by Camilla Shelton
The Migration of Dr. Cones
Page 2 of 3
The legendary trips
On the return home from the Maine trip, after days of camping and traveling the group of students would arrive at a cathedral forest. The tall red pines stretched up to the sky and underneath the forest floor was all open. The students would sit on log benches around the big fire ring. “And then we’d go around the circle and say ‘you know serious time now’ and we’d all go around and say ‘what was the thing on the trip that was most impressive to you.’” said Cones.
“Then I’d have them turn around, with their back to the fire, so they were all looking out into the woods. And in the wood pile I had a tape recorder and I’d play a Native American flute player. So there was this sort of haunting flute music going out through the woods. And then there was a folk song about the coast of Maine and then the tape recorder would turn off and no one would move and they’d sit there for twenty minutes looking out into the woods.” They stayed like that until, inevitably, someone had to go pee,” said Cones with a chuckle.
Yet, the experience of those trips was no small trifle. “I can name a dozen kids whose lives completely changed from those trips,” said Cones.
Those extended field trips, which lasted twelve days, enabled students the experience of seeing different kinds of marine biology life firsthand. It brought the students and professors out of the classroom and out into the natural laboratory of the world. Over time, the trips were refined from a rather haphazard road trip to a carefully planned trip with twelve students. Two trips were offered: a sub-tropical habitats trip that took students along the coast and ended in Florida, or a trip that ended all the way in the forests and rocky coast of Maine. Students also traveled with Dr. Cones to the Duke marine lab, an annual trip that just celebrated its thirtieth anniversary.
Every student on the trip received a manual with a detailed itinerary and information about the biology, history, and culture of the places they were traveling. In the back of the manual was a log book for the students to journal in along the trip. Dr. Cones said that many former students still have their log books from the trip. “It was that kind of experience. It wasn’t just going places and doing things. It crawled down inside of people and stayed with them for a long time,” said Cones.
No doubt, the experience stuck far past graduation. At Cones’ recent retirement party, “that’s all they want to talk about—those trips,” said Cones.
Roughing-it
Priscilla Osterhouse, Priscilla Short at the time, had never been camping before. She brought a blow-up mattress with her on the sub-tropical marine habitats trip. After it was blown up it filled the entire tent.
On the trip to Duke University’s marine lab, she packed a blow dryer. “I blow-dried my hair prior to collecting specimens in the mud flats,” wrote Osterhouse in an email. “Unfortunately, I blew the circuit breaker in the girls’ dorm. Dr. Cones got a big kick out of that and teased me about it incessantly.”
Osterhouse, is just one of the many students who took advantage of the new experiences offered through the trips Dr. Cones organized. She, like so many others, praises Dr. Cones. “Dr. Cones is one of the greatest professors I have ever had the privilege of knowing. Over all the years, and it's been over twenty-five, he hasn't changed a bit!” wrote Osterhouse, who graduated in 1984 and is now working as an Exercise Specialist at Elizabeth City State University.
Those extended field trips enabled students the experience of seeing different kinds of marine biology life firsthand. It brought the students and professors out of the classroom and out into the natural laboratory of the world. Although nothing comes close to this experience for current students, Cones still does his best to connect with students and help guide them. According to Junior Rachel Bass, Cones has helped her sort things out because of his patience as an advisor. She said that she went to her last advisor meeting feeling discouraged about a low grade she had received in a class, but that Cones helped her put it in perspective and not be so worried. “I walked out of there totally OK with myself,” she said. Regardless of how students get to know Dr. Cones, they all seem to develop a special connection to him. For Osterhouse, that connection includes the nickname Prissy “that has been with me all these years,” she wrote. It also includes the humorous memories from the trips. She wrote about one night on the sub-tropical marine habitats trip when she went to bed early inside the little tent. “I was awakened by the sound of a man urinating on my tent. To my surprise, it was Dr. Cones emptying the contents of the coffee pot by my tent. The joke was on me,” wrote Osterhouse.