Profile: Dick Storey

Dean of the College and Dean of the Faculty

My, How the Time Flies

Images of babbling brooks pass across Dick Storey's screen saver. On his coffee table rests the book "Fly Fishing Through the Midlife Crisis" by Howell Raines. For three weeks in July, Dick and Martha, his wife of 32 years, will stay in "dumpy little cabins where there are no TVs and no computer connections" in Montana's backcountry, indulging their passion for fly-fishing. As his favorite season approaches, Storey has ties on his mind: tying flies, the ties that bind, the ties that connect his core values.

What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Fly-fishing (casting dry flies and catching, then releasing, magnificent trout) in a beautiful mountain stream with my wife, Martha.

What is your best CC memory?
It's a tie between team-teaching a Hughes Grant summer class with my good friend William Richardson '81 and watching students learn to do research in biology on their own - no longer needing me to help them learn to learn and discover.

Which person (living or dead) do you most admire?
Another tie. My dad, deceased, because he was the most honest person I have ever known. My mom, because she is the most generous person I know. Martha, my wife, because she is the best person I know. Jack Carter, retired CC professor of biology, because he is the best teacher I know.

What is the quality you value most in students?
That's a tie, too. Intelligence, character, drive to learn, creativity. A sense of humor is good too.

What is the quality you value most in faculty?
The same tie.

What is the quality you dislike most in people?
I suppose it's a tie between arrogance, satisfaction with ignorance, and disingenuousness. Idle or inelastic bureaucracy comes close; so does long-windedness.

Who is your favorite writer? Or is it a tie?
Stephan J. Gould, Damon Runyon, John Geirach, Robert Traver.

What one thing do you hope to accomplish before you leave this world?
Survive the deanship, then escape with Martha to catch and release most of the spectacular aquatic vertebrates of the American West.

What is the perfect meal?

Most anything Mexican.

What is your all-time favorite movie? Another tie?
"Little Big Man," "African Queen" and "A Perfect Mind." Not 'Redford's movie' - aka, "A River Runs Through It" - because it spurred overpopulation of the great trout streams.

What is your favorite musical group?
Willie Nelson and his band.

What is the best way to serve others?
Teach.

What wisdom do you want to pass on?
Again a tie: "Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest." - Mark Twain. "The wise are so uncertain: the ignorant so positive." - Unknown.

What do you treasure most?
Mawkish as it may sound, my family.

What is your best-kept secret?
I'm actually older, but not wiser, than the Tom Hanks character in "The Green Mile"!

Storey has been "tied" to CC since he came to campus as a biology professor in 1978.