Summer WSST Newsletter
Page 11
WSST MEMBER SUBMISSIONS Memorable WSST Conference Speakers By Karyl Rosenberg, WSST Historian Conference speakers leave indelible memories, whether it’s one’s first conference or part of a career’s worth. Thanks to the newer and longtime members for this issue’s memorable speakers at conferences. If anyone has more memories please share them! Also, I will be writing about memorable field trips in the future, so please share those memories as well. Keep telling those WSST Stories!
1988, Robert Ballard: Discoverer of the RMS Titanic shipwreck Memories of Doug Johnson, Karyl Rosenberg and John Whitsett This was the first really big WSST conference event I ever attended. I remember a packed room at the La Crosse center where we had all just had a great dinner when we learned that our expected guest would be starting a bit late due to the fact that his slides somehow had not made it from the Twin Cities with him (apparently, he left them by the pay phone in the Twin Cities airport when his flight to La Crosse was called!). Happily they were located and were sent to La Crosse on the next flight. Someone had to go pick them up there, and of course the flight was late. When they arrived, Mr. Ballard calmly got all set up and ready to go with the help of the conference committee and
it was totally worth the wait! I had learned of his discoveries from broadcast media, but the images they showed paled in comparison to the originals he shared with us. I truly will never forget this presentation; it gave me the feeling of being present at the creation of remote underwater sensing science. Sources: K. Rosenberg memory, J. Whitsett written communication, 3/21. The story behind how we came to have nationally known speakers like Mr. Ballard at a WSST conference is equally interesting. As Doug Johnson tells it several years earlier, James Randi had been considered due to his media fame in the 1980’s. Randi was a magician who was famous for debunking assorted pseudoscience ideas such as spoon bending, psychic surgery, ancient astronauts, etc. Given WSST’s size and financial situation at the time, it was clear he would have been a higher priced speaker than WSST had ever had before. Nevertheless, considering his current popularity the leadership decided to invite Mr. Randi to give a public presentation at the 1984 conference in Wausau with admission charged both for the conference banquet attendees and the general public. The banquet was $8.00 without the Randi presentation, $10.00 with it. As Doug Johnson recalls, “the hall we were in was packed”. This was successful enough to give the WSST coffers a needed boost. Clearly, nationally famous speakers could be engaged with the proper incentives.
