Ron Sass was truly a stalwart of Rice. He was hired in 1958, when William Houston was president, and he stayed for his entire career. He was here for the semi-centennial and here for the centennial. Ron’s wisdom, compassion, and generosity of spirit were coupled with a keen intellect and a sort of hard-headed practicality. These qualities made him an extraordinary teacher–he won the Brown Award three of the first four times it was given and was the first teacher at Rice to be retired from the competition– and they also helped guide us through the campus tumult that began in the late 1960s and bubbled through the ’70s.
Back in 2018 the Woodson unexpectedly received a package of materials from the Warren Skaaren Charitable Trust. Among the papers was a draft of a letter that Skaaren ’69 wrote in support of Sass’s nomination for the E. Harris Harbison Award, a national prize for excellence in teaching that was given by the Danforth Foundation. (He didn’t get it, but he should have.) The last page of the letter is missing but even so I can’t do better than Skaaren. This is the Ron Sass I knew:
Bonus:
second and third pages are in reversed order.
Thanks. Will fix.
Funny, I can’t find any announcements online that he has passed.
Also, I hate being reminded of all the people at Rice whom I never met and never had the pleasure of being in their company. There should be some sort of “Don’t Miss” list for all freshmen.
I’m glad to see that Rice has published a notice of Ron Sass’ passing, albeit a bit late:
https://news.rice.edu/news/2024/ron-sass-beloved-rice-professor-scientist-dead-91
I remember Dr. Sass as one of my favorite teachers during my freshman year, 1975–76. One particular moment stands out for me, and it has nothing to do with Chemistry. Dr. Sass invited our first-year Chemistry class to attend a university “convocation,” and I remember Dr. Sass defining the word “convocation” for us: the gathering together of the Rice community in a setting where individual voices would be heard.
I wonder whether the “convocation” cited here is the meeting to which we were invited:
https://archives.library.rice.edu/repositories/2/archival_objects/165271
I was a student of Dr. Sass in a science class for non-science majors. He was capable of sharing his love of chemistry in a fun atmosphere so that we all developed a great appreciation without intimidation. He also supported Rice athletics and I would often see him in the R Room at events. I remember thanking him for being such a great friend to all Rice students.
Ron was my uncle (his first wife Joyce was my father’s younger sister).
Gerald Moorhead ’69, ’71
This comment is in reply to the sentence — or, * * * part of * * * a sentence — that says (in part) [QUOTE:] “The last page of the letter is missing […]”.
That might be true, but I would like to point out that … what also seems to be wrong, is the ORDER for the 3 pages [of that letter] that ARE displayed as part of this post. Those 3 pages are not displayed in the correct order.
The page that is displayed last (that is, third) belongs IN BETWEEN [the first two; i.e.] the page that is displayed first and the page that is displayed second.
That can be confirmed by noticing that the sentence whose first HALF is at the bottom of the page that is displayed first … is the same sentence whose final portion finally shows up at the beginning of the page that is displayed last (that is, third).
Did no one * * * notice * * * that [‘shuffling’] before now?
(OR … was there some kind of a technical malfunction?)
Thanks for listening,
Mike Schwartz
WRC (1972 /slash) 1973
(also RSSFHSS 1965)
oops, this comment was written BEFORE I noticed that … it is just a (long winded) duplication of the (8 word) comment from “Tom Bonner ’63”.
He contributed a wonderful essay to the magazine in 2012. https://issuu.com/riceuniversity/docs/rice_magazine_issue_13/34