My Last Lecture
Lowell L. Getz
When it becomes time to retire from academia, the day will arrive
when you give the last lecture of your career. Many approach this day as
simply another routine lecture, with no feelings of nostalgia. Others try to
impart to the class wisdom they would like get across in their final chance
to do so. My situation was somewhat different, involving a nostalgic
personal appeal to the class. I had been in academia for thirty-six years,
the first eight at the University of Connecticut, the final twenty-eight at the
University of Illinois, which was also my undergraduate school. During the
sixteen years I had been away from Urbana while in the Army, Graduate
School, a post-doctorate research position, and at the University of
Connecticut, I maintained close ties to the University of Illinois. So much
so, I was described by several as a “Pathologic Illini.” Because of this
lengthy association, I had an obviously strong affiliation for the University
of Illinois. It was, therefore, with some trepidation that I approached my
last lecture. What to say? How would my emotions handle the situation?
My course, “Environmental Biology”, was not your typical
environmental course in which one preaches that the world is going to hell
in a hand basket from overpopulation and environmental
degradation. Rather, it was essentially a non-technical course in basic
ecology for non-biology majors. The course provided only a basic outline
of the “environmental problems” we face, with the main emphasis on
providing a basic ecological background to deal with such matters. I left it
up to the students themselves to decide how best the problems could be
resolved, taking into account ecological implications and the various tradeoffs and complicating factors.
I had taught the course for twenty-four years, both semesters the
last seventeen years. The course was popular, enrolling in the later years,
800-1,100 students per semester. I estimated approximately 25,000
students had gone through the course over the twenty-four years. The
course was delivered in the university Auditorium, with a seating capacity
of 1,900. My lectures, including the last one, were given ad lib, with only
outline notes. In preparing this account, I have relied on my notes, and
even though a number of years have passed since that last lecture, I
remember rather clearly the points I made. The lecture was purposefully
brief so as not to exceed the attention span of the students, who realized it
was not a “testable” lecture, before I got to my final remarks.
When beginning the lecture, I reminded the class (although most of
the students already knew) this was to be the last of my career. Then I
started the lecture. (Note. In the interval between when I gave the lecture
and when I wrote this account, several conditions have changed regarding
what I summarized in the lecture.)
“There is a rather personal uniqueness in where it I am giving my
last lecture. I have had two major parallel careers in my life, one in
academia, the other in the military. Both careers began here in this very
room. The evening of Monday 12 September 1949, the night before
freshman orientation began, the incoming freshman class was assembled
in the Auditorium to be welcomed by President Stoddard and other
university dignitaries. This was the first time, while sitting on the left side
of the balcony, I sang “Illinois Loyalty” and “Hail To The Orange.” Thus, my
academic career began here in the Auditorium. Then, on the morning of
Sunday, 21 June 1953, sitting in the center of the fourth row downstairs, I
was sworn in as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army, the beginning of a
30-year military career.
Now, because of a series of unusual
circumstances, I am giving the last lecture of my career in the same room.
“The earth has turned many a time since I first entered this room.
The world that long ago September night was still in disarray from the
effects of World War II. Most of the major cities of Germany and the
eastern European nations were still in ruins. The large cities of Japan had
yet to rise from the ashes of our firebombing raids. The economies of all
warring nations were still struggling. It would be another eight years
before a small Japanese company named Toyota shipped 288 autos to a
dealership in Hollywood and more years before another small Japanese
company, Sony, would start marketing tape recorders in the U. S. There
would not be a vaccine for polio for six years. Penicillin was a new
“wonder drug.” And, we were enamored by the potential of a newly
discovered chemical pesticide, DDT, which was purported to be the
solution to all our insect pest problems.
“The Campus had a much different look to it than it does today.
Whereas most buildings on the Quad were here back then, the broadwalks
on each side of the Quad were arched over by large American Elm trees,
with others providing shade over the interior of the Quad. Within six years
these trees would all be dead from Dutch Elm Disease, in spite of massive
usage of DDT in an attempt to kill the elm bark beetles that spread the
disease fungi. A high proportion of the student body consisted of World
War II veterans, many of whom had experienced combat, as evidenced by
wheel chair ramps to most of the buildings. The University of Illinois was
the first university to provide adequate accommodations for returning
disabled service men.
“As you will remember, during the course we discussed a number of
the more critical environmental conditions of that time and the need to
address them.
All rivers passing by large population centers of the
country were highly polluted. For example, there was not a single sewage
treatment plant on the Hudson River. As the Hudson flowed past New
York City, it was essentially an open sewer.
“Birth rates were accelerating from very low rates during the Great
Depression and World War II, which had disrupted so many lives. In the
years beyond 1949, population growth skyrocketed. An increase in the
number of people to be fed required greater food production. Genetic
improvements in maize and rice yields resulted in major increases in food
availability. However, realization of the full potential of these new strains
requires large inputs of chemical fertilizers. This resulted in additional
environmental problems. Increased harvesting of marine resources soon
depleted populations of the major commercial fish and invertebrate
species below those necessary for sustainable harvests. When the fishing
stocks disappeared, so did the means of a livelihood for large numbers of
people who maintained the fisheries industry. Solutions to these food
production problems continue to require major changes in how we
accommodate the needs of an expanding world population.
“Accompanying population growth was increased demand for
energy.
Associated with population growth was the need for more
consumer goods. As the economy recovered, there was even greater
demand for consumer goods. Increased energy was needed for the
production and transport of these goods.
Personal automobiles
proliferated, as did the demand for gasoline. To meet these energy
demands, domestic production of petroleum increased greatly. The
demand soon exceeded our own petroleum resources and we became
dependent upon foreign imports.
Attempts to increase domestic
petroleum production, through exploitation of tar sands and shale oil, have
severe environmental consequences.
Increased demand for electric
power soon exploited all practical hydroelectric sources. Nuclear power
plants created major safety and radioactive waste storage problems.
Utilization of petroleum fired power generators only exacerbated our
petroleum shortages. Demand for coal as a direct source of energy, as well
as an indirect source through use in coal fired electric power plants rose
sharply, as did the associated air pollution from the gases released during
the burning of coal. Increased coal demand also resulted in resorting to
strip mining and mountain-top leveling, with the accompanying
environmental degradation.
“In this course, we talked about potential alternative energy sources
and related ecological problems. We looked at “green energy sources”-biofuels, solar, and wind, each of which has its own environmental,
economic and societal problems that must be addressed. Thus, water and
air pollution problems associated with meeting our energy demands
continue to be major concerns.
“Although population growth rates now have dropped considerably,
at least in the developed nations, absolute world human population size
continues to grow. The additional people will require more space, food,
energy, and raw materials, all of which will create further environmental
degradation. Thus, the environmental problems we have discussed in this
course are still with us.
“These problems will not go away easily, challenges you are going to
face the rest of your lives. And, because most of you will survive at least
another six or seven decades, you will be facing these problems for a long
time.
Many times over, you will vote for individuals who will be
responsible for addressing the problems. Some of you may become
involved in action groups concerned about the environment, others will be
employed by companies facing environmental issues, and a few of you, God
forbid, will be in governmental positions that set the agendas for
maintenance of environmental quality. Hopefully, you will have retained-is this wishful thinking of an aged dreamer?--sufficient information from
this course to understand what needs to be done and will have the capacity
to make the right decisions to protect the environment.
“Me? I will not be around long enough to experience the effects of
the actions you take or do not take. I cannot have many years left, not
enough time to suffer the consequences what is done or not done. Still,
after spending 24 years attempting to provide the tools for students to
make up their own minds as how to do what is right by the environment, I
do have an interest in whether or not I have been successful and that my
efforts were not wasted. And, I will know.
“In a very few years, I will be gone. I will be returned to our family
burial plot in the cemetery in my small southern Illinois home-town. I will
be back home with my friends, kids with whom I grew up. Many are
already there waiting for me. Buck Reynolds, the best man at my wedding,
has been there a long time, as has Jimmy Dawson, with whom I doubledated at numerous square dances while in high school. Flora, my first
date, is there. I was in the fifth grade, Flora in the fourth. Betty, the first
girl I kissed--well, actually she kissed me, not very adventuresome back
then--has been there awhile. Judy, Charley, Pete, and Loretta are waiting
for me there. More will join me later.
“It will be comforting to be back home with my friends. No
pretension there. None will be impressed as to how many grants I had,
how many publications I had, or any other of my academic achievements,
or that I was a Colonel in the army. My friends will not care about these
things. To them, I am simply a skinny kid they called “Hank” who played
rounders at recess, tally-ho and kick the can at night, and went skinnydipping in Bear Creek with several of the boys and girls.
“Still, because of all the years I spent delivering this course, I will
want to know if I have been successful in getting through to you. Did I
provide sufficient information to persuade you to be concerned about the
environment? Did you acquire enough basic ecological information to
make reasonable decisions? And, I will have a means to know.
“Close to my family burial plot there is a large oak tree, with a low
limb extending out over my grave. What you see standing in front of you
today, soon will be gone, reduced by decay bacteria to basic nutrients.
Those nutrients will be taken up by the oak tree and moved out into this
limb. That is where I will be, in that tree limb. Each morning, as the sun
rises in the east over Jim Leach’s corn field, I will look to see if there is
there a Robin sitting on the limb singing. For if there is, I will know you did
understand and you did make the right decisions. And, we have a healthy
environment. My efforts were not in vain.
“But, whatever you decide, whatever do, remember:
“This is the only world you have.
“This is the only world your children will have.
“This is the only world your grandchildren will have.
“So, take care of it. Please.
“It has been an honor and a privilege to have been associated with
the University of Illinois these past 28 years. Thank you for taking my
course. Have a good life.”
University of Illinois Foellinger Auditorium, taken from the stage
where I lectured. Both my academic and military careers began in
of my career from this stage.
this room and I gave the last lecture