Rich Batiuk retired after 33 years at the Chesapeake Bay Program and many of his colleagues gathered at a party, hosted by Beth McGee, at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation for a series of skits, songs, and speeches honoring Rich. There was a huge turnout. Bob Orth, Ken Moore, and I represented the Submerged Aquatic Vegetation (SAV) team that Rich has interacted with for three decades. We witnessed some amazing singing by Roy Hoagland, Emily Trentacoste and Matt Johnson. We also saw Rich’s induction into the Citizen’s Advisory Committee by Verna Harrison, Charlie Stek, Bill Matuszeski, Neil Wilkie, some hilarious skits such as Peter Claggett emulating Rich’s phone messages and Lee Curry’s Explanator persona, as well as well wishes and toasts from a variety of colleagues. Rich was given the opportunity for a rebuttal and he emphasized the joy of working alongside so many good people for a great cause and encouraged everyone to continue the journey of Chesapeake Bay restoration.

Bob and I produced a powerpoint presentation reviewing multiple SAV synthesis efforts with Rich. We highlighted the role that donuts played in the SAV synthesis efforts with Rich. Rich would always bring a big box of donuts to our meetings. To commemorate the role of donuts in SAV synthesis efforts, we commissioned my daughter Laura to hand paint a beautiful SAV meadow on a ceramic hollow donut. We filled the hollow donut with candy as homage to the candy bowls that Rich always kept filled in his office. The powerpoint also included some historic photos of Rich. My favorite was a photo of a smiling sea otter cavorting in a seagrass meadow, which reminded me of Rich. We featured this photo in the video.

I shared the story of when Rich and I were sharing a hotel room in West Palm Beach in November, 1990 at a seagrass workshop. When I arrived, Rich was in the hotel lobby waiting for his roommate to return to gain access to his room. Since I had an empty bed in my room, I offered to share my room with Rich. Spoiler alert--this turned out to be a mistake. After an evening of catching up with friends and colleagues with food and beer, we retired to our room for the night. Somewhere around 2 am the room phone rang and I groggily answered it. The woman on the other end said “Hi, honey.” I assumed was my new wife, Judy. The woman on the phone assumed that she was speaking to her husband. These assumptions turned out to be incorrect.

Susan Batiuk was calling her husband Rich to inform him that she was going into labor and wanted him to head home to Annapolis to join her in the birth of their daughter Sarah. But due to our confusion, this conversation was not very productive. At one point, Susan said that her water broke, and my response was to call a plumber. Susan asked how soon I could come home, and I mentioned that I had a talk scheduled that morning and I would be home at the end of the workshop in a couple of days. These clearly were NOT the responses that Susan was looking for. She must have figured out that I was not Rich and she asked if Rich Batiuk was in my room. I was surprised that Judy (whom I thought I was speaking) knew that, since we had not planned on sharing a room, and it didn’t occur to me that she would want to talk with Rich. So it took some time before Susan convinced me to wake up Rich who was sound asleep throughout this bizarre conversation. But after connecting Susan with Rich, we ascertained that Rich should indeed begin to find a way to get back to Annapolis as soon as possible.

We called various airlines, found an early morning flight to Baltimore and got Rich to the West Palm Beach airport after some hurried packing. Rich shoved a stack of overheads at me so that I could to give his presentation later that morning. As it turns out, Rich was able to get to the hospital in time to hog the ice shavings (according to Susan) and witness the birth of Sarah, on 7 Nov 1990. I was able to give mine and Rich's presentation later that morning. When I found the workshop report online after some searching, I burst out laughing when I noted the listing of workshop participants had an asterisk next to Rich’s name. The asterisk was defined as “submitted abstract but did not make a formal presentation or sit on a panel.” Sarah’s birth earned Rich this asterisk, which was worth the tradeoff.

As a footnote to this memorable night, Rich and I were in Florida exactly 21 years later. After the fateful night of 7 Nov 1990, I had gone off to the University of Queensland for ten years and Rich served on the search committee which resulted in my return to the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. Rich and I were attending a Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation in Daytona Beach, FL in 2011. Rich and I were in a group of colleagues having drinks when he received a return call from his daughter Sarah on her 21^st birthday. So here we were in Florida again on Sarah’s birthday, which was better that being in Florida on the day of her birth.

I played a music video that Jamie Currie (audio), Melanie Jackson (vocals) and Sky Swanson (editing) produced. The song is adapted from the Four Seasons song written by Bob Gaudio and Judy Parker.

The lyrics were as follows:

Oh, What a Night

14 June 2018

William C. Dennison

Oh, what a night
In November back in ninety one (actually ninety)
What a very special time for me
As I remember, what a night
Oh, what a night, you know I didn’t even know her name
But I was never gonna be the same
What a call, what a night

Oh, I, I got a funny feelin’ when Susan talked on the phone
Oh my, as I recall it ended not too well
Oh what a night, hypnotizin’, mesmerizing me
She said her water broke, so call a plumber
Wake up Rich, What a night
I felt a rush like a rolling thunder
Spinnin’ my head around n’ taking my body under
Oh, what a night

Oh, I, I got a funny feelin’ when Susan talked on the phone
Oh my, as I recall it ended not too well
Oh, what a night
Why’d it take so long to see the light
Seemed so wrong, but now it seems so right
What a baby, what a night
I felt a rush like a rollin’ ball of thunder
Spinnin’ my head around n’ taking my body under
Oh, what a night

Oh, what a night
Oh, what a night
Oh, what a night
Oh, what a night.