Dr. Charles "Fritz" Gritzner, Distinguished Professor of Geography, has officially retired. He was and continues to be an inspiration to both his students and those who were fortunate enough to meet him. Fritz had expertise in both cultural geography and geographic education. His career spanned across the country while focusing on college instruction at East Carolina University, Louisiana State University, University of Montana, University of Houston and South Dakota State University. However, one of his favorite things to do was to visit schools and tell children about geography and geographic adventures with his stuffed animal friend Bov.
It was at a high school talk, sans Bov, that I met Dr. Gritzner. Dr. Gritzner opened my eyes (I flunked his geography trick pop quiz) to the wide range of subjects that could be studied geographically. I learned from him that it is possible not only to major in geography but, more importantly, I could have a career in the field. He also directed my love of geography into the subfield of Cultural Geography (the old school study of different cultures ala anthropology, not the modern sociology-like subfield).
Dr. Gritzner dedicated his career to expanding geography to the masses. Two of his best works are call to actions that better explain just what geography is. They are "Why Geography?" and "What is Where? Why There? and Why Care?". These are must reads for any geographic educator. Other works of his include world regional and human geography textbooks as well as studying the geography of the paranormal.
This blog is in part inspired by Dr. Gritzner's work of making geography accessible, fun, and entertaining to all. I can only hope to reach as many people as Fritz has done.
3 comments:
An excellent post about the intellectual father of his blog. Very cool!
I first met the good Dr. as a grad student at East CarolinaUniv. in 1970 and had two classes with him over the next two years. I learned all about "Country Music" as a cultural element of the landscape and its economic effect within the southeast and rest of the country. Yes, Fritz surely was one of those people that set off one's brain to think about the mundane, overlooked and ordinary. This then developes the whole concept of geographic process and the question place, why here/ and why now? The Dr. will be just as busy in retirement as he was in the classrooms at SDSU. Live long and Prosper
Anonymous,
I surely do hope so!
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