UCMP salutes Bill Clemens (cont.)

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Teaching
Bill has been a fine mentor and teacher as well. He has taught all levels at Berkeley, from freshman seminars and basic biology, to upper division courses in vertebrate paleontology and skeletal anatomy, to graduate courses related to his specialty in paleomammalogy, and much more. Generations of undergraduates have been delighted and thrilled by both his lectures and field trips, the latter featuring visits to Late Tertiary and Quaternary localities in the Bay Area where fossil mammals, such as camels, giant sloths, bears, sabertooths, and mammoths have been found.

Bill’s better half
But let’s get to the important part: Dorothy Clemens, known to her friends as Dot, also grew up in Berkeley. Bill was lucky enough to corral her when they were still in school, and they have been happily married ever since. They have four offspring (Catherine, Liz, Diane, and Will), all professionals in their own right, and beautiful grandchildren as well. Dot accompanied Bill in his sabbatical travels to far-flung European capitals, and

For many summers, Bill and his crews set up an “office” inside and tents outside this old homestead cabin on the Engdahl Ranch, Jordan, Montana. Here in 1978 are, from left: John Chiment, Bill’s graduate student, now an instructor at Cornell University; Mike Greenwald; Jacques Gauthier, graduate student, now professor at Yale University; Jim Clark, graduate student, now professor at George Washington University; and Bill. (photo courtesy of Mark Goodwin)

the children grew up in a delightfully peripatetic environment of the odd years in foreign schools, plus a solid grounding in Berkeley culture (?) and a most wonderful family life. Dot herself is accomplished in many ways, as a teacher of English to foreign students, a devotee of German language and culture, and a genealogist and historian of her family’s European roots (Bill takes a slightly broader view of family roots; his genealogical investigations go back to the Triassic!). Both Dot and Bill have long been active in civic functions and in their church. They have always been the perfect hosts to all foreign visitors, students, colleagues, and friends, and no one has gone from their house less than well fed and happy.
We wish Bill and Dot the best in their retirement, and thank both of them for being such a tremendous part of our lives for so long. Berkeley has always had the strongest program in paleomammalogy of any university in the world, and in the last 35 years this has been primarily due to the efforts of Bill Clemens. We salute him and his students on the occasion of his retirement.

Bill always went all out to find funding for his graduate students’ research. (photo courtesy of Don Lofgren)