To celebrate Professor Reginald Golledge’s 70th birthday, the Geography Department designated December 6 as “Reg Day” and both roasted and toasted him. Scores of people had been contacted and invited to send in birthday greetings, reminiscences, stories, and the like. To quote Professor Dan Montello’s invitation, “we will read several of these at his roast, which will not be attended by children or censors, so you may use your own judgment and taste in devising your anecdote.” Over 30 greetings and stories were sent from around the world.
Dan was masterful as the master of ceremonies during the hour-plus session, both in terms of orchestrating participants’ contributions and in terms of his outrageous and hilariously “Rabelaisian” version of Reg’s background and history which kicked off the event (it turns out that hotwiring tractors can get you into a heap of trouble down under). Reg grimaced when he heard Dan describe the event as a roast, but he was soon guffawing at Dan’s “introduction” and then laughing (sometimes in embarrassment) as some of his early escapades were described. Professor Keith Clarke commented that he’d had to “seriously censor” some of the anecdotes sent in by Reg’s friends and colleagues, but he managed to leave enough in to cause Reg and the audience to laugh and applaud continually.
Professor Helen Couclelis provided the picture above which was projected onto the meeting room screen. The photo, taken about 20 years ago, shows (counter-clockwise from the top) Reg Golledge, Allen Pred, Allen Scott, Derek Gregory, Eric Wallin, Dietrich Bartels, Peter Sanford, Anne Osterrieth, Peter Gould, Helen Couclelis, Gunnar Olsson, Kathleen Christensen, Bernard Marchand, and Anne Buttimer. Helen reminisced about first meeting Reg at the meeting in this photograph, which took place at a breathtakingly beautiful spot on
Lake
Como
in
Northern Italy
. She also read an intriguing story from Vicky Rivizzigno about the legendary “Reggie punch”; Vicky confessed that she quickly learned “to moderate my intake of Reggie punch when my face started to become numb.”
Professors Ed Keller (Geology) and Rick Church both commented on Reg’s prowess as a squash player, noting that he was known as “twinkle toes” on the squash court, had a “rugby mentality,” and tended to pin them to the walls. Reg retorted, “that’s why they call it squash!” Ed Keller and Rick Johnson (Instructional Consultation) had several “fish stories” about Reg, including stories about some that got away and some that did not. Rick Church read a note from Ron Briggs, Reg’s first Ph.D. student, who recounted a fascinating story about a wedding reception in Texas, the kind of reception they just don’t hold anymore (picture at right from early in the evening – Reg on the left).
If Reg was a bit embarrassed by some tributes, he was deeply touched by others. In particular, he responded to testimonials by Professor Ed Keller and Professor Jack Loomis (Psychology). He pointed out that Ed had pulled him out of his house and out of depression shortly after he lost his sight in 1984 and had literally saved him in a social sense. Reg also thanked Jack (and Roberta Klatzky, a psychologist now at Carnegie-Mellon) for doing in a professional sense what Ed had done socially, noting that they asked him why he didn’t put all of his knowledge of spatial cognition to use – “back then, I didn’t realize it had a use,” Reg commented wryly.
Today, of course, Reg is famous for pioneering the field of Behavioral Geography, and, more recently, the field of Disabilities Geography. But what was most striking on “Reg Day” was how full a life Reg has led and continues to lead, both socially and academically. That would be amply true even if not for the inordinate amount of physical adversity that he has endured and overcome. Reg felt deeply touched by the tribute in his honor – as was everyone present.
