One day in the Spring of 1979 when I walked by the bulletin board, I spotted an announcement for a "Summer Institute in Planetary Geology" being put on by NASA and Arizona State University. Upon reading the instructions, I found that the week-long event was for college professors and that I was fully qualified to apply. Well, imagine that! Of couse, I didn't feel that I had much of a chance of getting an invitation. All the big-time names would be crushing into that one, but if I didn't apply I certainly wouldn't get in so I filled out an application and sent it in. I got an invitation, as did Mike Walawender of our department.

            What a glorious week! It was totally overwhelming! Ron Greeley and his able staff (see list below) put together a program that had 26 of us going morning, afternoon and evenings. Lectures. Demonstrations. Tours of facilities. Hands on experiences. Field trips. You name it. To me, the highlights of our days on the ASU campus were the presentations regarding the fairly new images and interpretations regarding the Galilean Satellites of Jupiter and the hands-on look at a collection of Lunar samples. The presentations regarding Mars ranked close behind. All presentations were excellent. I can't believe how fast the days went. And to top it off, we carried away armloads of NASA books, images and information pamphlets as a souvenier of our visit. I should add, these publications became very useful in future years.

            The main contribution of the Institute is hard to define. Let's just say, it gave me a "feeling" for planetary geology and a way of "thinking" about planets and satellites. Before I arrived, the planets and satellites were very interesting oddities. After the Institute, I began to think in terms of "comparative planetology" and I began asking the right questions. Once you have the right questions, then coming up with the right answers is a lot easier. Thank you Ron Greeley and crew. Your contribution to my interest and understanding was immense.

INSTRUCTIONAL STAFF FOR PLANETARY GEOLOGY SUMMER INSTITUTE: Richard D'Alli, Ronald Greeley, John Larimer, Michael Malin, Carleton Moore, A. Wesley Ward, Ramond Batson, Henry Holt, Baerbel Lucchitta, David Scott, Eugene Shoemaker, Edward Wolfe, Michael Carr, Donald Gault, James Fred Hays, Peter Schultz, Robert Storm