University of Alaska Fairbanks class sighed after this remark as our other science courses were hard enough. But immediately after making this statement, he said that each of us would get an“ A”. We were stunned. He paused to look at us a bit and then he said that we would be learning a significant volume of advanced statistics and that his examinations would be extremely comprehensive and absolutely difficult. But again he said that we would all get“ A’ s”. We were intrigued by his comments. He paused again and said that his goal was for us to really learn about the subject and to reach this goal, we would be allowed to take the exams over and over until we achieved the“ A” level grade. Wow, we were relieved to hear this as no other professor had ever let this happen. What a great idea. The reality was that the overwhelming majority of the class only took the exam once and we all did get“ A’ s”. Perhaps because the fear was taken out or perhaps he was just a really great educator.
Dogsled team, courtesy Google
I struggled with chemistry and genetics and just got through it. I was able to get a part-time job in a pathology laboratory to help pay for my education. Although most of the time, I washed laboratory glassware, the pathologists knew that I was studying biology and they were eager to teach me all about the various pathology tests. I enjoyed the microbiology work that involved growing bacteria and the use of the microscope to view blood and tissue cells and parasites. Each month the Center for Disease Control( CDC) in Atlanta sent through some unknowns as a quality control exercise for the laboratory. The pathologists at the Anchorage laboratory would then ask me to try and identify the organisms which was usually difficult but they would help me. Many times this involved the use of the microscope to scan human feces, first in low power to find parasites that could be in any one its many life-cycle phases. My claim to fame came when I was able to identify an amoeba( Entamoeba histolytica) that causes dysentery and can bore into the intestinal wall and reach vital organs. The name histolytica means tissue destroying. I was exposed to wide range of pathogens, I loved the microscope work and the doctors that worked there were friendly, caring and virtually surrogate family like. One of the laboratory technologists became my girlfriend and we shared a house that we rented for awhile.
Living off campus required a car so I bought an old 4 door very long Chevrolet sedan. Usually it had just enough gas to get me to the town of Fairbanks and back as money was always tight. I had a unique bumper sticker that read: Don’ t Laugh Mister, Your Daughter May Be In This Car. It was so funny to see the reaction of drivers as they went by and looked at me with my very long hair.
Don Parker with his dog Red
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