MU lost one of its best faculty members last weekend. Dr. Reed Wadley had been fighting cancer for the past few years all the while doing what he could for the department.
Dr. Wadley and I arrived at MU in the same semester. As I ran around trying to make sense of grad school, I saw him adapt to his new office and his new class in Middlebush. Because of our mutual newness he kind of became my anchor: if hey can work this out (being in a more high-pressure position), then so can I.
On September 11th, a month after we started our first semester and hours after the event, I sat in his class and we discussed the breaking news and he reminded us that facts are scarce compared to speculation-disguised-as-fact.
Dr. Wadley’s class was lighter on other days. He told us about his research in Borneo and the Iban friends he made there. He told us about the battle for indigenous rights. He told us how he sacrificed a pig to increase his social standing in a traditional society. Some things were a mystery with him: the tip of a large tattoo could be seen on the back of his neck peeking out over the collar of his dress shirt but I never got the nerve to ask its story. In a way I didn’t want to know: it spoke of a life of unique experiences that cannot be distilled into an answer.
Here’s to six years of knowing Dr. Wadley and his impact on the lives of me and all of the students he advised and taught.