The non-scientific contributions of Jack Vallentyne

摘要

I admire my father for his scientific work and achievements; however I have even greater respect for how he "walked the talk." He not only advocated and researched water quality-he was passionate about water. He loved swimming and paddling in lakes and he loved conserving water. Yes-he would boil his morning egg in about 2 cm of water, and then would save the leftover water for reuse! Of course I did not admire him when I was 7 and was fined for leaving a light on, or when I was 13 and forced to go on yet another family canoe trip. Although he was a bit preachy to his children about our environmental actions (and non actions) he really didn't talk much about his work. Yet I see now that he was a powerful influence on me simply by how he lived his life. He exemplified the following passage from Kahlil Gibran: