement get-together at the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology in June, 2011)

"Thanks Dr. Braithwaite" (Byron Adams, Video shown at the OIMB)

This is a video sent by Byron Adams that was shown at the OIMB during the celebration of Dr. Braithwaite upon his retirement from BYU.  It is presented here in several segments due to challenges of uploading one large video file to this site.

(Byron Adams went on to earn a PhD from the University of Nebraska, and he is currently a member of the Biology Department at BYU in Provo)

Look Closer (Chris Pattillo BYU '97)

Dr. B,

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to be good at something unique.  You gave me to chance to be one of your divers after my first year in Monterey.  The three Springs in Monterey (95-97) and having a desk in your lab my senior year are still some of my best memories.

·         Look closer.

·         If at first you do succeed try again anyway because you can do better.

·         A large fresh strawberry can make a really convincing tongue if you hold it in your mouth just right.  

I use the lessons learned in your classes and through your friendship constantly.   It doesn’t matter if I am taking the Boy Scouts on an outing, teaching SCUBA, playing with my girls or in my day job managing a software development team the lessons learned between Monterey tides have blessed my life.  I learned to be kind, patient, give others a chance to succeed and occasionally stick a strawberry tongue out at someone.  

Thank you Dr. B I would not be who or where I am today without the faith you showed in me.

-Chris

Chris Pattillo

(Chris is now an Interface and Data Integration Manager at Group Health Cooperative in the Seattle, WA, area, and is also an Advanced Open Water Instructor at Scuba Sports)

Byron Adams - Basketball Story

Many Thanks! (Jill Alvarado Skinner)

Dr. B,

I am so sad that I was not able to go to your farewell party in Oregon, but I am near the end of a pregnancy and the doctor said no travelling.  I enjoyed working as your TA for a semester and going to OIMB the first year you took BYU students.  I remember coming into your office very timidly in 2004 as a brand new returned missionary to see if possibly/maybe/by some chance you had a job opening.  Thank you for offering me the job and for inviting me on the marine biology trip.  Some of my favorite memories from the trip were:

- Eating homemade ice cream with you and sister B.
- Getting some roses delivered to me in the field house while we were looking at sand dollar embryos under the microscopes (I'm sure I turned very red) (It's ok, because the flower sender became my husband the following spring)
- NOT throwing up and NOT falling down on our first trip out in the bay on the Pluteus (the boat).
- Spending hours semi-upside down in wadeboots looking at tidepools.
- Finding and keeping Diego the baby octopus and catching young crab to feed to him.  He couldn't catch them on his own at first, so we had to "injure" the first one.  After that he got it, and it was so cool to watch him hunt.
- Meeting some interesting characters at the floating docks who wondered why we were always poking at those squishy things down there.
- Singing "summertime" at our first OIMB talent show:  Summertime, and the livin' is easy/ fish are jumpin' and the cotton is high/ your daddy's rich and your momma's good lookin'/ so hush little baby don't you cry  -became- Summertime and the semester is easy/ illustratin' and our tideboots so high/ open up MAH, identify those limpets/ 'cause we love Dr. B and happy birthday Hillary!

Thanks again Dr. B.  You were a great professor.  I learned a lot from you.  I wish you the best in your future endeavors.

With lots of Love,

Jill Alvarado (Skinner)


(Jill wanted to attend the Celebration for Dr. B at the OIMB, but the birth of her 3rd child [due date is in Aug.] prevented her from traveling.  She has 2 boys ages 4 and 2 and the newest addition will be a girl.  Jill just finished her second year teaching biology at an urban high school in Las Vegas.)

Clock Shopping in Carmel-By-The-Sea (Molly Lorton Aldridge, HMS '97)

Dear Dr. B.,

I remember the first time I stood in front of your office in the basement of the WIDB. I read your nameplate and stared for I don't know how long at the wide door. Is it just me or is that office door extra wide? I felt so small in front of it. I didn’t have an appointment, and I didn’t even know if you were there. I was too scared to knock, so I turned around and went home.

When I finally got the courage to meet with you, I was welcomed into a wonderland of an office. The opposite of Ariel in The Little Mermaid who collected treasures from the land, you collected treasures from the sea. How many wonders can one BYU office hold?

From that point on, I made several visits to your office for academic advisement, applying to the Monterey program (1997), and then again begging you to let me return the following year as a teaching assistant. I prided myself in knowing the silly Dr. B and not just the dignified, intimidating Dr. Braithwaite.

I have several favorite memories about our time in Monterey. As a student, I was amazed at the passion you had for your field of study and the meticulous nature with which you built your career. I remember the stories you told of copying marine biology books by hand into your own notebooks and living on franks and beans in order to be closer to the ocean. I was amazed by your handwriting and practiced writing my “g”s like you, but your handwriting was nothing compared to your drawings! Detailed, thoughtful renditions of phytoplankton never looked so good as they did on the chalkboards of Hopkins Marine Station! To this day, my Monterey notebook of lecture notes and drawings is one of my favorite possessions.

In addition to the purely scientific, you taught me many other lessons of life:

1.   By far, my favorite memory was when you honored me by letting me go antique clock shopping with you. To this day, I remember the little clock shops in Carmel-by-the-Sea, and I still love antique clocks. I appreciate the clean, straight lines of Mission style clocks and you preferred, if I remember correctly, the more ornate German clocks.

2.   Fools’ names like fools’ faces are often seen in public places. In other words, don’t scratch your name into the desk, Molly.

3.   Buy quality furniture. Be patient and wait until you can afford to buy a nice piece. Don’t waste your money on things that you will end up replacing in two years.

4.   Fountain pens are a worthy indulgence.

5.   Girls walk funny in big shoes. In other words, those 4 inch platform sandals you think are cute and in style this summer of 1998, really make you look silly.  You probably shouldn’t wear them.

6.   Sometimes the gifts we receive from listening to the Holy Ghost are sacred and shouldn’t be, necessarily, advertised from the pulpit.

Thank you, Dr. B, for lessons taught, marine and not.  I’m so glad I finally knocked on that office door of yours! Best wishes for a well-deserved retirement.

Love,

Molly Lorton Aldridge

(Molly Lorton Aldridge, BYU '98, lives Durham, NC and is an epidemiologist for the State of North Carolina.) 

The "Gastrulation Dance" (Mary Benac Madabhushi, HMS '97)

Dear Dr. B,

I was in a Biology course with you at BYU where you taught about gastrulation in Xenopus embryos and I will always remember your explanation. You told us to imagine that the auditorium we were sitting in was a huge frog embryo, we were on the inside and the door at the front was the blastopore lip. You then danced from one end to the other trying to explain how the cells were all moving towards that door. I spent 7 years doing a phD on mouse gastrulation and had the hardest time trying to explain the movement of cells during gastrulation during my presentations. I ended up collaborating with my sister on an animation to help explain it, but your innovative ideas to get us engaged and thinking about gastrulation during those undergrad courses always float back into my mind.

I also had the opportunity to go to Monterey with you for the 1997 Spring term. I have so many happy memories from those six weeks on the shore. The most important thing I learned that would serve me professionally was that the longer you sit, stare, and draw, the more you see under the microscope.  I have coached many others at the microscope and urged them to spend a little longer at it, knowing that the patience pays off. My time with you was the first exposure to developmental biology, though at the time I knew it as embryology. I remember thinking that it was unfortunate that this field was a closed book, it seemed that development had been described already and that scientists were now addressing other aspects of biology. I was delighted to find the field of developmental genetics when I started as a masters student at NYU. I realized that one could still do embryology, but with more powerful tools than only a microscope.

My favorite activity at Hopkins was doing sea urchin fertilization and tracking the cleavage stages through the earliest stages of development. After having succeeded at that in Monterey I thought I could repeat the experiment with my nieces and nephews at a Florida beach. I spent $70 on gravid sea urchins at a local supply center and tried to do some in vitro fertilization on my own. We were never able to identify the fertilized eggs or early cleavage stages though we sure had a lot of fun trying!

I remember you bringing in a waffle iron and making girl pancakes and boy pancakes, taking us to eat at the Fishwife restaurant in Asilomar, reading to us from your own illustrated childrens book, and of course your beautiful colorful chalkboard illustrations. I wish I had taken pictures of each of those chalkboard masterpieces! I've now thrown out all my course notes from many years of undergraduate and graduate work, but one. I saved all my notes and drawings from that spring term in Monterey and I love to leaf through them.

Here's an animation I created to explain gastrulation in a mouse: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XV9c-97Wc4&feature=youtu.be

And here is a link to some photos I took during my time in Monterey:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/melb/sets/72157626922458802/

Thank you for opening my eyes to a beautiful world and for your wonderful example of a dedicated inspiring teacher.

Sincerely,

Mary (Benac) Madabhushi

(Mary Benac Madabhushi completed a PhD in mouse gastrulation at Cornell University in 2010, and is currently a preceptor at Harvard.  She will teach courses in Developmental Biology and Genetics at the Harvard extension school starting Fall 2011).

Like Herding Cats, Only In 3D (Garth Slater, FHL)

Dear Dr. B,

It’s been many years since we rubbed shoulders at consecutive springs at Friday Harbor Labs.

I realized my dream to study marine Biology and then my 1^st year I fell in love with tide pools. Over the next couple springs I scuba dove with my brother David doing research.

The funniest experience I think was when one of the “diving” students thought it was a great idea to capture fish by stringing a large “gill” net across an opening and several sets of divers “herding” the fish in to the net. When this was presented to you (hey it wasn’t my idea), you gave that all too familiar frown which said “This will never work but try if you will.” Well, you have heard the phrase “herding cats”, this was like that but 3 dimensional. Needless to say, all we gained from that was hypothermia and a knowledge to pay more attention to Dr. B’s expressions.

My experiences in class and in marine labs really helped me prepare for life. I have a successful career, a marriage of 27 years, and service opportunities in the church. I attribute this to your mentoring, friendship, leadership and yes even discipline. Thank you.

Warm Regards,

Garth Slater

(Garth Slater participated in two Spring marine biology trips to the Friday Harbor Labs in the mid 1980s, and is now a Procurement Advisor at SVB Financial Group in Salt Lake City, Utah)

Thank you, Dr. B, for your many lessons, both spoken and unspoken. (Paul Dunn '2006)

Dear Dr. B,

It’s hard to know where to begin…perhaps at the beginning?  The first time I saw you, Lee Braithwaite, I was too shy to say hello.  I was a sophomore at BYU and had just decided that a career in dentistry really wasn’t what I wanted to do with my life.  Reviving a childhood passion, I had decided to explore the option of a career in marine biology.  I wandered down to the basement of the Widtsoe Building and discovered the beautiful aquaria you had set up down there.  I saw a huge blue lobster, colorful starfish, and delicate tube anemones.  I was completely blown away.  I probably stood watching the animals for 15 minutes before I saw someone emerge from an office.  I had been directed to come down to this magical place to find a Dr. Braithwaite and ask him about becoming a marine biologist, but now that you stood in front of me, my mind went blank.  I just stood there.  Luckily for me, you weren’t quite so overwhelmed.  “Can I help you?” you asked.  Relieved, I set up an appointment to see you the next day. 

And thus began a wonderful journey.  

I took every class at BYU that you taught, enjoying every moment of the beautiful slide shows, well-delivered lectures, and fantastic strobe-lit spider dances.  When spring term finally arrived, I followed you to Hopkins Marine Station.  I went tidepooling for the first time in my life, seeing creatures I had never even imagined.  I watched in awe as an octopus captured a crab.  I dug up “weenie worms” in a stinky mudflat and enjoyed every minute of it.  I peered through a microscope and saw a beautiful sand dollar embryo divide from two cells into four.  I tried (in vain) to make drawings in my notebook worthy of your chalkboard artistry.  I took notes until my hand ached.  And I fell in love with marine biology.

Over the next few years, I had the wonderful opportunity to work with you as your T.A., both at Provo and during your spring term trips.  I helped you make the transition from spring terms at Hopkins to spring terms at OIMB.  And there you introduced me to my next great advisor:  Dr. Craig Young, a former Braithwaite student as well.

I’ve learned so much from my association with you, Dr. B.  I’ve learned a lot about marine life, to be sure, but I’ve also learned a lot about how to live my life.  You taught me attention to detail and an ability to see beauty in unexpected places.  You showed me the importance of family and friends.   And you were always the supreme example of kindness.   Thank you, Dr. B, for your many lessons, both spoken and unspoken.  I am honored to have been one of your students.  And thank you for being my wonderful role model, advisor, and friend.

Your friend always,

Paul Dunn

(Paul Dunn is currently a PhD student at the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology of the University of Oregon)

Chowder and Invertebrate Charades (Spring Ogilvie Paul, HMS 2000)

Dr. B,

It would take a novel to really express everything you taught me, so I’ll settle for sharing a memory or two.

I was in your spring 2000 group at Stanford Hopkins Marine Station.  We used to get together at night on the beach after a long day of lectures.  We couldn’t get enough of the beach, and our favorite game was invertebrate charades – a game inspired by your lectures.

One night, we had an idea.  We decided to pick a word, and when you said it the next day in lecture, we’d all bark like sea lions.  We were so proud of ourselves when we chose the word “mouth”, because nearly everything has a mouth, so no matter what you were talking about the next day, you’d be sure to say it at least once.

Well, the next day in lecture, you labeled the mouth on your drawing and spoke the word … and one lone, brave sea lion barked from the back of the classroom.  You turned around, addressed the person who barked, and cracked a joke.  We all laughed nervously and you continued your lecture.  Then you said the word “mouth” again, and this time we all broke out barking.  We had only just stopped when you calmly asked us if there was anything special about the word “mouth.”  We thought we had been so clever, but we couldn’t get anything past you!

I remember the night you made us clam chowder, and we ate it in sourdough bread bowls in the lab.  I remember you sitting with all of us girls one evening watching “Steel Magnolias” on the projector.  I remember when I first showed up at Stanford Hopkins after having my appendix out, you turned to my mom, instead of to me, and asked her what I was allowed and not allowed to do – and I know you did it out of love and with the understanding that I wouldn’t have admitted any restrictions.  I remember you made the TA follow me around the tide pools the next day to make sure I didn’t hurt myself, and while it grated on my nerves to be babied at the time, it shows how much you loved and looked out for each of your students.

Thank You!

Spring Ogilvie Paul

(Spring had Zoo 204 and Marine Biology from Dr. B before going with him to Stanford Hopkins Marine Station in the spring of 2000.  She is currently a stay-at-home mom of three kids, and living in Idaho.)

"Three steps later..." (Ben Werner, OIMB 2007)

Dr. B,

You have given me eyes to see.  I remember one day on the beach in Coos Bay.  The whole class was out on the beach, scattered far and wide.  You walked out to the beach and said, "They think if they go farther away they will find more".  Three steps later you bent over and picked up a jelly fish that had washed up on the shore.  Then you walked over to a boulder and started taking pictures of invertebrates I had not seen until that point.  Not that they were not there, it's just I had not yet looked.  I followed you for 15 minutes to just see how you saw.  I have tried to remember that life is always in front of me, if only I will take a moment to look for it.  The sunset, the invertebrates, things to be grateful for, are always in front of me.

I also need to thank you for helping me learn how to learn.  The lectures, learning to take down every word in notes, and learning to see the detail needed for an illustration have been invaluable to me.  It has allowed me to learn faster and to retain longer.  Your friendship, your example of steady discipleship, and self discipline inspire me.  Thank you.

Ben Werner

OIMB 2007

(I am currently a first year dental student at University of Louisville School of Dentistry and a 2nd Lt in the US ARMY.  My wife Emily and I have been married for 3.5 years and have two children, Autumn Rose (2yrs), and Gideon Duncan (7 mos.))

Thanks for teaching me how cool invertebrates are! (Laura Shipp, OIMB Group '08)

I will always be grateful to Dr. B. for teaching me how cool inverterbrates are! He really opened up my eyes to a whole new world of amazing creatures with amazing life histories. I will always remember the sense of wonder I felt exploring the rocky coasts of Oregon, or my amazement at how Dr. B. seemed to know the names of every thing we found, even the algaes. I will also never forget afternoons spent in our OIMB classroom filled with the sound of pencils frustratedly pounding the desk as we all tried stotting the several phases of purple sea urchin embryonic development. Or how he made us roast hot dogs in the rain after a game of "poo ball" on the beach (which, after weeks of mysterious build-up, turned out to be basically soccer with a plastic ball with Winnie the Pooh on it). I am now a zookeeper at the Seneca Park Zoo in Rochester, NY, and my Unit is called "Rocky Coast." Among the animals I take care of is a coral reef tank. As I clean the tank, I share the amazing facts I learned from Dr. B. about our tank's invertebrates with any one who will listen, including my supervisor. I just had a baby girl, Eliana, and it is my sincere hope that in a few years she will be the only first grader in her class who knows where the madreporite on a sea star is. If she does, it will be thanks to him.  


Thank you, Dr. B., for introducing me to the sea and helping make my zoo-keeping dream come true! 


(Laura Hurst Shipp was in Dr. B.'s zoology class, Marine Biology class, and OIMB group in 2008) 

"Thank you for a wonderful education" (Alan Valentine, FHL '85)

Dr. Braithwaite,


I  went to Friday Harbor with you in 1983, and took Zoology 202 the semester before.  I loved the Friday Harbor excursion and gained a wealth of knowledge and experience there.  I thought your lectures were really interesting and your artwork was just amazing.  I remember once when you told of a mysterious thief who had been stealing your fishes from a tank.  After losing several expensive specimens without a trace, you told how you brought a sleeping bag to the lab and waited for the culprit to appear only to witness your octopus climb from an adjoining tank into the fish tank and back after enjoying an expensive fishy meal.  I have been teaching middle school science for 26 years and, more recently, Oceanography 101 at the local junior college.  I continue to share the octopus story with both my middle school and college students.  


Thank you for a wonderful education.  

(Alan Valentine earned a BS [Zoology '85] and went on to earn an MA in  Environmental Education in 1992 from CSU San Bernardino.  He now teaches Middle School in California.)

"Thanks for opening my eyes" (Sophie Hill '09)

"O happy living things! No tongue
Their beauty might declare:
A spring of love gushed from my heart,
And I blessed them unaware:
Sure  my kind saint took pity on me
And I blessed them unaware."

Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Coleridge, when describing the beautiful, phosphorescent sea creatures.

Thanks for opening my eyes to this world!

(Sophie Hill was one of your TAs during the 2008-09 year, and she now teaches Middle School in Idaho)


Sophie Hill

Former TA, '08-'09. 
BS: Integrative Biology, Marine Biology Emphasis '09
Currently a Middle School Science Teacher in Idaho.

"Thank you, Lee" (C. Riley Nelson, `86)

I thank you, Lee Braithwaite. 


You still have a sense of wonder for the living world, and that is lost to many people. I hope to always remember with fondness all the times you wandered into my office or I wandered into yours. We share a love of natural history, art, and concern for student learning. The importance of history in the development of ideas, of holding a vial from expeditions in the deep past, and of respecting the work of others are all fond memories of working with you.  


I value the time I spent with you moving the marine lab materials from Monterey to Charleston. It opened my eyes to better teaching, and living, with students. You are a gentleman with kind advice for me, or anyone who will listen. I listen regularly and take it to heart. You helped me immensely as I began the transition to being a faculty member here in the Biology Department. 


Oh that we can keep the love of life together for much longer on this wet planet. 


Thank you, Lee. 
Riley


Dr. C. Riley Nelson
Professor of Biology and
Alcuin Teaching Fellow
Department of Biology, WIDB 401
Brigham Young University

A Memorable Teacher (Jamie L. Jensen '02)

Dear Lee,

One of my student-researchers asked me the other day if I knew Dr. B.
Immediately, a very distinct and very fond memory came to mind.  So, I
shared it with him.  I was a student of yours back in probably 1997 or 1998.
I took a Zoology 204 course with you.  I will never forget the day of the
"Spider Mating Dance."  You dressed all in black with white gloves and put
on a strobing blacklight in the classroom.  You selected a female student
and sat her at the front of the room.  You then proceeded to dance around
the classroom doing a spider mating ritual where you eventually presented a
chair to the student at the front.  I have never laughed so hard!

Unfortunately, I do not remember a lot of specifics from that course, but I
do remember the spider mating rituals.  It is a story of legend in my house.
I now study education in the biology department and I find myself often
using your spider dance as an example of effective teaching strategy.  You
have definitely made a lasting and significant impression on me.  Way to be
memorable!

Jamie Jensen


(Jamie Jensen went on to earn a PhD and is now a member of the Biology Faculty at BYU, Provo, UT)

Doing the Spider Shuffle (Elasha Hanks Morgan BS'98)

By Elasha Hanks Morgan (BS '98),  Pittsburgh
As a biology undergraduate student,  I took Zoology 204 (Vertebrate and Invertebrate Strategies) from Professor Lee F. Braithwaite, who was kind, soft-spoken, and not exactly rousing in his lecture style. But one lecture in particular stands out in my memory. 

Professor Braithwaite was teaching us about spiders' mating rituals, including species-specific mating dances. Toward the end of the lecture, and without explanation, Professor Braithwaite had the lights turned off and doors closed and then disappeared behind a door. Imagine our surprise when he reappeared in the classroom dressed as a spider! With eight legs waving, disco lights flashing, and music pumping out a crazy rhythm, he entertained us with various interpretations of spider mating dances. It was fabulous! Educational? Maybe. Entertaining? Definitely! I laughed and laughed and felt a new respect for my professor.


The arachnid facts I memorized aren't as sharp as they once were, but I fondly remember a professor connecting with students in a way that was purely his.

Thank you for your service at a great university Dr. Braithwaite!

(Elasha Morgan graduated with a Biology Teaching Degree, taught HS in Murray, Utah, and now lives in SLC, Utah, where she is rearing five children, and as she says, "...hopefully instilling in them some wonder in the world around them".)

"Having Fun" (Alan Holyoak BS '83 MS '86)

Dr. Braithwaite, Dr. B., Lee (...I ever know what to call you now...),

I had the great fortune to be involved in three of your summer marine biology field courses - one as an undergraduate and two as a masters student. "In those days" you took your classes to the Friday Harbor Labs of the University of Washington.

During one field trip to Eagle Point, San Juan Island, you told us to look for as many kinds of invertebrates as we could find along that rocky shore. Since this is a stretch of exposed coast there were many large logs that had been tossed up onto the rocky shore.

While navigating my way among large and small boulders on my way back to the vans, I looked up and saw you standing on one end of a huge log that was balanced just right. When you flexed your knees that was enough to make your end of the log dip down, and when you stood back up, your end of the log rocked back up. After watching you on this natural one-man teeter-totter for a number of cycles of ups and downs I called out to you, "Dr. Braithwaite...What are you doing!?"

Without batting an eye or cracking a smile, your deadpan, stoic reply was, "Having fun."

Thanks for the fun!

Alan Holyoak

(Alan Holyoak earned a PhD in Biology from UC Santa Cruz '92, taught for 10 years at Manchester College, IN, and has been a member of the Biology Faculty at BYU-Idaho since '02.)

"Who-Who" and the Spider Dance (ZOOL 204, Dan Thunell BA `01,)

Several years ago I submitted this story to BYU magazine. It was put
on their online issue in the summer of 2005. He was a great professor
and example.

Invigorating Invertebrates

By Daniel H. Thunell (BA ’01), Pittsburgh, PA

In fall semester 1998 I enrolled in Professor Lee F. Braithwaite’s Zoology 204 invertebrate course. Invertebrates would be a tough class even without the 8 a.m. start time, but the combination of my late nights and a dimly lit classroom made attentiveness nearly impossible for me.

After several weeks of sleeping through lectures, I decided to write him an anonymous letter, pleading with him to interact with the class before starting his lecture to help us stay more awake. I slipped the note under his door one afternoon and left it at that. To my surprise, the next morning he read my letter to the class and addressed me as “Who-Who.” He said he would like to dedicate a song to the author and proceeded to do a boisterous song-and-dance routine. Everyone roared and whistled when he finished, and I was wide awake. This wake-up call was repeated several times throughout the semester, and every member of the class appreciated his sense of humor. On the last day of class, Professor Braithwaite dimmed the lights, placed a chair on a table and left the room. Moments later he returned dressed up as a spider and demonstrated the proper mating dance of spiders (with the chair being the spider he was trying to impress). The class erupted, and he received a standing ovation.

After his performance, I decided I had better introduce myself to him and reveal my identity. When I told him I was Who-Who, he laughed a little and said, “I thought Who-Who was a female student judging from the handwriting.” I guess he had the last laugh.

(Daniel Thunell earned a DMD and is now a periodontist and owner of Wasatch Periodontics, in Holladay, Utah.)