The focus of my own group there was the field of paleoceanography, supported largely by data of the Deep Sea Drilling Project, a lifting reward for the time and effort spent on its development. The years at Oregon brought much involvement in international ocean sciences and ocean science management. This is the proper moment to mention with deepest gratitude my two close friends and mentors in ocean science politics, both deceased far too early, Chuck Drake and Allen Cox. All in all it was an exciting time, and I learned a great deal. Perhaps best of all, the Alvin experience inspired me to plan, together with Dick von Herzen of Woods Hole, the Alvin expedition that enabled me, on the 17th of February 1977, at 11 in the morning, to be first to see the now famous deep-sea hotsprings.
Few scientist can identify the peak of their careers with such precision.
You may well ask whether we shall ever get back to archaeology, but be patient, I am almost there. In 1976, I cam to Stanford and earned for the very first time my whole salary in hard money, a gratifying experience, although I admit that during the many soft-money years I never really worried about where the wherewithal for myself and my team would come from . Stanford brought new experiences, my favored one being the teaching of geology to undergraduates as part of their general education. Teaching has greatly enriched my life and made me the generalist in earth sciences I had long wished to be. On the debit side, being at Stanford accelerated my withdrawal from blue-water oceanography as working on ships and the sailor's life became progressively more incompatible with an orderly academic existence.