[Coral-List] Bob Ginsburg's passing

Dennis Hubbard dennis.hubbard at oberlin.edu
Mon Jul 10 14:14:07 EDT 2017


Hi Gene:

While I greatly lament Bob's passing, I am grateful for the time we were
able to share at meetings and in the field. Many times, he has challenged
my undergraduate students, asking "so what do you see" and then chastising
them for telling him what they think. While he was, as you point out, a
"bottom line kind of guy" - he was also careful to encourage students to
look first, then think and....... only then, to offer opinions. His ability
to simply but thoughtfully tie what you see on the bottom to what you see
in the rocks was a model we should not forget. We often disagreed, but it
always catalyzed discussion - even when we were both wrong. He will be
missed. Once we are over the initial grief and start to think about an
appropriate homage, please do count me in.

Denny

On Mon, Jul 10, 2017 at 12:13 PM, Eugene Shinn <eugeneshinn at mail.usf.edu>
wrote:

>     With great sadness I regret to report that Robert N. Ginsburg, (Most
> of you know as Bob) passed away July 9, 2017. Bob was 91 and had been in
> assisted living for the past few years. Few individuals have influenced
> the course of carbonate geology and coral reef studies more over the
> past 60 years than Robert Nathan Ginsburg. Had he not set the course,
> comparative sedimentology as we now know it might never have flourished.
> More important, though, was Bob’s rare ability to influence those around
> him to think, to ask the “So what?” or “What does it mean?” questions
> that we so often forget to ask. Bob can be likened to a Renaissance man,
> a visiting scholar from the past centuries. His approach to science was
> both philosophical and pragmatic, a natural historian’s attitude that at
> first seems out of step with today’s high-tech computer model-driven
> science. We will all miss him. Gene
>
> --
>
>
> No Rocks, No Water, No Ecosystem (EAS)
> ------------------------------------ -----------------------------------
> E. A. Shinn, Courtesy Professor
> University of South Florida
> College of Marine Science Room 221A
> 140 Seventh Avenue South
> St. Petersburg, FL 33701
> <eugeneshinn at mail.usf.edu>
> Tel 727 553-1158
> ---------------------------------- -----------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> Coral-List mailing list
> Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> http://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list




-- 
Dennis Hubbard
Chair, Dept of Geology-Oberlin College Oberlin OH 44074
(440) 775-8346

* "When you get on the wrong train.... every stop is the wrong stop"*
 Benjamin Stein: "*Ludes, A Ballad of the Drug and the Dream*"


More information about the Coral-List mailing list