Lindsay,

First of all, congratulations on your retirement!

I came to UW from Austin first as a transfer student. I thought the graduate advisor at Austin was good (supportive staff in general was an alien concept for me coming from India) but I was thrilled to know that there could be even better graduate advisors. And then when I went on to my current job and saw how bad (some) graduate advisors can be, which made me appreciate your help and work even more than I thought was possible!

Lindsay, for me you are the yardstick on how to interact with students and I have tried my best to emulate you when I interact with students now, though of course failing to meet your standards. I still marvel at how you would patiently listen to us, not lose your cool* and be so incredibly supportive.

I feel incredibly lucky that you were around when I was there and I feel bad for incoming students who won’t have the benefit of your guidance.

Enjoy your retirement and please keep in touch!

–atri

* I do remember one incident when you did lose a bit of your cool. During my first pit party, I was not sure if significant others were invited so I checked with one of the students organizers who in jest said no. I took the answer at face value, so I asked Carole to drop me off at the party and she then left. I still remember how mad you were when you came to know about the prank. Carole did stop by later during the evening so no harm done.