{"id":10281,"date":"2011-05-31T09:00:57","date_gmt":"2011-05-31T14:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=10281"},"modified":"2011-05-31T09:10:09","modified_gmt":"2011-05-31T14:10:09","slug":"retiring-professor-a-familiar-face-for-41-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2011\/05\/retiring-professor-a-familiar-face-for-41-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Retiring professor a familiar face for 41 years"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Retiring

Retiring professor Hugh Gayler, says a colleague, is "cheeriness personified."<\/p><\/div>\n

A professor who has helped shape Brock\u2019s Geography<\/a> department for more than 40 years has retired.<\/p>\n

Hugh Gayler<\/a> became a professor emeritus this spring. He will continue research in his areas of urban geography and urban planning, but he retired from teaching in January.<\/p>\n

Gayler has been an important part of making the department what it is today, said Michael Ripmeester, department chair. That includes serving as an undergraduate adviser and three terms as chair, as well as sitting on various committees around campus.<\/p>\n

\u201cHugh has never shied away from making himself available for students, colleagues, the University or the community,\u201d said Ripmeester, who describes his fellow professor as \u201cgracious and kind\u201d with a personality that fills the department.<\/p>\n

\u201cHugh is cheeriness personified.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gayler arrived at Brock in 1969, four years after the formation of the Geography department. Then 27 years old, the native of Colchester, England was appointed the same year as Alun Hughes and two other professors.<\/p>\n

Excursions in London<\/strong><\/p>\n

Part of Gayler\u2019s legacy is a London field trip course that has happened 10 times from 1992 to 2008. The course\u2019s walking tour allows students to experience the city\u2019s history, culture and geographical landmarks up close. It has resulted in two major papers and the 1996 book Geographical Excursions in London<\/em>. He and a former student are working on a second edition.<\/p>\n

Gayler has written two books, edited another and published numerous papers and book chapters. But he cites student progress as the most rewarding part of his career.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like when you can literally see them progress over the period of a few weeks,\u201d he said. \u201cThey are literally sponges absorbing the stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Retirement will be anything but dull for Gayler. He is working on a book about Niagara\u2019s planning history. He is also incoming chair of Chorus Niagara<\/a>, a group he\u2019s been involved with for 40 years.<\/p>\n

He will also work as an international tour leader for a national tour company, a job that will take him to Jordan and Egypt this year and Russia in 2012. An avid train lover, he plans to travel from Vancouver to Toronto by train and set up a model railroad in his home.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will not be bored in any way, shape or form,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m even excited to do some of the reading that I haven\u2019t been able to do. I can pick and choose what I want to do and when I want to do it to suit my mood. If I don\u2019t want to do research that day, I\u2019ll sit with a book and a cat in my lap.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gayler will miss the interaction with colleagues \u2013 the \u201cdaily shot in the arm\u201d he gets from exchanging ideas. He\u2019ll miss the lunch hour euchre parties. His legacy will live on in the form of the Hugh Gayler Geography Field Trip bursary for students participating in the third-year compulsory field trip.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to do it to help students, and as a thank you to Brock for a great life here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hugh Gayler, who helped shape Brock\u2019s Geography department, has retired.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10282,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,1,4],"tags":[68,31],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10281"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10281"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10281\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10307,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10281\/revisions\/10307"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}