Dear Leon,
I am devastated at hearing the news of Bob’s death. I am ashamed that I was in the States briefly in September on a rather hectic schedule and didn’t try and look him up. Never had a chance to say goodbye to him or to tell him how high I held him in my regard as a mentor, a friend and a teacher. He was the kind of guy who grew uncomfortable at such mention. Despite what must have been a prolonged illness he never mentioned a word of it in our correspondence and continued to assess the theses we sent him for evaluation always full of his insights and kind suggestions.
Please pass on my feelings on the loss of this lovely individual to those who like yourself may still remember me. Gary, for one might. I remember running into him in my last visit to Tufts, I think in 2004. (you were in class and I couldn’t meet you).
I visit the states about once in a year or two years. Have a collaboration with a couple of places. Also have a son working in LA.
I have two sons and one daughter. My wife is a Teacher/Principal in a school. Daughter is studying economics and politics and son in LA is a Computer Systems engineer. The youngest is in high school and wants to do Environment related stuff. I struggled for about twenty years trying to survive in doing physics in this inhospitable climate but since 2005 have a very major grant and have built a serious lab. working on nanomagnetism.
More later
Yours
Khurshid Hasanain (Syed)
P.S. In our setup the first (Syed in my case) denotes lineage, the second the given name, the last your family name. (This is for people having three parts to a name). hence my given name is Khurshid, which is Persian for the sun.
From: Leon Gunther [mailto:l gunther tufts edu]
Sent: Thursday, October 22, 2009 11:29 PM
To: Syed Khurshid Hasanain
Subject: Re: Bob Guretin
Dear Syed,
I am very sad to report that Bob Guertin passed away this past June after a battle with cancer. He was an incredible fighter and truly taught his students with the last ounce of his strength. He left us with great memories too of his charm, his honesty, his availability, his dedication. During his tenure as Dean of the Graduate School, he managed the construction - as a renovation - of a huge Science and Technology Center.
I believe that I recall your name as well as your face with very pleasant memories.
I see from looking on the internet this morning that you are at Quaid-i-Azam University, in Islamabad.
I hope that you and your family are well and wish you all the best.
On Oct 23, 2009, at 8:23 PM, Syed Khurshid Hasanain wrote:
I am not sure you will recognize me. I was Bob Guertin’s student in the period 1977-1982, in fact his first PhD student. I was looking at the Tufts website and didn’t see his name in the department. Is he OK? Has he left the department?
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