September has always been a special time of year for me and this year is especially significant. I arrived in Jacksonville and at Jacksonville University 50 years ago this month. I had just finished my doctoral program at the University of South Carolina when I accepted a two-year appointment as a visiting assistant professor of biology at JU. I never expected to stay.
During the summer of 1976, I wrapped up my research on the impact of tidal rhythm on mole crabs, emerita talpoida, drafted my dissertation, had contracted and been hospitalized with mononucleosis, and applied for jobs. What a summer!
Fortunately, I had already been offered a position on a grant to stay at USC’s Baruch Institute of Marine Biology and Coastal Research when a fellow
graduate student called to tell me about a position at his alma mater to replace a faculty member who was taking a two-year appointment to teach in Kuwait. This kind of arrangement was common back then and offered faculty a nice change of pace along with being well-compensated. So, I applied to JU.
About two weeks later I received a call from JU asking me to come to Jacksonville for an interview. I was in bed with mono and put them off for a week to give me as much time to regain some energy as I could.
I flew to Jacksonville on a Tuesday, had dinner with some biology faculty that evening, interviewed on Wednesday morning, was offered the position that afternoon, quickly rented an apartment across the street from JU and flew back to Columbia that evening. What a day!
Once back at USC, my major professor and I put the finishing touches on my dissertation on Thursday. I gave my draft, mostly handwritten, to my typist on Friday. Please remember, this was before desktop computers and word processing, so your dissertation had to be professionally typed onto special paper in a very exact format. She managed to finish typing it that weekend with a few telephone calls to me for clarification and correct wording. I was able to give it to the faculty who would conduct my dissertation defense on Monday.
Miraculously, I was able to defend on Wednesday, packed up my rented trailer on Thursday and moved to Jacksonville on Friday. Classes started on Labor Day, Sept. 6, 1976. What a week!
So, in September 1976, I managed to move to Jacksonville, get settled into a new apartment, start my teaching career, meet my future wife who I married seven years later, discover the St. Johns River and recover from mononucleosis.
It was later in the academic year that I was asked to help start a marine science major at JU. Apparently, it had long been a desire of the biology faculty and administration to establish a program that could capitalize on the campus’ riverfront location and proximity to the ocean.
The rest, as they say, is history. The marine science major became one of the most popular at JU and eventually led to the Marine Science Research Institute that opened in 2010. I managed to hold five different jobs from professor to dean at one institution, before finishing as executive director of the institute. Not a bad career for a guy who thought he would only be in Jacksonville for two years.
And a special thank you to everyone who helped and encouraged me along the way.
Glad you asked River Life
How much has the current El Nino affected the St. Johns River?
We are currently experiencing an extraordinarily strong El Nino event which means that the water in the eastern Pacific is warmer than normal. To call it a “Super” El Nino is more click bait for social media than science. Nevertheless, the water temperatures in the eastern Pacific do have worldwide impacts on our weather. These include local temperatures remaining warmer than normal, rainfall being above average and fewer hurricanes. So, yes, El Nino does impact the St. Johns River.
River Life runs the first Tuesday of each month in The Florida Times-Union. Email Quinton White, professor emeritus and former executive director of Jacksonville University’s Marine Science Research Institute, with questions about our waterways at qwhite@ju.edu. For more on the MSRI, visit ju.edu/msri.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: What a 50 years! The story behind River Life author's JU journey
