December commencement was last weekend. I always have a strange mix of emotions around graduation because I’m so damn proud of how hard everyone has worked, and I’m so excited to see what life has in store for everyone, but selfishly, I’m sad to see them go.

As I was sitting through the ceremony, I got a little wistful thinking about one recent graduate that didn’t get to have his moment. Dr. Austin Moore has to be my most unique doctoral student. He received a diploma, but he didn’t walk because he moved, started his dream job, and his kids had to start school, all within a few days of commencement. But that’s not why he’s unique. This photo is what makes him unique. How many professors have a 20 year old photo of their doctoral student that looks like this:

And I have more pictures, but Austin doesn’t have tenure yet, so I’ll keep them tucked away for a while. I know have one that goes back to 1992, but it’s in the depths of my basement. I know which box it’s in, but that box is at the bottom of a pile of boxes and, well, I’m lazy.

Austin and I met at Oklahoma 4-H Congress in 1992. We shared a love of people, 4-H, public speaking, and talking about ourselves. We enrolled at OSU on the same day, and because of our love of communications we gravitated toward agricultural communications. I can’t think of a more perfect fit for a degree for two people. Just a few months into our freshman year, Rob McClendon hired us to work at SUNUP-TV, a daily television program produced by the Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources at Oklahoma State. As interns, our job was to arrive at 6:30 a.m. and run cameras, tapes, and other things involved with producing a live television show. I don’t know how, but I only missed one show, and I don’t think Austin ever missed any. The fact that they successfully depended on 18-22 year olds to get a live t.v. show on the air at 7 a.m. still amazes me.

As we continued working at SUNUP, we each gained responsibility, and Rob let us shoot, write, and edit stories, then he actually aired them! As the semesters rolled on, Rob trusted us even more, and allowed us to produce, and sometimes anchor, the show. And occasionally, they (and why they did blows my mind) let us take the state vehicle and state equipment and go all over Oklahoma to shoot stories. It was absolutely the best college experience, and it was made better because Austin was with me. (Seriously, Rob! Why did you let us punks use all that fancy equipment? And yes, it was me that spilled the coke on the camera.)

After graduation, we went our separate ways. Austin was at Texas A&M, and heard about an ag reporting job at KLBK in Lubbock, so I have him to thank (and I say that with true gratitude) for putting my career on its path here on the South Plains. We always stayed in touch and saw each other as often as we could.

Things were transitioning with his job at Oklahoma Career Tech, I had a doctoral assistantship available at Texas Tech, so I started pestering him to come work on his master’s and doctorate. Austin always had a patience about him and a knack for explaining things well, and I knew he would make a great teacher. Plus, he’s incredibly smart, so I figured he would get a kick out of research. I knew it was a long shot, but one May afternoon over cheese fries at Eskimo Joes, I suggested he come work on his doctorate. A few months later, he was moving his family to Lubbock.

Austin took to academia easily. He’s a natural teacher. He gets research. He has a servant heart. His entire dissertation was to help extension video producers nationwide: that’s how much he loves video and wants to help people. It’s not available in the library yet, but here’s his thesis. It’s incredible, despite what Reviewer #2 said (still bitter about that).

Our department misses him already, and he has only been gone a few months. I miss him terribly. He was the only one that could fix the video equipment! And he knew what parts to order when stuff broke. Now, it takes me at least an hour to google which replacements to buy; it took Austin 20 seconds. Oddly enough, the only pics we have from his doctoral program are his graduation pictures (see below).

Austin took a job as an assistant professor at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Tifton, Georgia, and they are so lucky to have him. He’s so happy there, and he’s loving his students. I mean, they got him to dance in a TicToc video, for pete’s sake. Here’s the link. I’m sharing this as many times as possible because it makes me laugh so hard.

There aren’t very many people that I would call a lifetime friend, but Austin Moore is one of them, and I now consider his family as part of my family. He’s as good as gold and I want only the best for him, Melissa, Tucker, and Ella as they move through this chapter of life in Georgia.