I received a bit of a jolt the other day, when a form letter e-mailed from Case informed me that one of my freshman year professors, Ignacio Ocasio (better known as Doc Oc), had died. In addition to the e-mail, I found a short two page article in the Summer 2005 Case Magazine about him. Click on his picture below for the full article:
Some additional links are a campus news article, and a blog.
What I remember most about Doc Oc was his passion for teaching. And when I say teaching, I mean actually teaching. The process of taking some new and foreign information, and helping a person to learn it, to the point that they understand it. Chemistry may not have been my thing, but I do appreciate the fact that Doc Oc took the time, effort, and energy to teach it to me.
Finding someone who is a good teacher is very rare in this world -- especially in higher education. That is what made Doc Oc special. And it is why I will always remember him.
-Andy.
That's so sad. I can't say I ever really knew him all that well, but he certainly made freshman chemistry a little more bearable. And he truly did have care about teaching and about his students.