Professor Emeritus Citation for Steven Young

Sterling College Commencement

May 17, 2008

The retirement of a faculty member is always a bittersweet occasion – on one hand we celebrate a career of achievement and service to education– on the other, we lose a respected colleague and mentor.  I am pleased to have the honor of marking such an occasion today.

From our vantage here at Sterling College, the Black River arcs through cornfield and pasture to the east and south like a single, long sweep of a scythe before eventually turning its course north toward Lake Memphremagog and the Saint Lawrence and finally lapping the western shores of Newfoundland. The subtleties of topography in Craftsbury, the broad upland valley which gives the river ample time to choose its course, has drawn student and faculty imaginations north right along with the current, and, in more ways than one, has helped bring the north into our own backyard.

Four years ago, the Sterling College community looked across the Black River and saw a kindred spirit in the Center for Northern Studies in neighboring Wolcott, and entered into a relationship with an institution, a community, and an individual – in Steve Young – whose philosophy is integrative and interdisciplinary, whose passion is unparalleled, and whose knowledge on all things Northern – indeed, sometimes it seems on all things, period – is encyclopedic and far reaching.

One of the founders of the Center for Northern Studies in 1971, Steve Young has shepherded the Center’s unique curriculum of intensive classroom work and integrated field programs through more than 30 years of devoted, engaged students, many of whom sit here today, who continue to speak fondly of the years at the Center – and with Steve – that changed their perspectives on the world.

Steve’s work with the Center was one way to share his passion for the North with others – but that passion is also what brought him into places around the world – from across Alaska and the coast and islands of the Bering Strait to Siberia to Chile to Antarctica and Kerguelen Island among many other places – where he has also brought his knowledge and élan to bear on a host of ecological issues – part of which, a public lands analysis of Alaska, contributed tremendously to the preservation land in that state today.

Steve continues to leave an indelible mark in the minds of his students and colleagues as well as in far corners of the world. A long-time colleague returned last fall from a season in Antarctica to report he had found in that continent’s Dry Valleys region – from most peoples’ perspective as close to the middle of nowhere one could possibly get – a cairn, or rock pile, with no explanation for why it was there. “Oh that,” commented Steve, “I built that there 25 years ago.” Indeed, Steve’s legacy is rich and far reaching. 

Steve and his long, thoughtful work with the Center for Northern Studies embodies the philosophy and mission of Sterling as a whole – and I know from talking with students and faculty that Steve has deeply affected personal philosophies of teaching and learning and mindful engagement with the world. While ideological arguments rage in ivory towers everywhere between disciplines like natural sciences and cultural studies, Steve can calmly lean back in his chair and ask with a grin, “well isn’t science just one of the humanities after all?”

He has worked his entire career bringing the margins of the world to the center of our thinking. I am sure that he is pleased that the rest of the world has slowly stared to catch up.

We will miss Steve, but with the hope that he will continue to be part of the community of students and colleagues here at Sterling.

On behalf of the College and with a unanimous vote of the faculty and the Sterling College Board of Trustees, it truly gives me great pleasure to present Steve Young with the status of Sterling College’s first Professor Emeritus, with all the privileges thereunto appertaining. Although Steve could not join us here today, I think I can speak for all of us when I say that we hope that we are only at the beginning of a long relationship, and we hope that he continues to be willing to share his knowledge of the world with all of us in the years to come.