This fall, Dr. Lora E. Geriguis joined the Honors family as the program’s Scholarship Coordinator, tasked with steering juniors through the process of choosing research topics and faculty mentors and then shepherding their projects through completion as seniors. It is a position that plays a critical role in the intellectual life of the program, held in the past by luminaries who contributed much to Honors, including Dr. Gary Bradley, who mentored hundreds of students during his 25 years in the position.
Lora is the niece of Dr. Albert E. Smith–longtime Professor of Physics at La Sierra–who was involved heavily in both the Inter-Dip and Honors Programs, serving as architect and later director of Honors. It has been my pleasure to know both uncle and niece. I first met Dr. Smith when my parents moved to La Sierra in the mid-1970s. According to my parents, as a two-year old I referred to him as “Owl” Smith, apropos both in my future love of birds and in the calm and studious wisdom that Dr. Smith consistently displayed. Every few years, he and my father would hike a new peak in Southern California; on the ones I joined them, I was amazed at his knowledge of the natural world. Even though he lived in the theoretical world of Physics, Dr. Smith was well-grounded, equally as comfortable giving talks about the natural world as he was running the Honors Program at La Sierra.
About the time I joined the faculty as a cultural historian, Lora Geriguis joined as well, in the English department teaching 17th/18th century literature and critical theory. Given the timing of our arrival on campus and our shared interest in faculty governance for service and environmental studies in our scholarship, our careers have taken somewhat of a parallel trajectory. We both became chairs of our respective departments at about the same time, and spent many long hours planning a move that would take both of our departments to the same building (Humanities Hall).
I was thrilled when Lora accepted my invitation to join the Honors Program as its Scholarship Coordinator. She will bring wisdom and quality to the program, continuing the good work that her Uncle Al did a generation ago.
— Andrew Howe, Director of Honors