View source for Wood, Eric F

== Anecdotes ==
Eric was a complicated personality, and surely there were some who were put
off by him. He didn’t suffer fools gladly; at a meeting some
decades back, after a speaker pontificated on some point with
which he didn’t agree, he was heard to say, “If I wanted a sermon
I’d go to church.” But he worked tirelessly to advance the careers
of all whom he thought were deserving. These were not only his
own students and close associates, but in many cases, he wrote
in support of hydrologists (not to speak of other Earth scientists)
with whom he had no direct connection. (from Lettenmaier et al., 2022)

One class Wood taught was especially memorable for Kaiyu Guan, who earned a Ph.D. in
environmental engineering in 2013 with Wood as his adviser. For this
hydrology class, Guan was the only student registered. All semester,
Wood stood in front of the classroom, drawing on the blackboard and
lecturing passionately for an audience of one.  Guan said Wood saw through nonsense, hated fake science, and
disliked people doing superficial things. But his attitude was
instrumental in training students to be creative and independent
thinkers.

Outside the classroom, Wood loved the outdoors. His devotion to
fishing was legendary, as the professor would invite colleagues to his
house to sample large quantities of cured and smoked salmon he
had caught. “When he didn’t talk hydrology, he often talked fishing,”
said Peter Jaffé (the William L. Knapp ’47 Professor of Civil Engineering at Princeton).

Another of Eric’s interests was wine.   He had a well-stocked cellar and Keith Beven recalls that during one of Eric's visits to the Institute of Hydrology in the UK, a meal was organised at the wine bar in Wallingford with each of the participants providing an interesting bottle.   The participants included at least 3 wine critics for the major London newspapers of the day.   Keith was there to provide the transport home but after 13 bottles had been consumed (the 14th and most expensive one was pronounced corked), he is not sure how they both got home safely.