A bit of family business
Post #1349 • May 15, 2009, 4:21 PM
Sorry for the uncharacteristic silence over the last couple of days. I've actually had a lot on my blogging mind, but that interferes with writing—some kind of psychic composting has to take place until life in its raw form converts to material worthy of exposition. I wrapped up the semester's classes. My wife and I started our first garden together. I'm preparing for the Maine Comic Arts Festival, as an exhibitor for the first time rather than an attendee.
But I wanted to note that my father is retiring after thirty-two years of service to the University of Miami's College of Engineering. Today he will be honored at commencement. His appointment to its deanship brought my family to Miami in 1977, and I remained there with relatively few exceptions for three decades. I went into academia myself, with roundly happy results, and I rather suspect that my comfort in that setting derives in significant measure from his mastery as a teacher as an administrator. For learning, there is nothing quite like an excellent example. His ambition and work ethic have benefited me in too many ways to catalogue, much less contemplate all at once, to say nothing of the formative influence of Miami upon my being, none of which would have come to pass had he decided otherwise for my family's future.
Today I honor him and wish him well on his journey ahead. Einspruchs live long lives, and they spend them taking up challenges and meeting them with humor, intelligence, hard work, and consummate integrity. Knowing him, and knowing us, he will continue to do so in a manner that, as always, causes all around him to marvel.