one of my favorite professors and mentors at UWL

[I'm posting this for Kelly, who first put it as a comment to another post. --Susan]

As I cannot for the life of me figure out how to log in from here in France, I find it necessary to leech off of this comment. Normally I would have just given up and not said anything but Dr. LaCoss was too important to me. I had a very hard time believing the headline of my e-mail as I read it Wednesday - I had said good-bye to him as I left last semester and promised to send e-mails with pictures from my time abroad. It seems as though it was just yesterday I was crying over my frustrations of dealing with "the system" trying to get into grad school; something with which Don was quick to sympathize and criticize. As my adviser, he was the person who suggested I take the history of medicine track instead of medical school and forever changed my life's path. As my professor, he was the quickwitted man who introduced me to all of the bureaucracy and bullshit in the professional history field. As an awesome person in general, he made me a tougher, more concise and more sarcastic historian, showing me you don't have to sell out to play the game. He was truly a shining light among academics and will forever remain one of my favorite professors and mentors at UWL. I sorrowfully regret that I will never be able to send him my thesis one day but his touch will be on every page. I have shed many tears in the past few days shocked that such a good man could pass so suddenly but I feel as though Don would want me to find humor in the fact that he is probably arguing intellectual issues with the Devil (or, Lord help him, God) right now. He was a shining academic light who has left an indelible mark on both me and my field. I will never forget the professor in the t-shirt and cotton shorts. Because I will not be there to say it in person, Good-Bye Dr. LaCoss – I miss you already

Kelly Nussbaum