Justin, for the last 40 years you have been an extraordinary leader, faculty advocate, scholar, teacher, and mentor in the Department of Psychology. After earning your Ph.D. at London University's Institute of Psychiatry in 1965 and engaging in postdoctoral research at Stanford University, you joined our young department, where you continued your work on prenatal determinants of behavior and established an internationally recognized research program in developmental psychobiology, publishing in the very top scholarly journals including Science and Nature.

I feel I didn't do a good job of thanking everyone when I spoke at the "retirement bash" yesterday. Perhaps it was because I was so overwhelmed by the many kind things so many of you said about me, whether in person or in cards and e-mails. Even if I'd done a better job, my thanks wouldn't have reached those of you who couldn't be there, and I'd have written anyway.

This is one of the most difficult tributes I have had to write. I simply cannot believe that Justin is retiring! Since that first unforgettable dinner in 1979 when George Albee started eating flowers from the vase at the dinner table, Justin has been a constant role model and inspiration. In part this is because of our common ties to southern Africa, although Justin is of an earlier generation, I like to think that it was in confronting the evil of apartheid that Justin developed his incredible sense of justice and equity, qualities which have stood the UVM community in good stead as well. He has the most finely developed sense of justice of anyone I know at UVM. His principled stands coupled with that (sometimes forgettable) sense of humor is what makes him a total mensch.

We met Justin in 2000 when we started our graduate training at UVM, and we are so thankful to have met and worked with him during our time in the department.

We have both had a lot of years at UVM, and many UVM-related conversations, but our UVM careers have been marathon length, so I will remember here the old Lake Placid Marathon, circa 1980. The two of us went over together, you drove, a VW bus, and you smoked a pipe on the way over, saying that running marathons made you nervous, and smoking beforehand helped calm your nerves. It was a cold day and I left my sweats in the bus, which you locked, so after the race I stood around the finish area shivering. A group of German hikers came by, carrying all their gear, and one, a woman who did not speak English, saw me shivering, took off her sweater, and motioned for me to put it on. She had worn it in the woods for more than a week straight, so I figured it would be no worse for my wear, thanked her, put it on, and it warmed me up.

I realized that just because I WAS able to attend the retirement party, doesn't mean I couldn't add my two bits to the roast...er, I mean, the toast. The tough part is that the opportunity to recognize Justin rouses such a mix of reactions and emotions (much like Justin himself!). For a self-proclaimed curmugeon, a sometimes model of bluster and outrage, he can also be such a ridiculously soft-heaerted, rationale, fair, and compassionate guy (a deep, dark secret that was never more apparent than when he became a phenomenal leader as Chair of the Psychology Dept. and then as President of the Faculty Senate).