Thank you for these stories about my grandfather. I am certain he remembers you still in heaven. He truly loved teaching as much as he loved us grandkids. I remember many occasions where we’d be having dinner and he’d show us the different parts of things like crayfish or crab while we were eating. I know he’d be proud of all his students.

Dr. Westenberg, thank you very much for your kind reply to my post. As I said, there was no larger figure in my career, and if the truth be told, in my heart, then Dr Gale. I was so busy chasing my dreams as a younger man, I didn’t spend nearly enough time chasing down the people that made them possible to achieve, like the good doctor. Today I turn 65 years old, and I continue to learn lessons that we only fully appreciate in our twilight years, and these are of an amplified by the great memories we have of those whose shoulders we stand on. My wife is now almost unable to go anywhere due to severe osteoarthritis, but I guarantee you if I ever get on Interstate 44 again, nothing will stop me from visiting UMR (lol, sorry :-), you can bet on that, sir! I look forward to seeing you in the near future I hope. Thanks again for your kind words, keep up the good work. I try to send as many promising students and others your way as I possibly can, because there was never one single day in my life I regretted going to UMR – it’s in a league all its own. As we all know, MIT is known as the UMR (S&T) of the East Coast!

Thanks for sharing this great memory Cliff. Nord Gale was a wonderful mentor. We were lucky to hold an event in 2018 to honor him on the 50th anniversary of his arrival in Rolla to restart the biology (life sciences at the time) program. If you get back to Rolla let us know and we would love to show you around the department and see how the program he started has grown.

Dr. Gale taught me cell biology, cell physiology, medical microbiology, and many laboratory techniques, and it’s very true that he’d let absolutely anyone who wanted to be involved in research jump right in, without any pressure, and always made his students feel comfortable in both the classroom and the laboratory.

The fiirst semester I had a course with Dr. Gale, I took 21 total credits with a >3.5 GPA. The next semester, Dr. Gale came to me and suggested I take a double B.S. in Biochemistry AND Life Science, and said he would be my major professor for the second B.S.

Not knowing that was even possible, I asked him “what’s involved?”. He smiled, and said, “What do you WANT to be involved?”. So I took a deep breath and told him, “NO 3 SEMESTERS OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE, AND NO ELECTROCHEMISTRY” (both required, and combined, a total of 15 credits).

So the Doc went back to his office and drew up a highly personalized second major program that included about 30-35 credits of advanced biochem, biology, organic chem, and tons of research credits (150 hrs total), under him and Dr. Donald Siehr, a Biochem Professor (PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison). Dr. Gale also talked to the Dean and got that all fully approved for a second BS degree.

I learned more in those years in school than any other years in University, and not a month has gone by in the nearly 40 years since that I haven’t thought of him, and been grateful for his kindness and his leadership.

Perhaps the thing I remember most about him was how funny he was, and his extremely expressive face. I think the man could have easily become a successful stand-up comedian if he’d wanted to. When he’d ask the class a question, and a student answered something that was way wrong, he used to roll his eyes and get the dorkiest looks on his face, smiling the entire time, and crack a joke at the student who got it wrong, but never once did anyone ever take his reactions negatively, and 99% of the time we would all crack up, including the student who goofed. The guy was just absolutely hilarious, and it matched perfectly with his enthusiastic teaching style, his 100 mph speaking rate, and his finely tuned wit.

I never saw the man again after I left UMR, and I regret that very much. I never even finished the second degree, lacking only freshman level zoology and sophomore level ecology (then 6 total credits). I wanted to come back for one last semester in the spring of 1985, to finish those two courses and do more research, but I got a lucrative job offer and a wife after my first degree was awarded, and made the mistake of taking both. LOL.

If I had it to do over again, I’d have come back to do research with him and get that BS in Life Science.

I’m sure the family of Dr Gale knew what a treasure he was, and here I am, 38 years later, still doing research on genomics and lung cancer. Every single paper I read, even today, always reminds me of him and what he taught me. Thank you so much for everything, Doc!

Cliff L. Knickerbocker
B.S. Chem/Biochem, 1984