He helped keep me on track and made sure I graduated.

He made us feel like our ideas mattered to him and to children and gave us choices in the way we fulfilled course requirements that enabled us to learn new skills. I have always been eternally grateful, as well, that he agreed to sponsor my one-credit independent study course in my senior year, which allowed me to graduate a semester early. He later began teaching a course on the topic I researched, a topic I might add that was directly related to my professional work for many years. He was lost to cancer much too early.

After one particularly fun undergraduate night, I kept falling asleep in Prof. Reynolds accounting lecture. When lab time came, he walked up to my desk, pulled up a chair next to me, and without saying a word, wrote a large number 8 on a piece of paper. He pointed to it and gently said, 'This is the number of hours you need to sleep every day. You can do it at home in your own bed at night, or you can do some of it here. It's your choice. It doesn't matter to me. You decide which is better for you.' Then he rose and walked quietly away. I was stunned by the gentleness of what I instantly recognized as a great teaching moment. Professor Reynolds significantly reduced the amount of sleep deprived time in my life, thereby increasing my life quality. I'm eternally greatful.

Nelson had two major influences on my life. He recruited me from Chemical Engineering to Electrical Engineering, and he recruited me to play trombone in the local jazz band in which he played trumpet. He was actively interested in me as a person from the moment we met casually walking down the path from Phillips to Upson. That interest inspired me to work hard as an EE, and as a trombonist! He remembered me through the years, and was always enthusiastic when we met. When my younger son visited Cornell to consider attending Cornell's College of Engineering, we ran into Prof. Bryant, who proceeded to recruit my son with the same enthusiasm and energy that he recruited me. Today I am retired from a successful career as an engineering manager at HP, and continue to play my trombone very actively. One of my great joys is to teach middle schoolers the trombone, and Nelson's enthusiasm, energy, and concern for improving instruction all influence my approach to my young students. Without Nelson's influence, my life would have taken a very different course.

Demonstrated that fluent French could be spoken with an American accent and with no apologies!!