A special retirement event for Terence Smith, Professor Emeritus of both Geography and Computer Science, was held last Thursday, September 30, 2010. The event consisted of a colloquium presentation in Buchanan Hall by Terry titled “Some of the things I’ve learned about research, rivers, and people” and a following reception in his honor in the Ellison Courtyard. Dar Roberts, Chair of the Department of Geography, and Amr El Abbadi, Chair of the Department of Computer Science, took turns lauding Terry’s service to UCSB, and this was followed by the presentation of a gift to Terry from Geography and an open microphone opportunity for friends and colleagues.
Dar Roberts made the following comments: On behalf of the Geography Department, I am here to thank Terry Smith for 34 years of outstanding service to the University of California and to wish him the best for a well earned retirement. Terry Smith is one of the founding members of the Geography Department, having been hired by David Simonett in 1976 as part of what would become a wave of Geographers fleeing the University of Western Ontario, Canada to enjoy more hospitable winters in Santa Barbara. At that time, the department was very different, consisting of only 6 faculty members and no PhD program. Punk Rock music had invaded our shores (although some could argue the Ramones came first), carbon footprints involved dirty shoes, and high end computers had about as much computing power as an I-pad. Terry Smith first came to UC Santa Barbara as a Geomorphologist with an interest in drainage basin evolution, but rapidly demonstrated a wide range of interests. Over the next 20 years, Terry would explore such diverse topics as mental maps and spatial choice, migration and demography, spatial equity in the California tax structure, economic geography and housing markets, behavioral geography, artificial intelligence, neural nets and even wayfinding. Terry’s diverse research interests even found their way into the classroom, where Terry crossed over to the other side, and taught our human geography class Geography 5 for four years, starting in 1982. To my knowledge, he is the only physical geographer in the department to have done that. He followed this up by also acting as Chair of Computer Science from 1986 to 1990, a dual life that I am sure Amr will tell us more about. However, Terry may be best recognized for the major contributions he made with the Alexandria Digital Library Project, an NSF supported effort to revolutionize the way we store, browse, and utilize geospatial data. Terry’s interest in database design, modeling systems, and computational modeling, established in the early 1990s, I suspect were critical to the original success in obtaining this award and played a key role in the ultimate success of Alexandria today. Over the past few years, Terry has refocused his energy on the classroom, where he brought novel digital learning concepts to Geography 3b and a dual-screen digital learning environment to Webb Hall as part of ADEPT. He has also gone back to his roots in Geomorphology, publishing what he described as “the first real analytical solution to the problem of river channel emergence,” in a sole authored paper published in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Earth Surface Processes that he is very proud of. I am pleased to say the department is proud of you, Terry Smith.
Terry enjoys painting, so the Department of Geography presented him with a wooden plaque with a gold artist’s paint brush mounted on it. The plaque had the UCSB wave logo engraved on a brass plate in the upper right hand corner, and, on a separate brass plate in the lower left hand corner, the following wording was engraved: “TERENCE SMITH: Professor in Geography and in Computer Science, 1976-2010. May your retirement be as colorful as the career you have painted.” Along with the plaque, a gift certificate to a major, local art supply store, gleaned from donations from faculty, researchers, grads, and staff, was given to Terry, and he also received a commerative brass paperweight momento from the Chancellor on behalf of UCSB.
The reception was well-attended by personnel from Geography, Computer Science, Earth Science, Environmental Science, and many others, and MLPS Dean Pierre Wiltzius and Chancellor Henry Yang also attended. The food and drink was tasteful, the venue and weather was pleasant, and Professor Emeritus Terry Smith was moved: “I’d like to thank you all very much for organizing the retirement colloquium and reception for me last Thursday. I greatly enjoyed seeing some people I hadn’t seen for years (I hadn’t seen Teddi Lenard for over 7 years and I was very surprised to see the Chancellor there). I really appreciated the great turnout for the retirement lecture and was very moved by the reception. So, again, my deepest thanks, Terry.”
Editor’s notes: For more about Terry, see the July 16 Geography news article, “Professor Emeritus Terry Smith: Senior and Distinguished.” About 40 photos of the event in Terry’s honor have been posted on our Events Photos Page. Many thanks to Geography staff members Mo Lovegreen, Bernadette Weinberg, and Nancy Ponce for providing photos and details of this special event.
