"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)