from Ariel Power:
For Rob —
I met Rob in Chile in 1973, I was assigned as a TA to his ecology class at the University of Chile, where he was a Ford Foundation Visiting Professor. At that time, I had been working on my research for my thesis degree. He was delighted to learn that I was working on a project involving resource partitioning among a community of Andean birds, quite similar to what a friend of his (Martin Cody) had been doing at UCLA. We very quickly became friends.
But turmoil in the Chilean political arena soon changed my plans and future. Rob not only guided me when working on my degree at UCB to make a decent living and provide for my family, but also he helped me to leave Chile when I had to and settled safely in the US.
Thank you Rob, like a dear friend of mine used to say, I owe you big, I owe you a 6-pack!
Health and happiness on your birthday and days ahead.
Colwell Redux 
Aloha Rob,
I’m looking forward to telling you this in person, but I’m happy to share my thoughts in this venue as well. Quite simply, your kindness and guidance opened doors that have allowed me to have a wonderful life.
When my original major professor at Cal left after my first year in the then Zoology Department, I was pretty sure I was going to have to leave. On the suggestion of a grad student colleague, I made an appointment to see you in the slim hope you’d take me on as a student. Surprisingly, you did! I will, to my last breath, always be grateful.
You then backed up that kindness with singularly excellent guidance culminating in my graduate degree from UCB. That degree, and your supporting references, helped me secure a faculty position in the University of Hawaii system, specifically UH Hilo. With hard work and some luck I’ve done OK.
I often wonder what my life would have been like had you not given me the opportunity to continue as a graduate student at Cal. It would have undoubtedly been vastly different and I suspect not nearly as nice. I too owe you BIG TIME. Mahalo nui loa ko’u kumu a me hoaloha. Leon
¡Hola Rob! Increíblemente han pasado más de cuarenta años desde ese septiembre del año 1970 en que nos conocimos y tan generosamente me acogiste bajo tu ala. ¡Parece como si hubiese sido sólo ayer! En ese momento tu comenzabas tu promisoria carrera de investigador y docente, y yo la mía de graduado e investigador chileno en el campo de la ecología de las comunidades. Ahora tu pareces estar terminando esa etapa y te enfrentas con otra, que probablemente desconoces en gran manera: ¿Qué será, será….?, como decía aquella canción de los años 50. Mal que mal estamos vivendo lo que muy probablemente será el último quinto de nuestras vidas…
En mi caso, como sabes, dejé la vida universitaria en 1993, habiendo concluido que las respuestas que me daba entonces mi quehacer académico, me resultaban insatisfactorias. En esos días también “acordamos” con Johanna separarnos, y así me quedé sin esposa, sin hijos y sin hogar. Fue una hecatombe, un derrumbe general en mi vida. No sólo me había quedado sin ese quehacer académico que tantos buenos momentos me dió por casi veinte años, me había quedado, además, sin ganas de trabajar y sin familia.
Busqué otros derroteros, en la conservación en PNUD, lejos de Chile. Nueva York fue una experiencia muy enriquecedora, entre otras razone, porque me topé con el Zen. Luego de más de ocho años en Nueva York, volví a este Chile tan querido por mí, en tanto mis hijos (Pablo, 33) y Marta (31) se quedaron en EEUU y viven en el Bay Area. Desde Chile he trabajado como consultor, en algunas iniciativas de bien público, como asesorar de senadores y gobiernos; y me he volcado con pasión a la práctica del Zen, un ámbito en que encuentro paz y gozo por la vida como no lo había experimentado antes. Me ha transformado la vida….También he encontrado una nueva compañera, Ruth, que le pone sal a la vida.
Siento no haber podido compartir con ustedes este encuentro y conversar más contigo y los antiguos compañeros de viaje sobre la vida que hemos vivido. Quizás la vida nos de otra oportunidad…
Te deseo mucha plenitud en tu próxima etapa y los mejores deseos para los ex-compañeros. ¡Hasta la vista!
From Peter Feinsinger:
Rob, as I look out the window of the office on the upper floor of our home and see the neighbor´s sheep ripping up his pasture I can´t help but think back to our first meeting in January 1971, the day before OTS 71-1, when we quickly discovered our mutual interest in our Colorado landscapes, hummingbirds, beer, and sheepherder jokes (although on your Eastern Slope of the Colorado Rockies they weren´t jokes).
It´s been a tremendous pleasure and honor to have enjoyed our close friendship and professional relationship (leavened by the frequent bad jokes), first during the six-week course that changed my life and then during the > 42 ensuing years. I would have loved to help celebrate your birthday and retirement in Berkeley with Robin, your children, and all our mutual friends. During the Big Event I´ll toast you long distance, from Uruguay. Since attending the fest is out of the question, we truly hope that with retirement you´ll soon have the time to come visit us in northwestern Argentina.
There are so many stories that I could tell, so many old slides (from January 1971 on) I could dust off and scan . . . but then if everyone told their Rob Colwell stories and sent Beth their old Rob photos there´d never be an end. I´ll save the reminiscences and slides for your visit.
Have a great time during, and after, the Big Event. Hugs, Pete
Dear Rob,
From Hugh Rowell:
Only 70! I thought you would have caught up with me by now, or even better overtaken me, but it seems I’m still 10+ years ahead of you. You really havnt been trying, you’ve had 30 years or so since we last worked together to make good the missing time.
I’d love to come to your party, but alas Berkeley is a long and very expensive way from Switzerland, so I wont make it. I might just manage to send a proxy, however – someone you know very well too.
Anyway, have a great time. I still remember playing being a grad. student again in your ecological seminars in Berkeley, and thank you for all I learnt from you. It stood me in very good stead.
We’ll be in Africa again for Christmas, you’re very welcome there if you have no where better to go.
Love,
Hugh
From Anne Chao:
We are essentially a group of Rob’s statistical assistants working in the other side of the world while Rob enjoys sleeping…ZZzzzzz
Our warmest reward is: Rob always provides English editing/consulting service for us, and always help rescue our poor English even in midnight….Hooray!!!
A. Chao (Rob’s Chief statistical assistant )
Below are Rob’s Chief assistant’s assistants (who coauthored with Rob)
T. J. Shen (#1)
W. H. Hwang (#2)
Y. H. Jiang (# 3)
C. W. Lin (# 4)
S. Y. Lin (# 5)
T. C. Hsieh (# 6)
K. H. Ma (# 7)
******************
Sorry I will not be able to fly to Rob’s Redux to join you people, I wish you all have a wonderful gathering!!
Best, Anne
It’s hard to describe in words what a wonderful human being Rob is and the impact his mentoring and friendship have had on me—but I am sure I am not alone in trying to adequately express this in a few lines. I was in the early group of grad students at Berkeley who first came to know Rob –back in the early 70’s. (That was before videos, scanners and personal computers (my dissertation was typed on an electric typewriter!), so digging through my ancient slide collection to find a good photo from Berkeley days has proved frustrating). Although Rob was not my thesis advisor, he was on my dissertation committee and I took several classes from him. Even back then Rob was a wunderkind and very popular with grad students in the Department, many of whom were older than he was. What was so appealing about Rob, apart from his sheer brilliance, was his openness and warmth and his ability to draw out the best in students, even those who doubted their ability to compete in a very demanding environment. Rob was caring, he empathized, he was funny–and big hearted. Although he had terrific respect for scientific inquiry and hard work, he could also be refreshingly irreverent, especially toward people who took themselves too seriously. He had (and still does) a marvelous sense of humor.
One example which stands out among my memories of those early, anxious years of graduate student malaise—was an event at the monthly “Eco-lunch” seminars (affectionately known as Ego-Crunch) in which students would present their research to faculty and peers for a thumbs up or thumbs down of their work.
These sessions were always fraught, and tended to be dominated by the population ecology crowd. Among the most competitive were the ornithology students who kept life lists like professional scorecards and their data very close to their chests. There was a lot of jockeying for position within the hierarchy in this group, and one of the alpha males was preparing to expose his data for the first time, with the expectation of submitting it to a prestigious journal for publication.
While students were filing into the room, already heavy with expectation (and newbies like me trying to remain nonchalant about the prospect of one day having to navigate this same crowd of critics), seminar notes were handed out. Surreptitiously mixed in among them was something that resembled a track in verse. It was a hilarious, skillfully penned limerick, poking fun at the uptight proceedings and the feather flapping and strutting of the graduate student on display. The room dissolved into hysterics and although the piece was anonymous (and authorship never proved), it had the wit and wisdom of our beloved RC all over it. Eco-lunch never held the same dread for me after that–in fact it proved to be some of the best preparation for me in my professional career at the World Bank, in which being well prepared and in command of the subject have been essential to arguing effectively for what I believe in.
Thank you, Rob, for being such a wonderful mentor and friend these last 40 years. You have enriched my life immeasurably—and I look forward to many more years of frienship. The world is a much better place for having you in it.
–Marea