| When the Bates Scholar-Athlete
Society was founded four years ago, in addition to the graduating
seniors and alumni who would be honored with membership in the
Society, the Society decided to induct each year a coach or a
faculty member who had shown sustained interest and support for
athletic teams and accomplishment. In the past three years, Bob
Hatch, Professor Emeritus of Physical Education, the late Dick
Williamson, Professor of French, and George Wigton, Professor
Emeritus of Physical Education, have been honored. We are pleased
this year to welcome to the Bates Scholar-Athlete Society Michael
J. Retelle, Professor of Geology. Mike, originally
from Lawrence, Mass., did his undergraduate studies at
Salem State College prior to working as a field geologist on the
Trans-Alaska Pipeline in 1976. He did his graduate work in
geosciences at
the University of Massachusetts in Amherst,
earning an M.S. in 1979 and a Ph.D. in 1985. His primary research
interests are in glacial and post-glacial environments on lakes
in Maine,New Hampshire, and in the Canadian arctic. He is also
part of an interdisciplinary geo-archaeology project in the
Shetland Islands north of Scotland, studying settlement
disturbance in the Little Ice Age. Most recently, he has
participated in a National Science Foundation-sponsored Research
Experience for Undergraduates, studying modern glacial processes
and climate change in the Norwegian arctic. Mike has been at Bates
for 20 years and has served on the Committee on Athletics and on
the Physical Education Personnel Committee. He is currently the
Bates Faculty Athletic Representative to the NCAA, and formerly was
the faculty advisor for the men's and women's ice hockey club
teams. In these roles, he has been consistently supportive of
coaches when they had needs, and recently organized the memorial
day of hockey with receptions to celebrate the lives and
contributions of the late Dick Williamson and Dick LaFrance. A
loyal and effective supporter of area youth sports, Mike also has
been the head coach for the Monmouth High
School golf team, head ice hockey coach
for Lisbon High School, and since 2003 the assistant ice
hockey coach atKents Hill School. Additionally, he has
served as a senior counselor for the USA Hockey Festival program
in Burlington, Vt., a coach for the Team Maine Selects,
and a frequent presenter at numerous hockey schools and clinics.
For his thoughtful, energetic and long-time dedication to the Bates
athletic program, to the NCAA, and for his long-term service to all
of the youth and high school leagues that produce Bates athletes,
we are pleased to welcome Mike Retelle into the Bates
Scholar-Athlete Society. |
Geology professor Mike Retelle became the fourth faculty
inductee into the Society.
|
