Honoring the Life and Work of the
Late Professor Robert O. Reid
Founding Member of the Department

Oceanography celebrated its 60th anniversary on Friday and Saturday, November 6 & 7. Former students, current students, colleagues, stakeholders, faculty and staff were invited to this 60th anniversary celebration at the College Station Hilton that also honored the life and work of Professor Robert O. Reid. Reid was a founding member of the department who remained active on the faculty as a distinguished professor emeritus until his death in January, 2009, at age 87.

The two-day event included presentations by faculty highlighting the department's past, showcasing its present, and looking ahead to the future. Keynote speakers were Sammy Ray, professor emeritus and associate director of continuing education at Texas A&M University Galveston; Les E. Shephard '77, vice president of Energy, Security and Defense Technologies at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, and A. D. Kirwan '64, who is the Mary A.S. Lighthipe professor of Marine Studies in Physical Ocean Science and Engineering at the University of Delaware.

Reid had a long and illustrious career at Texas A&M University, joining the Department of Oceanography-Meteorology as an assistant professor in 1951. He served as Oceanography department head from 1981 to 1987. During his career, he chaired or co-chaired 138 graduate student committees. Reid was instrumental in building the oceanography and meteorology programs at Texas A&M University and in shaping their futures.

The 60th Anniversary Program is available for download, and Dr. Kate Miller's speech. Photographs from the celebration are posted on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/TAMUGeosciences and can be downloaded from the College of Geosciences online photo gallery at here. The presentations can be downloaded from here.