Remembering Howard Voss

I was saddened to learn of the death of my teaching mentor, Howard Voss ( Physics Today, July 2010, page 61 ). I was a graduate teaching assistant at Arizona State University from 1969 through 1972, and although I later earned a teaching certificate in Pennsylvania, most of what I know about teaching I learned as a teaching assistant.

Howard Voss had more confidence in me than I did in myself when I started handling recitation classes, and his trust and confidence slowly paid off. Later on he trusted me and another teaching assistant with a significant revision of the introductory physics lab program. As part of that task we made some bold steps to help students be more creative in learning physics. That was my first experience in seeing my ideas create positive impacts for students.

Possibly the most important thing I learned from that project was the value of trusting people who want to do well. Trust, for me, worked in two directions. I found students and professors trusting me, while I learned about the advantages of trusting my students.

I have known few people who work as well with others as did Howard. In three years the only time I recall seeing him angry was when a fellow grad student of mine somehow dislodged the plutonium-beryllium source from its seat in a neutron howitzer. Even then, with a mirror on a stick in one hand and a contrived tool for picking up the radioactive source in the other, the professor was equal to the task.

I take some comfort from having seen Howard at several American Association of Physics Teachers events in recent years and having taken the time to talk with him about the old days.