Verne N. Rockcastle

What makes a good teacher? Dr. Rockcastle showed us in his every lesson-listening. You are the one who would listen after class, even when I needed guidance during my Ph.D. @ Chapel Hill. Thank you for the opportunity to be one of your students and a teacher. R. Toppin, Class of ‘79.

Dr. Rockcastle was my teacher, mentor/advisor. No one could ask for a better person. He created a learning environment for you to be able to question and reflect. Even while prepping for my doctoral questions, he made time to talk me down from the rafters, reminding me of how to many things I had to draw from, making sure to give me a mindful and meaningful tweek and a joke or two to get me to relax. Dr. Rockcastle is and will always be the epitome of what a good teacher is. For that, I...

As I think back on my association with Verne Rockcastle, I realize more and more how much he influenced me in different ways: as a Professor at Cornell, where I was a grad student from 1970 to 1972 and where his enthusiasm as a teacher inspired me; as a fellow distance runner, in which he excelled and instilled in me the fire to become a more serious competitor; as an environmental educator/naturalist, a career which we both loved and shared and in which I looked up to him as a Master; and...

Dear Diane & John: We were so sorry to hear about Dr. Rockcastle. He was such a big influence on me during my grad years at Cornell in Science & Environmental Ed. I'll never forget his passion for nature and his smile and twinkling eyes! It seems like only yesterday.
And after Cornell, when you (Diane) and I worked at our first jobs together at Museum of the Hudson Highlands, I got to know your Dad even better, both as a mentor and as a fellow runner. He ran times in his 50s that most...

Our deepest condolences to Madeline, Diane, and Lynn. My husband Steve and I were privileged to know Verne Rockcastle as a teacher, advisor, and mentor--and years later, as a colleague and friend. When Steve and I met, we discovered we had both shared the same advisor at different points in our respective pastsDoc Rock was my undergrad advisor and head of Steve's doctoral committee. As a transfer student to Cornell, I landed in Verne's class, and was captivated by the twinkle in his eye as he...

We are so sorry to hear of Verne's passing. He was such an inspiration to early education teachers because he made science concepts so user friendly. He will truly be missed by many Alaskan teachers.
We are keeping his family in our thoughts and prayers.

Verne Rockcastle is the reason that I am a science teacher. In fact, he is the reason that I am a teacher at all! I was fortunate to take "Our Physical Environment" with him in 1986, and I'll never forget how exciting and fun each class was. Every class was filled with activity: We threw pieces of wood off of a bridge and then timed their movement to figure out the flow rate of the gorge, we played with pendulums, and we calculated the volume and mass of snow. One time, he led our small...

Dr. Rockcastle had the unusual ability to inspire with his true enthusiasm for the subject. His dedication to elementary science teachers was profound and changed the way I approached teaching science. His legacy continues in the hearts and minds of the many children who have experienced his lessons in public school science classes. I am forever grateful for his contagious love of science.

Verne was a roommate of my Dad's at Syracuse. A fact I was unaware of until some 50+ yrs later when Verne stayed at our home in Seward, AK while traveling with a former student who was a mutual friend. I'll never forget the glint in his eye informing me of our long ago connection. While, I only met him once- he had a larger than life presence. Another lion has passed.