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)
