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First Online: 1 May 2021

Dedication

: I dedicate my efforts on this essay to Alex Stewart Fraser. He was the most intelligent person whom I have known during this lifetime and his enthusiastic encourgement did in turn fuel the enthusiasm of his students. Alex could absolutely thunder with excitement when he was lecturing. My most memorable moment with Alex occurred when I was a senior and Alex asked if I would feel brave enough to face an oral examination on evolution to be presented by a group of my fellow students instead of sitting a written examination for my final grade of the quarter. None of his other students ever had agreed to that idea. I bravely said “Yes”. The students who presented that examination were given a few weeks to prepare the questions which they wanted to ask of me. During the examination my inquisitors may have been more nervous than was I. After the examination, Alex declared that I received the grade of “A” and revealed that he already had chilled a bottle of champagne in honor of the occasion. That was the first celebratory bottle of champagne I have opened during my science career. Alex sadly left us nearly two full decades ago, when he passed away on Bastille Day July 14, 2002, but he certainly never will be forgotten. I thank you, Alex, for the encouragment which you so generously gave to myself and to all of your other students.