This is a bit of a weird entry, but I wanted to pay homage to my college advisor and Climatology professor, Dr. Arnold Court (1914-1999). If you google his name, you will find some places on streets named “Arnold Court” and you may come upon some other real people with that name. If you dig and dig a little more you will find a WHOLE BUNCH of scientific and climate-type stuff with his name attached. But, there isn’t much online about Dr. Court the person. I try to remedy that a little bit here. If you are reading this and would like to share something about Dr. Court for posterity, then please e-mail me! (bill@stormbruiser.com) I can stick what you have to say just below.
I met Dr. Court shortly after starting college at California State University Northridge in Fall, 1976. I began college as an Astronomy major, but then switched to Geography/Climatology after taking a weather and climate class or two. These were in the Geography Department, and I soon learned that the Geography curriculum was heavy on climatology and geomorphology. I liked studying weather and weather extremes, and liked statistics. It was an easy decision to switch majors! Court advised me as to what courses to take inside and outside of those in the Geography Department, and he eventually became my Masters Thesis Advisor in the early 1980s. He was very involved in the local Los Angeles Chapter of the American Meteorology Society, and he had me and other students making climate studies presentations to the group. In other words, Dr. Arnold Court was instrumental in helping me receive my BA and MA degrees from CSUN. Best of all, I became a learned climatologist!
Dr. Court was always very pleasant and eager to help and direct me academically. He was a font of climate knowledge, and I wish that he were still around today as I have so many new questions for him! He also was pretty good with the jokes, if you were into rather dry weather quips.
I attended the memorial service for Arnold back in 1999, and I received a nice little handout which covered some of his life and exploits. The pages contained nice write-ups by his friends and family and colleagues, and I share them below.
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