JOE BOONE   

    After graduation, I hung around Richmond because I had a girlfriend (Myra Robinson 1963), and I had a job teaching six different math courses at Jackson High School across the state line in Eaton, Ohio.  It could have been worse; Helen Cope (Jim Cope's wife) was the science teacher at Jackson and had to teach six different science classes. 

Myra and I were married by Tom Mullin on December 22, 1962 in Newcastle, Indiana (Tom guessed our marriage would last about 6 months).  My teaching job was so terrible that I often came home with a headache; Myra would put ice packs on my head in the evening.  That terrible experience inspired me to go to graduate school in astronomy at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin.  I hoped to get a Masters so I could teach in some small college, but I ended up getting a PhD instead.  Myra taught high school while I studied and planned canoe trips.  We took many short trips around Wisconsin and traveled out west a couple of times while I was in graduate school.  It was a fun part of our life without children.

               My working career in physics began in 1968 when I accepted a job in California after only a phone interview.  As Myra and I drove to California with Pamper, our black cat, we did not know what to expect, since neither of us had ever been to California.  On the last day of our trip, we drove from Las Vegas through Boron, and Barstow, California; the heat was unbearable.  We began to feel we had made a terrible mistake.  As we approached San Luis Obispo, a few scattered oak trees dotted the hot, dry countryside.  We neared the top of a ridge called Cuesta Grade and our car gave out.  Someone in a pick-up truck stopped and pushed us over the top of the grade.  As we coasted down the long hill to San Luis, we began to feel the cool ocean breeze, and we noticed many more oak trees dotting the hills and ravines.  Luckily, there was no stop sign at the exit and we coasted into a service station.  We had arrived in San Luis Obispo, arguably the nicest town in all of California.  Our son, Lowell, was born a year later (1969).

               After six years in San Luis, I took a sabbatical at the University of Utah and worked on a cosmic ray detector called the Fly's Eye, a telescope array designed to measure the light emitted as high-energy cosmic rays travel through the Earth's atmosphere.  While in Salt Lake City our daughter Laurene was born (1974).  We returned to San Luis for a year and a half, and then went back to Salt Lake in 1978 for another three and a half years.  When I was not working on the Fly's Eye or teaching, we took advantage of Utah's great skiing and I organized several river-rafting trips.

               In 1989, with Lowell at UC Santa Cruz and Laurene entering high school, Myra began teaching again, this time as a fourth grade teacher at Shell Beach School (as the name implies, it overlooks the Pacific Ocean).

Lowell eventually earned a PhD in physics and Laurene earned a Masters in mathematics.  Lowell and his wife Barbara have a son, Collin (born 2005), and Lowell teaches physics at University of Evansville in Evansville, Indiana.  Laurene is married to Ryan Lee, and they have two sons, Kedrick (born 2004) and Coleson (born 2007).  Laurene teaches math part-time at California Polytechnic State University.

               In February of 2001, I was diagnosed with lymphoma, and after more than a year of chemotherapy and then a transplant at UC San Francisco, I am in remission.  After losing my hair for the third time, a lot of it decided not to grow back.  In August of 2002 (four months after my transplant), Myra was diagnosed with breast cancer; she had a lumpectomy and radiation treatment.  With all that excitement, we both decided to retire (June 2003) and enjoy what is left of our lives.  Although I am officially retired, I have been teaching one quarter a year for the past four years and will probably teach one more quarter this winter before I quit for good.

               After retiring, I spent about two years drawing house plans and getting permits, and in November of 2006 we began construction of a house on a lot we have had for about 20 years.  You can see glimpses of the entire process on my web site <www.calpoly.edu/~jboone>.  Or, you can Google "Joseph C. Boone" and my name will come up.  Scroll down to 'Interesting Links' and click on 'House Building Photos.'  We hope to move in before Thanksgiving 2007.

               During my career of 35 years in physics, I have enjoyed teaching a wide variety of courses in physics, astronomy and math.  For several years I even taught a course in evolution that included the Big Bang and the evolution of the Universe, a history of the Earth and plate tectonics, and the evolution of life.  I wrote a book that I used for the course, and I still have dreams of getting it published some day.

      In addition to our recent involvement in house building, Myra and I have enjoyed our grandkids (Myra is a wonderful grandma), and we have gone bird watching trips to the southeast and Arizona.  I play basketball twice a week and poker once a month with several Cal Poly professors (both traditions were started soon after I moved to California).  Myra enjoys writing and has recently started painting.

Dr. Joseph C. Boone

Department of Physics

California Polytechnic State University

jboone@calpoly.edu