S Campbell
As a student at HPA, on the Big Island of Hawai'i way back when, I spent many a drippy Saturday with "Mr. Van Riper" in the trackless rainforest behind school, sitting under ohi'a trees and recording the comings and goings of native birds in our waterproof notebooks, finding our way via only the flimsy mile-long string we tied to the fence and let spool out behind us as we pushed our way through tree fern and maile. I went on to become a certified hummingbird bander in Arizona, and was surprised one day to run into him in the halls at UA, where he was once again---as usual---surrounded by a crowd of eager and admiring students. On the Big island at HPA back in the 1970s, when I was in ninth grade, the atmosphere in his lab---with Bob Dylan belting out "Lay, Lady, Lay" at all hours---gave me an eye-opening introduction to what a real human-being scientist might look like, a vision I never forgot.
