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Recently, during a hike (left, Merrie; right, LeeAnn).

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Rick,

I finished my Ph.D. studies in January 1991 and then packed up my Hyundai Excel and drove from College Park, MD to Tucson. I had accepted an assistant professorship at Aalborg University and had negotiated a skewed teaching load that allowed me to work with you until August. We hit the ground running, and three more “sabbaticals” followed during the 1990s, for a total of 2.5 years.

Combined with your vision for temporal databases, your positive attitude and will to succeed and your hard work and engagement offered an ideal setting for an aspiring academic. Indeed, this was a time of intense activity and progress in temporal databases. Working with you shaped my academic values and my outlook on the academic enterprise profoundly.

As I get older, I realize more and more that one of the real rewards of being academia is working with smart and engaged colleagues with the right values. You are a shining example of such a colleague. Thank you for your friendship and collaboration these 30+ years. I hope that we will stay in touch in the years to come, and I am already contemplating a trip to Tucson!

Kind regards,

Christian

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Congratulations, Professor, for your distinguished career & retirement!
I was rather surprised to hear the news of your retirement, but I guess you have great plans for the future ahead.
It is hard to believe that 40 years have passed since you took me in as your student, and I am for ever grateful for all you support & guidance.
Best wishes for your future endeavors & I hope to see you in Korea again sometime soon.

감사합니다.
- Ilsoo Ahn

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Congratulations on your retirement! Thank you for everything. It has been an honor and privilege to work with you. I have learned a lot from you, including life skills like persistence, giving & taking feedback, as well as how to be a better person.

Thank you again for being a mentor extraordinaire!

- Sabah

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Congratulations Rick on your retirement after so many outstanding achievements in your career.
It is fortunate to have you as my advisor. I cherish the memory in UA where you gave me the best training, the encouraging words, and the nice friendship. I cannot thank you more!
Wish you and your family the best in the future.

Dengfeng

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Rick,

You are an outstanding scholar. I was fortunate to have the privilege to work under your guidance and learn from such a fascinating example that you set. I am forever grateful for the honesty, perseverance, and tenacity that you taught me, in my career and in my life.

You have also shown me how to be a better person, someone who has empathy and patience, and is genuinely interested other people's well-being.

Your excellence in being a researcher and a kind person will continue to be admired and cherished by many.

I wish you a happy retirement, and hope to join you in future explorations!

Rui Zhang

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Rick, my sincere thanks for our interaction and collaboration.  The research topic(s) in which you've interested me will surely be relevant to future technologies.  Congratulations on your retirement, and I'm sure you will now become more active than before!

Rob Maier

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Dear Rick,
Congratulations on your retirement. You leave a lasting impact on the department. I hope you have a relaxing retirement and get to do a lot of scuba diving. Wishing you the best on this next stage of your life.
-Martin

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Congratulations on everything Rick!  As a cornerstone of our department through its many years, you will be missed.  It has been an honor working alongside you in this department the last few years.  I wish you the best.  Relax!  Enjoy!  Congratulations!

Jason Pacheco

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Rick, it's been a pleasure having you as a colleague. I appreciate all that you've done for the department and for me personally over the years. I wish you the best. Enjoy your retirement!

John Hartman

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Congrats on your retirement! Thank you so much for what you have done for the department and computer science. It was a privilege to have you as a colleague. I wish I could meet you in person and hear about your colorful journey!

Hope someday our paths will cross again. Until then, stay well and healthy!

-sazzadur

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Dear Rick,

Congratulations on your retirement and your long and fruitful career. It was a pleasure and an honor serving this department with you. I've really enjoyed our conversations when you came by with a systems data collection (and analysis) challenge and appreciated your insight into all things CS faculty.

Save travels and clear skies!

Kate Isaacs

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Rick,

Thank you for your more than 30 years of service to UA CS.  You always took all three phases of the job seriously, which makes a Head's job much easier.  We will all miss your contributions to our department.

I still remember my interview here in 2008.  When we had our individual meeting (which was after my talk), I was prepared for questions about research, teaching, service, why I wanted to move here, etc.  However, the first thing you asked me was to get out my slides from the talk, and you proceeded to point out a (nontrivial) error on one of my slides.  That had never happened to me before and has never happened since.  Before 2008 I always had carefully double checked my slides, but after our meeting, I now always quadruple check my slides before a talk!

Best wishes,

Dave Lowenthal

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All the best for retirement Rick. Hope you get to enjoy your music, and other activities and have a wonderful time. It was great to have you as a colleague at the university and in the field. Thanks  for all your contributions to my PHD students' committees and the papers we have co-authored. 

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All the best for retirement Rick. Hope you get to enjoy your music, and other activities and have a wonderful time. It was great to have you as a colleague at the university and in the field. Thanks  for all your contributions to my PHD students' committees and the papers we have co-authored. 

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Sudha Ram

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Rick,

It has been a privilege to have had you as a friend and colleague all these years.  I've learned a lot from you---technical CS stuff, of course; but far more importantly, about being a good human being.  Thank you for that.

I look forward to hearing about your retirement adventures. :)

Saumya

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Rick, I've enjoyed every interaction I've had with you. You have done many great things for the students and the department and you are always a pleasure to be around. You will be missed. I hope you will come back and visit frequently. Oh, and now that you have time, if you every want to read the Darants' 11 volume story of civilization, you know who you can borrow it from. :-)

-Eric Anson

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As Abi mentions in his note, ANTARES would never have gotten off the ground without you.  Working with you, John, and Carlos has made this project the most fun and productive one I've ever been involved with.  I learned an enormous amount that has allowed me to continue to guide things successfully with ANTARES, but has also made me a better scientist overall.  Thanks again for being such a great friend and collaborator.

Tom Matheson

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At a Lobster Restaurant around SFO in July 2018

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Thank you for being my awesome advisor. I have been so blessed to work with and learn A LOT from you. If it were not for your superb leadership and mentoring in my academic life, I feel that I would not be here to serve as a faculty member at my motherhood school in Korea. I cannot express my gratitude more.

Congratulations on your honorable retirement. I wish you (and Merrie)
all the best in your future endeavors.

Cheers,

Young (and Alisa w/ Layim)

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Rick, it's been a pleasure having you as a colleague in the Department, and it was exciting to work with you on the ANTARES astronomy project. Now your time will be your own to happily savor as you desire. All good wishes on your well-earned retirement!

John Kececioglu

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Thank you for being a supportive colleague. I enjoyed getting the chance to work with you.
Best wishes,
Michelle

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We had fun working on the design of ANTARES.  We wouldn't have got where we are without your perspective and help, and the engagement with you and your students. I for one learned a lot of new things. All the best for your future plans to enjoy your retirement.  Will be seeing you around!

Abi Saha

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Hi Rick,

Congrats on your long and distinguished career! Enjoy your retirement. The department will miss you.

Beichuan

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Rick,
22 years ago, nearly to the day, you were my host for my first visit to Arizona, Tucson, UofA, and CS@UofA. I remember spending two days here with very friendly faculty, chair (Pete) and host (you), who seemed genuinely interested in talking with me. For good (or bad), you and Pete were most influential in my decision to come here. It has been an honor having you as a colleague and I will miss you as a next door neighbor.

Stephen Kobourov

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Thank you for everything you have done for our department. And thanks specifically for helping me coordinate honors projects with students. Enjoy your retirement!
- Tyler Conklin

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Enjoy your retirement. And enjoy all of the exciting adventures ahead of you! Sending all the happy retirement wishes your way!
- Crystal Soto

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Rick,
Thank you for your fantastic contributions to our department! I hope you enjoy your retirement to the fullest!!

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Rick, congratulations on your career and retirement! Our department will miss you greatly.

- Chicheng Zhang

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Thanks for being my advisor in UA, which gave me the best memory in my school life.

There is no better way to express my gratitude. I attached my family picture here.

Wish you and your family the best with the future endeavors!

Wei