Submitted by by Rubin Battino
On Wednesday June 3, 2015, the Old Boys lunch group is holding a celebratory memorial service for four of their colleagues who have died. There are memorial trees and plaques in the area between the library, Fawcett Hall and Biology 1. We will gather at each of the trees and tell some stories about them. Afterwards we are going to lunch at First Watch on Col. Glenn Highway. This weekly lunch group has been meeting for over 35 years and is made up of faculty and others who were part of the original faculty and staff at WSU.
The memorial recognized the following:
- Marvin Seiger was a professor biology who specialized in fruit fly genetics among other interests. He was a wonderful storyteller and seemed to have been everywhere and done everything.
- Prem Batra was a Professor of Biochemistry and a prolific researcher. He was proud of having probably been the only WSU faculty member to be named best teacher of the year five times! Prem also started and ran an incredible program for high school students in the summers who did research with faculty members.
- Shigeru Honda was a Professor of Biology. He did not publish a great deal, but his papers were all gems and widely cited. A great friend.
- Noel Nussbaum was in the physiology department and was a specialist in IT for the medical school, setting up their involvement with computers for the medical students. Noel was also a great storyteller.
- Bob Haber died earlier this year and was one of the early members of the mathematics department.
