Ben Oostdam's Autobiography: 1961-1963

page 3

first days at Scripps

That first afternoon, I moved in my books and met several of my fellow students. This was the largest class ever admitted, a full dozen! Offhand, I recall the following:

• Andy Soutar, my roommate, a premature gray crewcut Scott,
  married to Joan and living in a house they had bought in Waverley Ave
• Erik Reimnitz, a bear of a red-bearded German
  who had just returned from a season of Alaskan fishing
• Ron Gibbs my travelcompanyon on- and roommate after "JAPANYON"; studied the Amazon geochemistry and became professor at the University of Delaware till his death in 1999
• Dave Ross, a skinny Jewish kid from the Bronx
  who went on to Red Sea-fame, authored a good textbook on Oceanography
  and became chair of the WHOI geology department
• Russ Snijder, a physics major from Florida - another Sverdrup Fellow
• Ted Foster, another Physics major and Sverdrup Fellow,
  whose dad was a physics prof at Princeton;
  Ted was thoroughly organized and jogged every day
• Abe Golik, an Israeli geologist
• Tim Barnett,
  who remained at Scripps for decades
  as a physical oceanographer/meteorologist
• Mike Mullin
  NOTE:
  a few students left after experiencing seasickness on the first cruise ....
  a rather expensive proposition which I later used as an argument to have oceanography taught as an undergraduate course