Thank you everyone for coming. Both those people who are here in person as well as those who are joining us. Live stream online. I'm Catherine Peters, I'm Professor here at Princeton University and I'm the chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. And it's my great pleasure to welcome you to this event on behalf of the university, especially to those of you who are members of airports family. Welcome to Princeton for this event. This is a jointly organize and hosted event with Eric's children, Alix and Emily and and our department. And we're so pleased that we were able to do this is a joint event because we have an opportunity to celebrate Eric's life in its entirety. And so what you'll hear today is a little bit about what a special person he was at Princeton University, as well as in his family. At Princeton, as you may know, he spent 43 years on the faculty here, which is remarkable. And he came in 1976 until his retirement a couple of years ago. And he had an enormous impact. And the department and the university and the many, many students he encountered along the way, some of whom you'll hear from today. So I'll hand it over to Alex who's in charge of the program and we'll take it from there. Thank you. Thank so much. And I just want to say on behalf of the wood family, I'd like to thank everyone for coming today and is powerful and touching to see the number of people attending our celebration of life ceremony, both in-person and virtually. This event would not have been possible without supportive Catherine theaters. Thank you so much. The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Princeton University. I also want to particularly like to thank niche contractor Zhang Qian, Zhang Madonna's Jan's for facilitating so many of the logistics today. From the venue, communications, the live stream, food, flowers, and also We want to thank those in the department who helped with outreach and planning, including Noemi Virgo pull and Colby Fisher, Ellie bluesy, Reed Maxwell, mark Zhan low, thank you all for just helping make this happen today. Eric was very private when it came to his work life. For many years, Emily and myself only had a general sense of his accomplishments and his stature in the field of hydrology. The outpouring of support for Eric from all of you, both here and around the world meant so much to him and to us as well. It's heartening to know that while Eric may no longer be with us, his legacy will live on. Before I turn over to my daughter, Clementine, who will read a poem, I want to encourage folks to visit Eric's online memorial board to share a memory attribute or photograph. The link to that online memorial board is in wasn't your invitation to the event. Also for those who are watching, virtually a link to today's program is listed at the top of that memorial board. Final announcement for those in person, if your cell phones could be silenced, that will be wonderful. Thank you all. And that Clementine. Well then by me, by Margaret Mead. Remember me to the living. I'm gone. To the sorrowful. I will never return to the angry. I was cheated. But to the happy, I am at peace and to the fai faithful. I have never left. I cannot be seen. That can be heard. So as you stand upon assure, gazing at the beautiful sea. Remember me as you look in at MIT forest and its grand Majesty. Remember me As you look upon her flower and a buyer, simplicity. Remember me. Remember the times in your heart, your thoughts, your memories of the time we loved, the times we cried, times, we fought, times we laughed for if you always think of me, I will never be done. She takes after her grandfather. So I'm going to speak about some elements of dad's personality that both shaped me and will shape how I remember him in the years ahead. Dad was always extremely enthusiastic about life. That's fantastic. He would say whether it was, whether it was over a bottle of wine, a particularly beautiful cut of venison or a piece of good news. His face would light up when receiving a gift or getting greeted by one of his grandchildren. And he was not shy about sharing his enthusiasm with you. If you were a guest at his home, you would likely be served fish that he caught or game he had hunted. These dishes would often be accompanied by a bottle of well aged wine, which you would painstakingly decant into an old glass carafe. Dad kept his wine locked in a closet near the garage. And this was the only place in the house that I had absolutely no idea how to access until the very last months of his life when he finally told me where he kept the key. When the key came out, you knew your infer something special. Perhaps a Bordeaux from the seventies or California Cabernet from the 80s. Sometimes these bottles had aged a bit too much, but that would not dissuade dad. You just had to learn to appreciate the qualities of well Szilard wine. The pleasure dad took into sharing what he had with friends and family also extended to gift-giving. It wasn't just the gift itself. But he delighted in the surprise, in the expectation that the recipient would take as much pleasure is heated from the transaction. Dad would hint that a gift was in the works, but you could never get him to divulge any details about what it might be. I remember when my daughter, Clementine, turned one, he showed up at her first birthday party with a giant wrapped box. This box was several times resize. My wife and I exchanged looks as we fretted over what on earth could it be and how would we fit it into our tiny little New York City apartment? It was a giant stuffed elephant, and Clementine loved it. And he loves that. She loved it. This surprise gift-giving extended to many future holidays and birthdays. Whether it was a rug for our home sweaters for their kids, trinkets from his travels or a vintage cabbage board. It was always a mystery until the wrapping paper came off. And there he was waiting to share in the delight of a gift received. Dad lived a simple life. He took pleasure in his work, his travels, vacationing in Vancouver, fishing and hunting, good meals and wine. Visiting with his grandchildren. Eric was not extravagant. He loves his items to death. For example, his 90s era, purple and green trimmed ski parka, that should've been retired years ago, which you refused to give up until the zipper gave out one too many times and could not be repaired. Various rugby shirts he wore for decades literally. And an old, or things like an old toaster or coffee carafe or paring knife that look like junk to anyone else, but to which he held on dearly. I appreciate growing up with that sensibility in our current consumer culture, where it seems like products are made to be briefly used and then disposed of. I'd rather err on the side of holding onto something a bit too long. This tenacity to hold on ran through other elements of his life. He was driven. Many of my interactions with dad involved running around town to do errands together, enjoying a lazy Sunday with an empty to-do list was not his style. But this drive to come far, I'm still amazed that he managed to rack up over 2 million miles on United Frequent Flyer program. This is the equivalent AT round trips around the earth as like over a 40-year career. So it's a huge amount of travel. And at times he was on the road more than he was at home. He was competitive. He would not go easy on you in tennis or in card games, and walking through the supermarket or driving across town with him could feel like activities that somehow could be one. Even in his last weeks of life as I drove him to doctor's appointments or to the store, he would exclaim, come on at the cars that refused to push their way through a late yellow light. As this physical health declined, he met his condition with determination. He worked out daily with dumbbells to keep up his strength and balance. And when that became too much, did what he could including eventually simply getting out of his wheelchair, practice, walking back and forth across this room. Dad was blunt or perhaps just completely honest. He would tell you if you did something wrong and he was not afraid to speak truth to power or shares mind, even when a bit of tact would have gone a long way? I never saw him cut corners, act immorally or take the easy way out. He showed me what integrity was, which unfortunately is also too rare in our current culture these days. Error could be abrasive, are unaware of Howe's actions and words might affect others. But at the same time he was extremely loving and supportive. It always helped if you knew how to take what he dished out and serve it right back to him. Dad's Dr. dare, I see stubbornness. Got them through three long years of cancer treatments in a global pandemic. I can only remember him complaining once when one of the many drugs prescribed to him cause particularly painful mouth sores. He kept up his exercises, kept up his house, kept up his friendships, and kept up his work as long as he was able. He was determined to do one final fishing trip in Vancouver this past summer, and he did is difficult to accept. That data is no longer with us, especially as he always maintained his youthful exuberance, even when his body and mind was failing him. The more stupid and Juvenal the joke, the more likely he was to laugh at it. He had this sense of humor of a 10-year-old. And I say this with affection as the characteristic which we share. Dad was up for pretty much anything, whether it was a game of CREB ij or body surfing at the Jersey Shore. Before the cancer, he liked to go to Spring Lake where the sand was particularly soft and the crowds not too large. Together, we would sit in the water waiting and waiting for the right wave to come in. When we caught a big one just so we would shout and kick our arms outstretched in front, pushed along by the crest of the wave until we reach the, the shores edge. That was fantastic. He would say, hello. My name is Christa Peter's law Dart and I was a PhD student with Eric from 990 one to 1996. My current position is at nasa Goddard Space Flight Center, where I am a Deputy Director in the sciences and Exploration Directorate. But before that, I was the head of the hydrology lab for seven years. And I bring this up because it was the former head of the hydrology lab that brought me to Eric. So when I was an undergrad, I was looking at grad school and I really wanted to study remote sensing and hydrology. And I back then before Google, before I had email, I called up the head of the hydrology Laboratory at nasa Goddard and asked him and his name was heading when I asked him who I should work with. And his number one recommendation was to come to Princeton and work with Eric Wood. And part of the reason for that was that at the time Eric was very involved in research related to field campaigns prove the, the possibility of remote sensing of soil moisture. This was a big area of active work at the time. And, you know, he he basically said, if you want to have a career in remote sensing and hydrology, Princeton as the place. So, you know, Eric had a long relationship with nasa and many of you know, he spent time at nasa as a rotator along with Dennis Latin Meyer and had a big role in influencing where nasa hydrology went. In particular, you know, after their stent at nasa headquarters, they formed the foundation for working groups that ultimately led to the soil moisture mission we have today, soil moisture active, passive, as well as the future upcoming mission related to surface water. And so, you know, these were some of the reasons that were mentioned in his citation when he was elected to the National Academy. But one of the things I loved about Eric was that he wasn't just a theoretical professor. He liked to get his hands dirty. He liked to support us doing field work. And whether it was soil moisture sampling in Oklahoma, or even watching me code standing behind my shoulder while I was debugging code and telling me where to make changes. He always made sure we were prepared and that we had what we needed to succeed. So he sent us to all the best conferences. He sent us to aid you and AMS and EDU. But he was a lot more involved in our professional development than that. And I remember distinctly we had a softball team and he was one of the few professors that came out and played. And I remember Alex and Emily coming to the games when I was a student and I just love that I thought it was so great. Like bring his family and really connecting with us in different ways, in social ways that were beyond his mentoring role. So after the news of Eric's passing, you know, I, uh, one of my colleagues in Europe reached out to me and she's she mentioned how she she used to feel so intimidated to give talks when Eric was in the audience and that, you know, at the end of the day. Was nothing but supportive. And so, you know, what she said was not only was he super supportive of her throughout her career, but it was alongside some good natured ribbing on the side that made it even more of a great interaction. So, you know, I remember talking with Eric a lot about gardening and like the herbs when the herbs came in and different types of Faisal and then anyway, and there were so many facets to our relationship. But I but I also remember being at the back of the room and conferences and having him whispering incisive comments in my room. So, you know, he was quick on the uptake and, but always in the end. So supportive. So arrow keys to say about his students when, when we were getting ready to finish that, sometimes you have to kick your student out of the nest and you hope that they will fly. And I think it's a testament to Eric strengths as an advisor, his care and his, you know, all of the preparation and resources that he provided that so many of the students have gone on to great careers. And behind me you'll see our academic family tree. And this represents his many PhD students and their students. So right now we have about 36 students and 20 post-docs on this tree. And I encourage you to come look at this after the service. And this will be his legacy as we continue to keep him in our minds and in our hearts. Thank you. Hi. My name is mean pen and I've been working with Eric for about 21 years, starting as a student and then a post-doc and the research scientist. Today, I'll be reading a eulogy from fittest by arrow foramen, which was broadcasted on NPR in 2005. You want a physicist to speak and your funeral. You want the physis to talk about, talk to agree and family about the conservation of energy. So there will understand that your energy has not died. You wound the physicist to remind you of saw my mother about the first law of thermodynamics. That no energy gets created in the universe and now is destroyed. You want your mother to know that all your energy, every vibration, every BTU of heat, every wave of every particle that was her beloved child remains with her in this world. You want a physicist to tell your father amit, energies of the Cosmos. You gave as good as you got. And at 1, you to hope that the physicists would step down from the puppet and walk to your broken-hearted spouse there in the pew and tell him than all the photons than ever bounced off your face. All the particles whose past were interrupted by your smile, by the touch of your hair. Hundreds of trillions of particles have raced off like children. There are ways forever changed by you. And as you're widow, rocks in arms of a loving family, metaphysis, let her know. Then all the photons that bounced from you, we're gathered the particle detectors that were her eyes than those photons created within her constellations of electromagnetically charged neurons whose energy will go on forever. And the physicist will remind the congregation of how much of our energy is given off as heat. There might be a few fanning themselves, which their programs, as he says it. And he will tell them that the warmth that flow through you in life is still there. Still part of all that we are, even as we who mourn, continue the heat of our own lives. And you will want the physicist to explain to those who loved you that they need not have faith. Indeed, they should not have faith. Let them know. They can measure that scientists have measured precisely the conservation of energy and found it accurate, verifiable at consistent across space and time. You can hope your family will examine the evidence. Satisfy themself than the science is sound. And then there'll be comforted to know that your energy is still around. According to the law of the conservation of energy. Not a bead of you is gone. You're just less orderly. Amen. Well, Alex, thank you so much for giving me the chance to root for Eric. I want to say a few words of my own. Before this, Alex told me that Eric is not very religious person. I think I feel the same. Well, be not very religious. Nevertheless, Eric tricks people faithfully and truthfully. Yeah. When it comes to science. He always speaks what he really truthfully believe in his mind. Even if the words can some harsh, controversial, or inconvenient. But beyond the words, he has trust and faith in you. It took me a long time to get it and not without suffering. And, and when it comes to scientific research, he would always go for the things that he truly believe, makes sense and resist those he thinks not. In this world. I think it takes great strength to do that. It's all that great strength and courage that I have been trying to learn from Eric most and is still looking for today. So thank you, Eric. And thank you, everyone. So on the morning of November 3rd, those in my office, basically staring at the walls. I had just woken, do Alix and Eric had passed. And somehow in my func, my mind flashback to a meeting some 30 years ago, somewhere in Europe where one of our senior hydrologists was pontificating. Basically did the effect of all the things that hydrologists we're doing and have done. Braun and Eric leaned over and said to me, if I wanted to CRM and I'd have gone to church. And that was quintessentially Eric. Irreverent. Cows ticket times, rarely deferential. So the story of my own interactions with Eric goes back to the late 1970s when we were both freshly minted PhD's. Members of a newly appointed AGE you American Geophysical Union committee meeting in Washington DC. And the committee and the publication that resulted from it, we're somewhat unremarkable. Add a break. I had a chance to talk to him and I was a little bit intimidated. Erica, come from MIT, which is kind of the pinnacle of the profession. I came from this school way up in the northwestern corner of the country. And for some reason probably looking for something to say. I mentioned that he'd gone to UBC. I said, do you know Peter would by any chance? And he said, Yeah, that's my brother. And it's like, what are the chances, right? Well, it turns out that I had been involved as Peter in intercollegiate sailing. I at University of Washington and Peter at UBC also turned out that I had actually stayed at their father's house probably sometime in the late 1960s. This was like ten years further back, almost from from this meeting in DC. The one vague recollection I have is being at a party somewhere in one of those regardless where somebody pointed Eric God, and said That's Peter's brother. He's really smart. So to go back to the meeting in the 1970s, the committee was unremarkable. The most remarkable thing to me and I posted it on the memory board is the last page of the paper that was written. There's photos of the three co-authors, eric myself, and Marshall Mohsen of US Geological Survey. And we look shockingly young. I will say. I think the caption I put on it was we were the Young Turks then. So after that meeting. Eric and I did some consulting project. Think the first one might have been one when he came out to Seattle. I can't remember the project. The one thing I can remember is that Eric, who always has much more sophisticated in matters of food and wine than I had read or review in the New York Times of a French restaurant in Seattle, the new French restaurant, which I knew nothing up. So we went to the French restaurant along with a friend of mine and had a glass of wine. And after a little bit, Eric said, You know, I'm not feeling very well. I'm going to go to the men's room. My friend looked at me and said, You better go with him. He looks pretty great. So Eric headed across the room, me after him, and partway across. He started to follow before. Well, if you've ever had the experience of being behind somebody and trying to keep them from falling. It's really hard. Okay. I think I may have gotten a hand on his shoulder. Well, at the same time, the waiter was coming across the room with somebody else's dinner on a platter, saw what was happening. Drop the platter with resounding crash, grab Derek, kept him from hitting his head on the way down. So when he came to he was looking up at three nurses, my friend and to other nurses who had been eating dinner, whether or not it was their dinner that the waiter dropped, I don't know. They pronounced that the biggest problem was he needed some food, went back, finished our dinner. Whatever the project was. We finish that too. That lead to more work in a much bigger project on Love Canal, which is some of you may know up near Niagara Falls, the first hazardous waste site resulted in some 800 houses being evacuated. And EPA trying to figure out what was doing, what to do. They had done a bunch of soil sampling. Short version is they call it in an expert panel to redo it all. Expert panel trashed it and said You need to start over. Eric had an idea for how to do it. Lots and lots of work there. I was flying back and forth to Princeton fairly regularly. I became pretty familiar with the roll out of bed in the in the rec room, in the wood fam family house. Near the end of that, Eric was going on sabbatical at the incident hydrology in the UK this big 980 for invited me over and amongst various other things we had discussions. We by then had both gotten over the first couple of promotion hurdles. But we both sort of realize the kind of things we'd been doing academically weren't really going to make the rest of our career. And things were changing. There are some written versions of this and I won't go into all the details and bore you with them. But the field was fundamentally changing. And Eric had figured out before I the ways was what came out of that were a couple of new directions for him, one of which I participated when the two were remote sensing, as Kristen mentioned, and large-scale hydrology and hydrologic prediction. That was Eric area and Eric and I work most on together, resulted in a PhD student at the University of Washington on whose committee he served, writing a paper with a model that is still very widely used. The paper that describes it some 27 years later is cited like 200 times a year. For those you not in the academic area, highly cited papers, paper that's received 200 citations period over it, the duration since it was published is, is pretty good. 200 a year is exceptional. The author of that paper, Xue Liang, when she finished her dissertation, basically got on the first lady's, headed for Princeton, spend two or three years as a postdoc with Eric. Many more papers. Lots of things came out of that work, that cap graduate students, post-docs and so on. Busy for at least the next 20 years and they're still offshoots of the work done then ongoing. So I want to kind of wrap up here with a couple of thoughts on my interactions with Eric and the things I learned from him. One was fairly early on when we first started writing academic papers together. I noticed that if somebody else was working in the same area and especially amongst younger faculty members, there's sort of a reaction. They must have screwed something up. It must be wrong, defensiveness, and so on. Eric never got into that. What I remember more is when he listened to a presentation at a meeting, write a paper or something, he would say, You know, I wonder if you could take what these guys have done and apply it to another problem, could we leverage Rome that the other aspect of his personality? The American Geophysical Union to which basically all hydrologists belong in the hydrology section in particular of which he was the president back about ten years ago. It's motto is unselfish cooperation in science. And Eric basically is the personification of that model. In the academic world. There are many awards and Eric certainly receive many of them and so they himself, to those outside of academics, it probably seems a little bit like a game in private industry, mostly you don't get awards other than getting, hey, raise if they're happy with what you're doing. But in, And so the, the, the sort of saying is, is that the battles are so fierce because the stakes are so small. Okay. That's kind of the I would say. The reality is is that these things do make a difference to hiring committees, to committees looking at salary increases and so on. And Eric wrote many, many letters for not just people, former students and so on, which were sort of all expected to look out for our academic offspring. But for people with whom he had no direct connection other than having read their work, thinking that they were doing good things and he would inevitably drop what he was doing to write an insightful two-page letter explaining why this person should receive whatever reward. So in closing, the week after next, I'm going to the American Geophysical Union meeting in New Orleans. It'll be the first meeting since the outbreak of COVID. And I'm a little bit apprehensive. I'm not apprehensive about COVID. I think the precautions that had been taken are pretty good, but I just don't know quite how it's going to feel to wander the halls and not run into Eric. Eric, we will miss you. Hello. My name's Peter. Would I rather have known him for 74 years. Although my first memories of them are where as a three-year-old, from the early beginning of my memories are there or that he was strong-willed, a focus and demonstrate trait that in his early age will serve them well throughout his life. So what I'm going to do, I'm going to turn back the clock and talk about a couple situation much before are you met him and how that has changed the given recent lessons in life. Okay. The first one is a year 1952. And Eric learned how to ride a bike. And those bikes didn't have those stabilizing back. We also the and the they didn't have the pair of stridor bytes. It didn't have any pebbles on them. So unlike my own experience where they took probably a month for my father running the side. We are walking beside me and I looked down at my feet and start paddling in turnover. Sideways and lose my focus and fall off my bike. Eric, word went over there, I scurried who have a little bit of prompting in one evening, learned how to ride. He were going up and down the hill. Some of ours go to the upper school yard. And he had mastered in one evening we're taken to be much longer. I envied him that he mastered the tasks so easy that I struggled with the lesson I learned from him. And what he was, he was focused. He focuses attention on the task at hand. He avoided distractions which prevented him from reaching his goal. And his goal at the end of that evening would be all right, the Viking, keep out to me. Okay, The second lesson that I learned from Eric and second story, it's a little later, 937, mother's home baked apple by we're definitely the zone of choice in our family. And Eric being the youngest of four siblings. Or we want to make sure that he got his piece of pie. So here we go. Pi would be cut in the kitchen and put on a voice. And Eric would go down to my father workshop, get the tape measure out. And he had measured the basal triangle.py and Lehi. And he would quickly calculated as head which piece of pie had the most square area. And that Pi he would take and make sure it was his pie. So already the skill that I learned from him on that was really accurate measurement and the practical use of math test has benefits. And hear that at the age of eight or ten years of age, foods DOI is a little later. And as you know and write out the error, like to go fishing. And he really wasn't really a fisherman until my father and one of the friends and the early eighties started to go up to fishing camps on the central coast of British Columbia. The two guys who were in the eighties, they started again themselves into trouble on the water. And in fact, I were kind of went out the power, one of the following In summary, because if you know anything about Salmon Fishing, the big fishing boats usually use a pretty sane and they were fishing with a Roddenberry on this same book came out to catch School Salmon and they set the net in a big circle around and we're going to plot the bottom. And so this is the two old guy trying to catch salmon that we want to get into her holder by saying vote. So it was obviously that they were having a little bit of problems. So I came out kinda help the guys who run the salmon fishing boats and with them and help them fish. And we were kind of had mediocre success. So then one year, a couple of years later, my father's friend couldn't come, so Eric came. And that really changed the game. As somebody said, they competitive. When we would come back after a day of fish in a fish camp, I catch it were pretty meager and things like that. So Erick kinda wait, a fish explaining table. See who got the biggest fissure the day. And then he would do his technique. He would have this pattern out and you say, okay, what sort of Beta is, how much weight are you using on your right? How how, what what equipment are you the way you fishies? And he would be interviewing them. They have piles. I know. And I still have some of those and others. And so after he does this for one year, we came back the next year. But they were kind of one of the top groups are catching the big fish and just showed he was smart enough that I wasn't that smart to seek the knowledge of others. Ask those questions and take copious notes and the study carefully, you will, what they are, why they're successful and why were less successful. And the end as the accuracy of the information, you know, he would find out whether they were springing up a line or whether they were telling me We're going to be working. And he asked me in the fishermen every evening, I think probably when I was I went back to the fish can't lounge and have an a B or evening snacks. And he was down there carrying the law. So that was asked and I won't fund. Just ask the questions and kinda see what people are doing and see if you think they work that duplicate those things. And I think some of those messages that come out here today, I didn't close. In closing, I'd like to say Eric and myself have been the two youngest siblings. We were given pretty wide leash of life and everyday things that I think that we were able to do and kind of impact did I life going forward? Think I can get locked up by the Children's Aid Society. Today. We were independent. You're going up to the mountains north of Vancouver scheme as 12 and 14 year-olds and saying overnight, the wooden cabins with and I apparently gave us an independence which allowed us to self-discovery, figure things out for ourselves and, and gave us confidence and the confidence that I think help there throughout his life. As somebody said, the error, I would be pretty strong to views and will always be asking questions. And I think that is also appeared in his early life as well. And I know that my siblings and I were going to miss Eric greatly and I'm proud that he had taught me where he taught me. So thank you very much. Hi everyone. My name is Ned Crouch and I'm Erik starter and law. And Alex always tells the story of when he told his dad, but we weren't going to get married at we had just met in Vietnam and we were incredibly young. Erik said, that's interesting. And when I heard that I thought, yikes, i've, I've got a long road ahead of me. And I will say in the final few years that he really let me in a relationship, but I'll always cherish. I'm going to read instructions by Arnold Compton. When I have moved beyond you and the adventure of life, gather and some pleasant place and they're remember me with spoken words, old and new. Let a tier if you will. But let us smile, come quickly for I have loved the laughter of life. Do not linger too long with your so lambda t's. Go eat and talk. And when you can follow a woodland trail, climb a high mountain, walk along the wild seashore. To the thoughts of some book which challenges your soul. Use your hand some bright day to make a thing of beauty or to lift someone's heavy load. Though you mentioned not my name though. No thought of me crosses your mind. I shall be with you. For these have been the realities of my life for me. And when you face some crisis with anguish, when you walk alone with courage, when you choose your path of right, I shall be very close to you. I have followed the valleys. I have climb the heights of life. My name is Craig Ferguson. Eric had a transformative impact on my life. He was an advisor and mentor at first and later became one of my dearest friends. As an adviser, Eric was intense, demanding, and brutally honest with his criticism. He was feared for his questions AT department brown bag seminars and research conferences. He always managed to find the flawed logic, the uncertainties, and the more important questions caught up. Some new results. Show Eric the plot. It doesn't pass the test, the credibility, he would say. That was as gentle as he got short and praise and heavy and the critique, the most thoughtful and valuable criticism comes from those that care most about your science. He reminded us. Eric pushed his students beyond even their own expectations, but he was also a patient and supportive. Also run a mom reflected that Eric managed to see more potential in us. Most of us saw for ourselves. And we gain strength from that. Eric stressed focusing on one strengths, selecting good research problems, and sharing ideas and data. Openly. Think creative thoughts every day. Push the results more, and consider questions that will impact the community more. He said, Eric wanted a rewarding and successful career for each of his students, but not by emulating him. When Kai Guan despair to Eric that he could never be great like him. Eric told him that was never the intent. He said Kai, you, you will be great. In your own ways. Erik claimed he never asked more of his students. And he asked of himself, which is true. He kept long hours and worked at an exhausting piece. Like apparent, Eric supported his students completely at Princeton and beyond. Eric was always available for counsel. Having his support beyond Princeton, however, certainly did not entail a non-compete clause. I called Eric out of excitement the first time I had a proposal selected for funding. He was more upset that his proposed on the same competition had been declined. Then he was happy for me. The secret to our friendship was that we never talked research. We bonded over fishing, hunting, and cooking. The beauty, serenity, and isolation of the great outdoors. Came back to his British Columbia upbringing. I think my second year at Princeton, Eric traded me smoked salmon for venison tenderloin. The following year, Eric came to harvest his own venison. And the rest is history. All told. We were on seven months and six fishing trips together. It was challenging to fit into Erik's always complicated travel schedule, but we were determined we had an annual calendar. I would visit him in January to cook together. We fish Lake Ontario and may hunted in November, held monthly telephone calls in-between. We kept each other updated on our health and that of our families. Eric had very strong ideas about how to do things right? In research and in life. Talk about the vacation you took or the one you are dreaming up. And Eric would have a better recommendation for you. He's strived for quality in every aspect of his life and wished that for others. From research to food, to time with friends and family. Eric was the single most influential person in shaping my views on leading a fulfilling life and contributing and meaningful ways to science and society. He showed me how to commit fully to my life ambitions, to embrace challenges and uncertainty, to approach life proactively, and to share my knowledge selflessly with others. I think most of Eric, when I'm advising students, cooking and enjoying a fine meal, I will miss him dearly. Hi, my name is Mark Zhan low. I'm a colleague of Eric's and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. And many of my colleagues have known Eric for far longer than since I've been at Princeton. And I'm honored and humbled to kinda give a context of my personal history with Eric and what it has meant to me. So I first want to express on behalf of my colleagues and faculty within the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. I extend my heartfelt condolences to Alex, to Emily, to the wood family, and especially to Eric's grandchildren. When Eric talked about his grandchildren in recent years, you'd see an instant burst of, of happiness and excitement, pride and laughter, and just it was so exciting, changed to see in his demeanor. I first met Eric as a tenure track professor, assistant professor in the department. And I confess I was terrified of him. As you know, Eric ran the largest research group, our department. And he exuded scholarly excellence. He knew how to sustain at throughout his career something that I've become much more appreciated of as my career has developed as well. His students and research staff were incredibly intelligent, creative, but there were also working strong or it had strong work ethics and they were incredibly loyal. And I think that impressed me more than anything else. I think we've heard that today. To meet Eric set the standard of white, wanted my group to be. And Eric as a colleague was inspiring. And he said a very high bar to someone who was a young assistant professor. In one of our early conversations of those tenure-track days, I was complaining about something to him and I I can't recall to this day of what it was. It was probably unimportant. But he looked to me and it has very direct and blunt fashion. He said, they can't take your research away from you. And those words have kind of stayed with me throughout my career. And they can be a number of things. It can be anything in the academic and professional spheres, frustration with reviewers, program manager, you know, students or staff that weren't going as far as they could, funding decisions, excess of service, university bureaucracy, whatever it was. His point was that make clear to me was that I and I alone control the direction of my research and to never lose sight of that. And I think as someone who was an early career scientist, I think those were really important words because it's very easy for even in this day and age to get distracted. So those words have stuck with me and provided motivation clarity throughout my career. As we move done. Over time, our friendship became much less just based on our science and professional colleagues. I think a turning point really occurred one snowy day and winter when I said, well, Eric, I'm going right by your house. I can give you a ride home. And he said sure, and he grabbed his camouflage jacket, hunting Jacket. Now, the Venn diagram of an Ivy League professor and someone who hunts has to be incredibly small. So I dismissively said something to Eric like doing your best impression to imitate a hunter today. Hi, Eric. Thinking that clearly there had to have been some backstory here about why a world renowned professor would be having a camouflage hunting Jacket. Well, as you all heard, and I soon discovered Eric loved hunting and fishing. And I can attest is delicious surfing turf meal of Venice and tender loins and wild-caught salmon. I've sampled what he called was the best smoked salmon ever. And I had some of that lake Ontario and I have to say it was the best smoked salmon I've ever had. I also enjoy fishing immensely, though. I always fished inland waters. I hadn't done ocean fishing of the sort. So that come and bind, seem to increase and enhance, are already developing friendship. My first fishing trip to Lake Ontario with Eric, I again felt terrified. Here. We had been talking about fishing. All these years, were going on a fishing trip together. And it's my turn to come up in land, the king salmon. And embarrassingly, you know, I lost it. And Eric has very high expectations, not just about research, but fishing as well. And when I hear about his amazing stories of his past fishing trips and also of those fishing trips like, oh, this this captain wasn't that good or the fishing with bad or, you know, maybe some of the people on the boat weren't that great. He had really high standards that you had to go. So anyway, I was embarrassed that I actually did lose that fish. And ever since then I think I did much better. But anyway, Eric beamed with pride this past summer on his last fishing trip in BC. Repeatedly scenes me how phenomenal it was. It was just phenomenal. And I think it is only fitting that his last trip was so great. I never got a chance to go with him ocean fishing, partly due to the pandemic. But I think it is really special that he spent his last two fishing trips in BC and Lake Ontario with Alex and Emily. Eric was a giant in this field as we've all heard. And while I'm not a hydrologist, he set the standard, how to achieve excellence and how to sustain it in a way that transcended field. It starts with a passion for education, passion for science, passion for making an impact on problems that matter. And a passion to enjoy the finer elements of life. I never, never will forget what he has taught me and the countless people in this room. And to paraphrase Eric and what I think we all feel, you can't take Eric away from us. Reminder. High for those of you who don't know me, I'm Emily Would I am Eric's daughter. Before I turn to some memories of dad, I wanted to comment that despite these sad circumstances that bring us together, It's been amazing to learn more fully about dads work and a meaningful impact he's had on so many lives to see the love so many people had for him. It's been a truly special experience and has helped me feel close to the dad despite his passing. You're reflecting on the incredible impact he's had on so many. It's made me reflect on the impact he's had on me. And what characteristics made him such a meaningful figure. One in particular jumps out. What I best remember and what I will miss the most was his optimism and steadfast support. He always believed in my success, even when I may have doubted at, for example, in high school I took a physics class. And as a kid, I'm sure Alex can lay we understood dad had pretty high academic expectations for us. And I think generally we met those until my favorite physics class. For the life of me, I could not understand the material no matter how much I studied, I thought I understood that. I can still remember Dad's patients and helping me study is encouraging words, is pep talk that I was good at. Science might get it. I can't say ever mastered physics or even came close to what I was pathetically grateful in that class ended. But dad's belief that I could mass dread never wavered. And it was his constant support that got me through. My fondest memories of dad involve my athletics. We spent innumerable weekends driving around the tri-state area to various softball tournament, my travel team. Dad never complained about having to sacrifice all of his weekends driving to and sitting through these two ornaments. Instead. I felt like he enjoyed them almost as much as I did. I remember we'd go to the supermarket on Fridays after school and he'd let me pick out the exact sports drink I wanted and snacks to eat between games. We'd leave the house incredibly early on Saturday morning and it always have his mug of coffee. And we discuss strategy and the drive. After a few years of travel, softball Ives, I wanted to play for more competitive team and he was really excited about that. I remember making the team. And it took one tournament, me to realize how much I hated at and desperately wanted to place my old team. Dad never expressed disappointment when I told him I want him to call it my old coach and try to finagle me back on the old team. He just did it and supported my decision. That also was excited me or play softball at Princeton. But he never expressed disappointment when I ended up playing rugby instead. Rather he embrace my choice and became a regular fixture on the sidelines, chatting with teammates and offering I'm sure, incredibly helpful advice to the coaches. He always believed we could defeat any opponent. And you'd expressed dismay. Disappointment if we failed. When we learned about dads diagnosis. It was hard. I think that handled it way better than I did. He never let his diagnosis slow him down. He handled the chemo and radiation with the degree of positivity and optimism I think is rare. He continued to work and travel. He spent months in Vancouver visiting with friends and family. When the tumor began growing again at the beginning of this year, he continued to stay positive about the challenges and his ability to overcome them. And as you guys have heard from a few folks, he wasn't going to let anything prevent him from going fishing this past summer. In August, dad and I took that fishing trip off out of Haida Gwaii off the coast of British Columbia. And while he was beginning to slow down physically, his spirit was still strong. Mark, you weren't the only one who lost a fish. Dad sees me relentlessly when I tried to reel in the salmon a little too quickly and lost that. Meanwhile, he was reeling in 25 plus LB salmons like it was nothing. I can still picture the huge smile on his face. When he landed his first fish of that trip. After a long day of fishing, he would laugh and chat with the other people on the trip about the biggest catches of the dye that always found enjoyment in the present and the moment he had. And it was beautiful to watch. I wanted to share a brief poem with you by marine, kill him and entitled Our Lives Matter. We come together from the diversity of our grieving to gather in the warmth of this community, giving stubborn witness to our belief that in times of sadness, there was room for laughter and times of darkness. There always will be light. May we hold fast to the conviction that what we do with our lives matter and that a carrying world is possible. After all. I can think of no better way to honor dad's memory for us to live lives that matter, and belief in our ability to do so, to laugh and find the light, to look at the world with optimism, even in our darkest moments. I'll miss Dad. Always carry him with May. I ask that we now share a moment of silence to reflect, meditate, and remember the person he was. Well then play a slideshow to celebrate Eric's life. Me. Yes. See The chain? Yeah. We'd like to thank everyone for coming and we hope you can stay for the reception. Will need about ten minutes to get this area setup. To asking everyone if you just want to exit into the entry area, you can get some beverages while we wait, and we hope to see everyone at the reception. Thank you.