On the Retirement? of Dave Wells
A brief speech made at the retirement dinner for Dave Wells
I am disappointed - I had figured that we would have the speeches towards the beginning of the evening and that would make my job real easy - because Dave would be late and I could have said anything. But the organizers who have known Dave even longer than I have knew better and scheduled the speeches at the very end of the evening and thus Dave is indeed here - but, I know a secret - Dave is really VERY LATE. You see, Dave had intended on retiring last year but has just now got around to it. As you see, I've learned! But when I first got here no one had warned me about Dave's UNIQUE SENSE OF TIME.
I should have realized. On my very first visit to UNB I was sitting in Dave's office at about 4:00 PM after a full day of discussions. Dave was to take me to my flight which was at 5:00 PM. Dave and I were talking - I looked at my watch - 4:15 - then 4:30 - finally at 4:45 I was real worried and I said to Dave, don't you think we better go to the airport? Dave says - NO PROBLEM - it is only 13 minutes to the airport! We left at 4:47 and indeed it was only 13 minutes to the airport, but at 5:00 PM the plane was already sealed up and heading to the taxiway. Though they often turn back for Dave, they didn't for me. I don't have the guardian angel looking after me that Dave does. To this day it is the only plane I ever missed for arriving too late.
Somehow Dave seems to pull this stuff off - like the time that John and Dave and I had a meeting in Perth, Australia. We all had different flights - Dave had an early morning flight, I had an afternoon flight, and John had an evening flight. I had a stopover in Toronto and from the Air Canada lounge called John who asked me where I was. I said I was in the Air Canada Lounge in Toronto and John asked if I was with Dave. I said no, Dave had an earlier flight. John said he knew that but Dave had missed the earlier flight and was now booked on my flight and he had recently called John from the lounge. I asked John to hold a moment, took a quick look around the lounge, and sure enough, there was Dave snoring away in one of the chairs. Had I not called John and had he not alerted me to the fact that Dave was in the lounge, I suspect that he would have missed that flight too. That guardian angel again!
But when I first got to UNB I didn't know about this UNIQUE SENSE OF TIME. The first time I had to teach a course for Dave, I showed up at the scheduled time of 8:30 AM and there was no one there. At about 8:40, the first students started drifting in and by about 8:45 AM most of them were there. I was livid! How dare they take advantage of the substitute teacher like that! They were very apologetic, however, saying that they didn't know that I was teaching and that Dr. Wells doesn't normally get there till about 8:45 or 8:50.
Well, this combined with all the meetings I had with Dave for which he was inevitably late, and I started to take it personally! Dave didn't like me or respect me - that was UNTIL there was this meeting here in Fredericton and we had a dinner scheduled with the then Federal Minister of Natural Resources, Anne McLellan. Dinner was scheduled for 8:00 PM and there were only 6 or 7 of us at the table in the Sheraton. When the appropriate time came, we all were seated and there was one empty seat (Dave's). We were not about to hold the Minister up, so dinner began on time, and sometime about desert, Dave comes bopping in with his wonderful cherubic smile, his fancy Hong Kong custom made suit, and his ugg boots, and he bounces up to the Minister and dangles his key chain in front of her. On this chain was the inscription: "I'm always late." Well, at that point I knew that there was nothing personal about Dave's tardiness with me - it was just Dave's UNIQUE SENSE OF TIME!
There are some downsides to this, though. I remember a time when we had a cruise leaving from Saint John Harbour. The vessel was scheduled to leave at 8:00 AM and as is normal for all ship departures, all hands are expected on board one hour earlier. Two of our students were not there at 7:00 AM and as we made ready for departure they show up at the pier at about 7:50. I refused them permission to board the vessel saying that they were supposed to be here at 7:00 AM and they said to me - "Well, Dr. Wells is always late." I said to them that Dr. Wells has been phenomenally successful in his career DESPITE the fact that he is always late. He has been so successful because of his EXTRAORDINARY TALENT, his INEXHAUSTIBLE ENERGY, his UNSELFISH DEDICATION TO BOTH RESEARCH AND TEACHING, his BREADTH OF KNOWLEDGE, and most importantly the DEPTH OF HIS WISDOM. When they are prepared to emulate these characteristics, then they can think about emulating Dr. Wells's sense of time.
Dave is unique amongst my acquaintances as I know of no one in any field who is so uniformly admired and respected - I was going to say that I never heard anyone say a bad word about Dave, but I did run into the copy machine repairman one day and I don't think he was too happy with Dave. Dave made the Ocean Mapping Program at UNB and as an interloper in the field of hydrography I have benefited tremendously from what Dave has built. Wherever I go in the world of hydrography, Dave's name brings me instant entrée and acceptance (and the assumption that I will be late).
And now Dave has retired. But as all of you have noticed, we haven't noticed that Dave has retired. But I want you all TO notice. And to realize that every day Dave spends with us now is a gift to us and yet another example of his wonderful generosity and selflessness. And so as this celebration came near and I began to think about the years with Dave - and I thought back to the experience with Minister McLellan and the key chain - I realized that while the key chain Dave waved in front of the Minister was right, it told only half the story. So I have had another key chain made for Dave that I think tells the whole story.
On one side it says: I'M ALWAYS LATE!
On the other side it says: BUT IT'S WORTH THE WAIT!
Larry Mayer