Professor Jim Head was a PhD grad student in RI Hall from 1964-1969. His office was on the mezzanine level of the second floor, in the SW corner of the 1874 addition at the top of the stairs. On the second floor '48 plan, this is above room 211, and this area can be seen in my photograph of 30/4/08. He remembers that he sat right at the juncture of the 1840 structure and the 1874 structure because there was a crack between the two where the two sections were coming apart. "You could almost see through, and the breezes were terrible". In the space that his office overlooked there was a "great" table that he recalls being a focal point for social interaction. "We had quite a division of individuals, ranging from quite conservative to the NY radicals". He recalls the New York Times being thrown down on the table in the morning, and everybody would inevitably share their conflicting opinions on what was going on. It was "an act of the times" with the issues of Vietnam and Cambodia on the front pages, and in the forefront of everyone's minds. Jim recalls the atmosphere as "dynamic" and "great fun, with a real sense of camaraderie".

Jim's office was above the secretary's office, and he recalls dropping notes down the cracks in the floor to her office. Above his area was a stained glass window, "like a skylight". One of his adventures as a grad student lead him to climb up into the attic space with paleontology Professor Leo Laport, to "go exploring up there". He described it as "a step into the past" with old books and old lab equipment, as well as what he interpreted as an area for preparing cadavers. They climbed into the attic space towards the east that was closed off last spring, which he describes as "light enough to see around you and fairly open". For Jim the wood roof beams were "fascinating, and beautiful, held together entirely with wooden pegs". They came across the stained glass window that he worked below, and remembers laughing at the thought that somebody could have been up there watching him work. He described Professor Laport taking a magic marker and writing 'deus ex machina' on the window. Jim described how he was "taken aback because the professor had effectively graffitied the window. It was a reversal of roles!"

In terms of the layout, Jim described the balcony space being used for map drawers (one of which I found there last spring), and it ran around the whole floor. The false ceiling with the insulation foam over the south side of the second floor had not been put in. It was open space and you could look down into the paeleontology lab of Professor Laport. His office was above the secretary's office, outside of which were the mailboxes for the grad students.

Jim told me that room 212, which became Belinda's office, was the office of Professor Quinn, "a really wonderful man, kind of old school". Jim recalled him taking the students on field trips around campus to look at university buildings and identify the stone they were made from. He also took them on tours of RI Hall. The well was a long-term interest of Professor Quinn, and Jim remembers him taking the water levels every day, removing the flat cover that was over the well.

Jim Head "really loved that building" with its "vertically huge offices" and nooks and crannies. He described the classrooms and skylights as "just great" (despite the incessant explosions of the steam pipe in the SW corner of 201). "It was old but it just had a great character".

Memories from the Department of Geological Sciences

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