1960s
1970s
Vern Padgett — The Sturgeon General
I remember references in Tim Brock’s classes to the Sturgeon General, following discussions of his work on attitudes towards smoking and his testimony to the Federal Trade Association. I remember laughing out loud at this reference– but all the other students staring straight ahead at him. I was not sure if he was trying to be funny to us, or just to himself. Or whether the difference mattered.
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Vern Padgett — Tim Brock Tells a Joke in Class
One day Tim told a joke in his Psych 630 course, Public Attitudes, in 1979. The joke went something like this: The King and Queen arrived at Albert Hall for a concert. Just as they sat down, the band started playing. The Queen looked at the King and said, “Oh, we are just in time!”
I remember laughing out loud, because I found the story funny. I also remember that no one else laughed. In fact, as I looked around, I saw that not one of my classmates even changed their expressions. All were just staring blankly at Tim. What was even more disturbing was that as Tim told the story, I sensed that he expected that no one would find the story funny. I don’t even think he looked at us as he ended the story.
Did no one else laugh because they didn’t understand the humor in the Queen’s wry comment? Or did they find it inappropriate to tell a story that could be seen as complimentary to royalty? Or was there another reason? It left me with a sense that this brilliant man was an outcast, unable to connect even in the matter of telling a joke. I felt empathy for the estrangement that was clearly expressed on his face, and in his voice.
1980s
1990s
Duane Wegener — Who Can Lead Our Debate Team?
One class meeting in a seminar taught by John Cacioppo, he was not satisfied with the level of discussion of the issues he wanted to cover, so he split us into two “teams” to debate a particular issue covered in the readings. Our team had four people. We quickly put our heads together to determine how we would approach our assigned side of the debate issue, and we learned how much we were in trouble…. Lee Fabrigar said “I didn’t read it — I have nothing to say.” Joe Priester said “I didn’t read it either.” Bert Uchino said “I read it all, but I’m not saying anything!” I said “I didn’t read it either, but I think I know what we could say.” So I carried the baton to our certain doom.
2000s
I remember quite a few things about Tim Brock, both in and out of class. He was an intimidating presence at colloquia, where he loved to show off his impressive vocabulary (“apodictic” was one word of the week) as he shredded the unfortunate speaker with dry sarcasm (when he was being nice). I remember him recounting a field experiment (probably apocryphal, but this was pre-IRB) in which a husband and wife were hauled out of bed by apparent police, put in separate jail cells, and then brought back together. The alleged dependent variable was what they said to each other when they were reunited, which, as you might expect, amounted to “what did you do???” I remember being at Brock’s house for a social gathering, when he cornered me in the kitchen, leveled an imposing glare, tersely uttered three words (“the cowardly lion”), and then casually strolled away. I agonized over the implications of this observation about my personality till someone explained he was referring to my apparent similarity to Ray Bolger in the Wizard of Oz.