Kansas State University

Colleagues,

Thanksgiving break is soon upon us. How remarkably fast the semester has gone! Each year for the past three years, I have shared a note about giving thanks for the talented people around us. Thanksgiving 2015 will be my fourth here in Manhattan. For our family, we have seen a number of changes in four years – changes in who is sitting around the dinner table. Nieces have been married and now have children of their own (I’m a great uncle five times now – emphasis on great). My daughters have graduated university and gone on to graduate schools. Carolyn and I lost one father and nearly lost another.

Our K-State family has also seen new arrivals and departures. I have seen changes in leadership in our College for nearly all our departments – I am excited about the new people and thankful for those who have served before them. We have also hired over 100 faculty since I started who are phenomenal additions to our K-State family, and we have said “good bye” to many others who built a foundation of great teaching, scholarship, and service for the College. We have seen changes in our outstanding support staff, and I am thankful for everyone who has made the College so productive. I am thankful for all of them – new, established, and past, alike.

I suppose that this Thanksgiving message lacks my regular epigrammatic tone, being far more reflective this year than others. Perhaps it’s because Thanksgiving is part of my favorite season: autumn. The long green days of summer yield to the cool darkness of afternoon sunsets, turning the forests and prairies golden hues before they become dusted with frost and snow. I am thoughtful about how lucky I am to be here.

So I’ll share a few lines from one of my favorite Pushkin poems and bid you a peaceful holiday:

“The fading autumn almost none admires,
Yet, reader, I am fond of her, I own,
Fond of her muted glow of half-banked fires.
Like a poor child unloved among her own
She calls to me. If anyone enquires,
Her of all seasons I hold dear alone.
There is much good in her. A frugal wooer,
My whim finds some appeal quite special to her.”

Sincerely,
Peter