Typically I shy away from participating in such public channels of emotional discussion, but I felt Don would've personally gotten a kick out of a digital memorial.
Anyways I was originally a student of his. A youth that was almost kicked out on academic probation two semesters in a row (it turned out that calculus and computer programming was not for me), whom discovered history as a fulfilling opportunity to surviving college. Then after several classes and the many, many hours chatting with him in his office about kung-fu films, art, politics, and whatever shit he happened to have found on the internet that day, I eventually was promoted to being one of his "kids."
It was always a personal honor to be one of his "kids," especially with all his chatter about how him and Susan always each had their own 'kids,' and didn't like sharing them with each other (of course that was never really true).
Don was a testament to the subtle intellectual. He was one of my core role models for continuing academia (and discovering the fun within it), and was one of the greatest reasons I never regretted going to UWL. Unlike others he advocated for me to take time off between degrees to find myself and maintain my sanity in grad school. He was right of course.
I loved the fact that his door was always open, that he openly complained about the lighting (thus he had his dim lamp), and his battles with tech support over his shitty computer. I was around when he broke his leg (I still remember that he would be wearing shorts all year round while waiting for the bus), and when he started posting agitational anti-clown propaganda on the vending machines in North Hall when the yearly clown college happened over the summer (he was very coulrophobic).
In the end words do very little to fill the loss I felt from losing a mentor and a friend in the same day so to celebrate Don and I's mutual love of the film Blade Runner I felt it would be appropriate to end with a quote from it:
"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe.
Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion.
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain."
/Sean R
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