17
number of Princeton colleagues that included Jim Simmons, George Gourevitch,
Sam Ridgeway, Jerry Palin, Jim Saunders, and Jim McCormick.
During Dick’s last year as a postdoc year at Princeton, Georg von Békésy visited
Wever’s lab in November 1971. Von Bekesy asked Wever to recommend a good
candidate to come work with him at the Laboratory of Sensory Sciences in
Honolulu. Von Békésy told Dick that Wever didn’t hesitate more than a second to
name Dick Fay (…or “so Dick says” according to Cathy!). On November 23, the
day before Thanksgiving, Dick asked Cathy if she would like to move to Honolulu.
By December 28th, the Fays had sold their cars, furniture, and utensils and happily
settled with their 2-year-old son Christian into a great location in Honolulu, HI (all
within 5 weeks!). The Fays moved to the bottom fl oor of a large house almost twothirds up St Louis Heights on the edge of the Manoa Valley with a panoramic view
of Waikiki Beach and the University of Hawaii-Manoa. According to Cathy, their
back yard was replete with mangoes, lemons, papayas, guava, and passion fruit; it
was so beautiful “they thought had died and gone to heaven.” Dick settled into his
research in von Békésy’s Lab working on crayfi sh at von Békésy’s behest and eventually published two of Dick’s only papers on invertebrates, one on the multisensory interaction in control of eye-stalk rotation response in the crayfi sh (Fay 1973)
and the other on the dynamic properties of the compensatory eye stalk rotation
response in the crayfi sh (Fay 1975). Unfortunately, von Békésy died on June 13,
1972 less than 6 months after Dick joined von Békésy lab. There was a “silver lining”
to the time spent in the von Békésy’s lab, Dick met Art Popper. Dick was thrilled
to meet and work with Art Popper who joined the Laboratory of Sensory Sciences
shortly after Dick began working there. Dick and Art were kindred spirits with like
minds and as many of us know eventually lead to great collaborations (as they say
“the rest is history”). The Fay and Popper families became very good friends and
as Cathy reminisced “the two families spent many great times together at University
of Hawai’i parties, eating at Honolulu restaurants, and enjoying Passover Seders at
the Popper home, and the Fay family loved every single minute of their Honolulu
years.”
During his time in the Laboratory of Sensory Sciences, Dick and Art went on a
now rather famous trip in 1972 to the Enewetok Atoll, which had a mean elevation
10 ft above sea level. Dick said that when he was not working he was either eating
or watching a movie with the 40 other government employees on the island. The
native Enewetokians had been evacuated and relocated because of the fallout from
nuclear tests (a total of 43 nuclear tests were conducted on Enewetok from 1948 to
1958). During their stay on the atoll, Dick and Art witnessed the birth of four baby
sharks in the lab pool and they managed to catch other sharks by hook and line to do
some basic research on shark hearing. It was from this early collaboration that they
were able to publish one of their fi rst papers together from their work on Enewetok
(Fay et al. 1974).
After Von Békésy passed away, members of the von Békésy Lab tried to continue their NIH grant without von Békésy but their efforts were not successful. After
that in 1974, Dick and the family moved to North Carolina where he took a position
as an assistant professor at Wake Forest University in the Bowman Gray School of
A Most Interesting Man of Science: The Life and Research of Richard Rozzell Fay
number of Princeton colleagues that included Jim Simmons, George Gourevitch,
Sam Ridgeway, Jerry Palin, Jim Saunders, and Jim McCormick.
During Dick’s last year as a postdoc year at Princeton, Georg von Békésy visited
Wever’s lab in November 1971. Von Bekesy asked Wever to recommend a good
candidate to come work with him at the Laboratory of Sensory Sciences in
Honolulu. Von Békésy told Dick that Wever didn’t hesitate more than a second to
name Dick Fay (…or “so Dick says” according to Cathy!). On November 23, the
day before Thanksgiving, Dick asked Cathy if she would like to move to Honolulu.
By December 28th, the Fays had sold their cars, furniture, and utensils and happily
settled with their 2-year-old son Christian into a great location in Honolulu, HI (all
within 5 weeks!). The Fays moved to the bottom fl oor of a large house almost twothirds up St Louis Heights on the edge of the Manoa Valley with a panoramic view
of Waikiki Beach and the University of Hawaii-Manoa. According to Cathy, their
back yard was replete with mangoes, lemons, papayas, guava, and passion fruit; it
was so beautiful “they thought had died and gone to heaven.” Dick settled into his
research in von Békésy’s Lab working on crayfi sh at von Békésy’s behest and eventually published two of Dick’s only papers on invertebrates, one on the multisensory interaction in control of eye-stalk rotation response in the crayfi sh (Fay 1973)
and the other on the dynamic properties of the compensatory eye stalk rotation
response in the crayfi sh (Fay 1975). Unfortunately, von Békésy died on June 13,
1972 less than 6 months after Dick joined von Békésy lab. There was a “silver lining”
to the time spent in the von Békésy’s lab, Dick met Art Popper. Dick was thrilled
to meet and work with Art Popper who joined the Laboratory of Sensory Sciences
shortly after Dick began working there. Dick and Art were kindred spirits with like
minds and as many of us know eventually lead to great collaborations (as they say
“the rest is history”). The Fay and Popper families became very good friends and
as Cathy reminisced “the two families spent many great times together at University
of Hawai’i parties, eating at Honolulu restaurants, and enjoying Passover Seders at
the Popper home, and the Fay family loved every single minute of their Honolulu
years.”
During his time in the Laboratory of Sensory Sciences, Dick and Art went on a
now rather famous trip in 1972 to the Enewetok Atoll, which had a mean elevation
10 ft above sea level. Dick said that when he was not working he was either eating
or watching a movie with the 40 other government employees on the island. The
native Enewetokians had been evacuated and relocated because of the fallout from
nuclear tests (a total of 43 nuclear tests were conducted on Enewetok from 1948 to
1958). During their stay on the atoll, Dick and Art witnessed the birth of four baby
sharks in the lab pool and they managed to catch other sharks by hook and line to do
some basic research on shark hearing. It was from this early collaboration that they
were able to publish one of their fi rst papers together from their work on Enewetok
(Fay et al. 1974).
After Von Békésy passed away, members of the von Békésy Lab tried to continue their NIH grant without von Békésy but their efforts were not successful. After
that in 1974, Dick and the family moved to North Carolina where he took a position
as an assistant professor at Wake Forest University in the Bowman Gray School of
A Most Interesting Man of Science: The Life and Research of Richard Rozzell Fay