a duke legend, chemistry teacher dr. bonk, died this week. he was my chemistry teacher my freshman year at duke in 2001 (the last year he taught the course)...and he was my dad's chemistry teacher at duke in 1974. yes, we really did refer to it as "bonkistry," and i heard people tell both the "pie in the face" and the "which tire?" story.
the picture in the article is exactly as i remember him, and he impressed me every day (especially now that i am a teacher!) because he taught entirely from memory - no notes. i guess when you've been doing it for 40 years that is possible, but no less amazing.
it makes me sad when people die without a spouse or children, but i also know how special duke must have been to him and that makes me happy. and he was, certainly, very special to duke.
It was not called Bonkistry when I took Chem 11 in the fall of 1970, nor when I finally got around to taking Chem 12 in the summer of 1974 (yes, after the rest of my classmates graduated -- a story too long for this comment). But he had only been teaching the course for 10 years in 1970, and I remember him using notes. It takes a great teacher to keep the attention of 300 freshmen at an 8:15am lecture. I still remember there are S and P shells, although I do not remember what they are. Thanks, Dr. Bonk; we will miss you.
ReplyDeleteJohn