Shortly after Ray entered the hospital several of us scrambled to cover his classes, fully expecting him to get well and return to work. Sadly, that didn’t happen. In his Spring 2014 Geology courses – Ray’s first scientific and instructional love – a fairly large cohort had enrolled, reasonably expecting to join the legions of earlier earth science students who had learned and shared the joys of rocks and field work from him at Cayuga. Big Boots to fill, and although I’d known Ray for more than twenty years, had worked along side him for almost as long, and had worked in partnership with him to keep the flag of science instruction strong at Cayuga, I was pretty nervous when first meeting his students. After a few days, and after we learned Ray would not be coming back, we agreed to keep on, do the best we could, and stick to our ambitious lab and field work agenda.

We settled in, and made it through.  Several of Ray’s students, including Sean and Hillary made all the difference in lab and in the field.

Field trip to the Onondaga Limestone in Auburn’s North Street Quarry.

The Onondaga has some great fossils, but they are few and far between.  Each year students collect fossils from the Moscow shale – lots of fossils there!

Moscow Shale along West side of Skaneateles Lake.

Best of all, Bill Hecht and George Fearon joined us in the field to visit the classic Yawgers Woods to see the Oriskany Sandstone:

Bill Hecht and friends on a GEO 111 field trip to Yawgers Woods.

 Aspiring geologists have been coming to Yawgers Woods for over a century, and it is great fun to keep up the tradition!