{"id":97964,"date":"2015-11-19T08:37:22","date_gmt":"2015-11-19T13:37:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=97964"},"modified":"2017-11-03T14:27:22","modified_gmt":"2017-11-03T18:27:22","slug":"thesis-thank-yous","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2015\/11\/19\/thesis-thank-yous\/","title":{"rendered":"27 of the best thank-yous from Bates senior theses through the years"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"thesis<\/a>

Tributes and thank-yous from generations of Bates seniors, both earnest and quirky, are inside each bound volume of honors theses in Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library.<\/p><\/div>\n

In the spirit of Thanksgiving Week, we pored over a few hundred honors theses looking for the best thanks and tributes \u2014 that is, the most distinctive, unusual, and quirky \u2014 offered by thesis-weary seniors over the years.<\/p>\n

While the honors program started in 1927, not until the 1970s did the custom of including dedications or acknowledgments begin to flourish. These days, the tradition is in full bloom.<\/p>\n

Most the examples below are at 10-year intervals, meaning we didn’t look at every<\/em> thesis because, well, this ain’t a senior thesis. And we chose honors theses because they\u2019re readily available, down the street at Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library and online since 2011<\/a> on the SCARAB database.<\/p>\n

Best Use of Self-Deprecation to Thank a Bates Professor<\/h3>\n

Jordan Becker \u201915, writing a rhetoric thesis on \u201cContesting the Dominance of Neoliberalism: The Ideograph as a Force for Social Change,\u201d said this about Professor of Politics Bill Corlett, who was part of his thesis defense panel:<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I become only half the thinker, half the teacher, half the person that Bill Corlett is, it will surely be one of my greatest accomplishments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Best Thanks That\u2019s So Sweet It Makes Us Forget It\u2019s a Really Long Sentence<\/h3>\n

Erin Beirne \u201906, writing a geology thesis on \u201cA Geochemical Investigation of Organic Matter Composition, Deposition, and Preservation at Sprague Marsh, Phippsburg, Maine,\u201d thanked her family, noting that:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is entirely possible that I would have slept through my senior year had you not been willing to call me every morning, that I would have drowned in a sea of Bates had you not been there to bail me out, and that I may have never had a moment from myself had you not been as important a part of my life, my consciousness, as you are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Best Thanks for the Start of an Academic Career<\/h3>\n

Craig Woodard \u201986 wrote a biology thesis on \u201cPartial Purification of a Type I Arylsulfatase from Drosophila melanogaster<\/em>,\u201d and thanked now-retired professor Joe Pelliccia for \u201cfor his wisdom, guidance, support, and patience. Dr. Pelliccia has taught me to be a scientist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Woodard earned a doctorate from Yale and has been a professor of biological sciences at Mount Holyoke College since 1995.<\/p>\n

\"Craig<\/a>

Craig Woodard \u201986 is a professor of biological sciences at Mount Holyoke College. In his thesis acknowledgments, he said he was inspired by his thesis adviser, Professor Emeritus of Biology Joe Pelliccia. (Mount Holyoke College photograph)<\/p><\/div>\n

Best Dedication That May Have Formed the Basis of a Great Marriage<\/h3>\n

Paul Bomely \u201976, writing a government thesis on \u201cMark-up Sessions and Congressional Decision-making: A Case Study,\u201d dedicated his thesis to \u201cMartha\u201d for \u201cher advice, her patience, and her faith, because she always understood.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMartha\u201d was Martha Brown \u201976, then Paul\u2019s fianc\u00e9e and a fellow government major.<\/p>\n

Paul and Martha were married just a couple weeks after their graduation, on June 19, 1976, and will celebrate their 40th anniversary this spring. They live in Charlotte, N.C.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The honors thesis dedication page of Paul Bomely ’76.<\/p><\/div>\n

Best Use of a Dedication to Thank Mom for That Really Great Sweater<\/h3>\n

Terrance Amsler \u201996, writing an English thesis on \u201cNegotiating Public and Poetic Ground: The Poetry of Mahon, Carson, and McGuckian,\u201d dedicated his thesis to his mom, \u201cwho, for every hour I spent typing, you knit two, purl two, making me a vest of Irish wool and familial love.\u201d<\/p>\n

Best Use of Humor on a Cover Page of a Thesis<\/h3>\n

Roger Thies \u201955 put a cover page on his biology thesis, \u201cA Study of the Effects of Ultraviolet Light on Bacterial Viruses” that said, \u201cThis Is Thies\u2019s Thesis.\u201d<\/p>\n

He wasn\u2019t done being inventive with his name. When he married Nancy Tanner, they joined names as Nancy and Roger TannerThies.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Best Acknowledgment That Writing the Acknowledgments Is a Way to Do Something Productive While Procrastinating<\/h3>\n

In thanking his adviser, rhetoric professor Stephanie Kelley-Romano, the aforementioned Jordan Becker added a footnote admitting that he was writing his acknowledgement before actually finishing the thesis and noting that it was proving to be “a wonderful source of procrastination.”<\/p>\n

He noted the hubris of writing the acknowledgements before actually finishing, calling it “optimistic speculation that I will, in fact, complete this thesis. As of now, whether this optimism will bear fruit and prove to be validated, no one can say for sure.”<\/p>\n

Best Thanks to a Software Program<\/h3>\n

Joshua Manson ’15 wrote a politics thesis on “‘Same Story Every Time \/ Being Black is Not a Crime\u2019: Gun Regulations and Recurrent Patterns of Government Control of Black Americans in the 19th and 20th Centuries.\u201d<\/p>\n

He offered a thank you to the \u201cspell-check function of Microsoft Word, without whom \u2018institution\u2019 would be misspelled differently 197 times.\u201d<\/p>\n

Best Acknowledgment That Computing Was Not Yet Readily Available for Social Science Research at Bates 50 Years Ago<\/h3>\n

Lionel Whiston \u201966, wrote a government thesis on \u201cThe Role of Party Membership in Congressional Opposition to Presidents Eisenhower and Truman in the Fields of Labor and Civil Rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

He wished to use \u201cdata-processing machines to examine the relation between party membership and opposition to the president. That this was not done was due to my inability to express quantitatively the relationship I sought.\u201d<\/p>\n

Best Description of the Great Depression<\/h3>\n

Irving Isaacson ’36 wrote an economics and sociology thesis on \u201cWould a System of Government Ownership, Properly Administered, Provide the Necessary Flexibility in Our Price System?\u201d<\/p>\n

By the mid-1930s, he wrote in his thesis, the Great Depression had taken a \u201cterrific toll \u2014 in life, in health, in security, in money, in suffering, and in want.\u201d<\/p>\n

Best (Because It’s the First One We Could Find) Thanks to a Lewiston Business<\/h3>\n

Acknowledgments and dedications in senior theses were rare up through the 1950s.<\/p>\n

Robert Blake \u201955, in his thesis on \u201cAn Investigation of Paper Chromatography as a Means to Identify Plant Genotypes,\u201d included a Lewiston business in one of the first acknowledgments, thanking Saunders Greenhouse, which used to be on Main Street in Lewiston near the Veterans Bridge, for their \u201ckind cooperation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Best Thanks to a Lewiston Nonprofit<\/h3>\n

Nicholas Steverson \u201915 wrote an English thesis on \u201c’To my Virginity!’: Queerness, Silencing, and Dominicanity in D\u00edaz\u2019s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao<\/em>,\u201d and thanked the team at the Lewiston nonprofit Tree Street Youth:<\/p>\n

“<\/em>To Julia, Kim, Megan, Cristal, Anwar, Ayman, Alli, Aisha, Sam, Brett, Erryl, Kelsey, Munir, Prosper, Fabi, and all the folks at Tree Street for giving me a home in Maine, for giving me a way to be proud of my work every day, for understanding that I had to do this one last weird thing before I could be there all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>Tree Street Youth Center was founded by Julia Sleeper \u201908 and Kim Sullivan \u201913.<\/p>\n

Best Acknowledgment of a Project Management Truism<\/h3>\n

Paul Wason \u201976, writing a biology thesis on \u201cThe Domestication and Early Dispersal of Cotton as It Relates to the Possibility of Pre-Columbian Contacts Between the New World and the Old,\u201d thanked a legion of friends for helping with typing (lots of people were thanked for typing back then) noting that \u201cno matter how much planning is done, there is always a rush at the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

Best “Thanks, But I’m All Set”<\/h3>\n

At the end of his thanks to all his friends who helped, Wason added, \u201cThanks, also, to others who offered to help.\u201d<\/p>\n

Best Mention of a Thesis Tradition in an Acknowledgment<\/h3>\n

Brooks Motley \u201906 wrote a geology thesis on \u201cSedimentation in Linn\u00e9vatnet, Svalbard, During 2004\u20132005: A Modern Process Study Using Sediment Traps.\u201d<\/p>\n

He toasted his adviser, Mike Retelle, by saying that \u201cthe next Interface Pale Ale in a leaky Zodiak is on me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u201cleaky Zodiak\u201d refers to a brand of rubber boat. But \u201cInterface Pale Ale\u201d? That needs explanation, which Retelle provides.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we recover a sediment core or sediment trap from the bottom of a lake we\u2019re researching for the first time, or if it’s the first core for a student\u2019s geo thesis, it’s a tradition to drink the clear water above the sediment,\u201d he explains. \u201cThat\u2019s the sediment-water interface<\/em>.\u00a0Hopefully, the bottom water is fresh and cool, not rich in reduced sulfur, that is, with a rotten-egg smell.\u201d<\/p>\n

Retelle notes that a former honors student, Wes Farnsworth \u201911, has “carried on the IPA tradition” for his doctoral thesis in Nordaustlandet, in northeastern Svalbard.<\/p>\n

\"2015<\/p>\n

Paul Phillips ’18 of New Gloucester, Maine, Chrissy McCabe ’16 of Bronxville, N.Y., and Julia Savage ’16 of Providence, R.I., sip their “Interface Pale Ale” last summer during research work in Svalbard with Professor of Geology Mike Retelle. (Photograph by Mike Retelle)
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Best Acknowledgment for Willing to Be Cold<\/h3>\n

Robert Pladek \u201976 wrote a government thesis on \u201cPolitics of the Funnies: The Influence of Political Cartoons on Public Perception of Political Leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n

The project required a survey, which he did by enlisting a crew of Bates friends, who, he noted in his acknowledgments, sacrificed a \u201cSaturday morning to stand out in the cold.\u201d<\/p>\n

They were Jim Geitz \u201977, Liz MacKie Venturato \u201976, Lisa Dimock \u201977, Rick Dwyer ’78, Brenda Flanagan Pladek \u201976, Sue Archard Robert \u201976, the late Polly Howlett \u201976, Bill Nagel \u201976, Rich Rothman \u201979, Bruce Penney ’76, and Jan Malatesta Penney \u201977.<\/p>\n

Best Use of an Abraham Lincoln Quote<\/h3>\n

Sarah Weinstein Knowlton ’96 wrote a chemistry thesis on “Lanthanide-Crown Ether Couples as Chiral NMR Shift Reagents.” In dedicating it to her mother, she quoted Lincoln: “All that I am or hope to be I owe to my mother.”<\/p>\n

She’s now an associate professor of physical sciences at Rhode Island College.<\/p>\n

Best Thanks in French That We Think We Understand Even Without Using Google Translate<\/h3>\n

Christoph Berenbroick \u201996 wrote a classical and Romance languages and literatures thesis on \u201cCrise, Conscience et Deconstruction: Quatre Ecrivaines Devant \u2018Lordre Naturel<\/em>.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

He wrote, \u201cMerci\u00a0\u00e0 Kirk et\u00a0\u00e0 Denis pour les conversations qui m’ont beaucoup aide\u00e9s\u00a0\u00e0 faire ce travail.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

That means, \u201c<\/em>Thanks to Kirk [Read] and Denis [Sweet] for conversations that have helped me with this work so much.\u201d<\/p>\n

Best Acknowledgment of the Blue Goose’s Place in Bates Life<\/h3>\n

In her interdisciplinary thesis on \u201cRedefining Disability: A Case Study of Community and Art,\u201d Anna Schechter \u201906 thanked the Blue Goose for its \u201cperfect mixture of serenity and dysfunction.”<\/p>\n

Best Use of a Shakespeare Quote to Name a Thesis Group<\/h3>\n

In 2006, classmates Diana Gauvin, John Atchley, Benjamin Lebeaux, John Mulligan, and David Squires all did honors theses with Professor of English Sanford Freedman.<\/p>\n

They called themselves \u201cthe Bunch,\u201d and, being English majors, found a way to link the name to a telling line from English literature, specifically Measure for Measure<\/em>:<\/p>\n

Pompey<\/strong>: …’Twas in the Bunch of Grapes, where indeed you have a delight to sit, have you not?
\nFroth<\/strong>: I have so; because it is an open room, and good for winter.
\nPompey<\/strong>: Why very well then: I hope here be truths.<\/p>\n

Best Thanks to a Professor That Makes Us Want to Know So Much More<\/h3>\n

Erin Culbreth Hotchkiss \u201906 wrote a history thesis on “‘Rough Hearts’: A Study of the Christianization of the Anglo-Saxons from 410 to 640 AD as Viewed in the Context of the Transformations of the Christian Orthodox Church and the Western Roman Empire.”<\/p>\n

She acknowledged that her inspiration to major in history came from Professor of History Michael Jones doing \u201cViking impressions.\u201d Oh, do go on….<\/p>\n

Best Thanks for Not Doing Something<\/h3>\n

Ashley Wentworth Kernan \u201906 wrote a sociology thesis on \u201cAre All White Jackets the Same? A Comparative Analysis of the Humanitarian Attitudes and Behaviors of Osteopathic and Allopathic Physicians.\u201d<\/p>\n

She thanked her fellow track and field teammates for \u201cunderstanding not<\/em> to say \u2018the T word.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Best Thanks to Three Organized Geopolitical Units<\/h3>\n

Michael Maher \u201996, writing a geology thesis on \u201cRemote Sensing and Stratigraphic Analysis of Archaeological Site ME 16.7 Shell Midden, Indiantown Island, Maine,\u201d offered thanks to:<\/p>\n

\u201cColorado, South Carolina, and Ecuador for constantly providing me the memories, and the tranquility and serenity that help me continue to wake up from my slumber each new day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Best Thanks to a Group That Usually Gets Thanked Only When a Crime Is Involved<\/h3>\n

Jamie Merisotis \u201986 wrote a political science thesis on \u201cBail Bondsmen, Politics, and the Administration of Justice.\u201d He thanked all the bail bondsmen he interviewed for his thesis, \u201cbewildered as they were about the purpose of an academic study on their profession.\u201d<\/p>\n

Best Sequence of Nouns in a Thank You<\/h3>\n

Tracey Begley \u201906 wrote an anthropology thesis on \u201cNGOs in the Face of Developmental Criticism: Humanitarian Landmine Removal in Afghanistan.\u201d<\/p>\n

She offered thanks to her friends for \u201csupport, laughter, patience, silliness, love, encouragement, coffee, emails, conversations, hugs, cards, chocolate, and long nights in Pettengill.\u201d<\/p>\n

Best Dedication for Doing What Comes Naturally<\/h3>\n

Julia Knight ’06, writing an art and visual culture thesis on \u201cThe Art of: Madame de Pompadour and Peggy Guggenheim,\u201d dedicated her thesis to \u201cwomen having sex all over the world, for pleasure or for power.\u201d<\/p>\n

Best Thanks for Helping to Find an Ocean, Or, the Ferdinand Magellan Award<\/h3>\n

Brian Dupee \u201906 wrote a thesis on \u201cThe Effects of Baitworm Digging and Epibenthic Predation on the Growth and Survivorship of the Soft-Shelled Clam, Mya arenaria, <\/em>and on the Abundance and Diversity of Soft-Sediment Infauna.\u201d<\/p>\n

He thanked fellow bio major Eben Sypitkowski \u201905 because, if it weren\u2019t for him, \u201cI would still be driving around Woolwich looking for the ocean.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This being Thanksgiving Week, here are the best \u2014 the most distinctive, unusual, and quirky \u2014 thank-yous offered by generations of weary, yet grateful, seniors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":97997,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[4,133],"tags":[7842],"class_list":["post-97964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-life","category-creativity","tag-senior-thesis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97964"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97964\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98056,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97964\/revisions\/98056"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}