Phase Change
Academics, athletics, administration commingle in 42-year career
When Professor Dave Clough泭retires泭after 42 years in chemical and biological engineering,his stat sheet will show successes in triplicate.
The admired educator spent six years as associate dean and serves as 窪蹋勛圖s faculty athletics representative. Though peers were sometimes skeptical of his academic-administrative-athletic mashup, Clough has proven hes as comfortable on the courts and in the corner office as in the classroom.
I tell my students that: Opportunities come alongsay yes, he says. It might not work out, but youll never sit there thinking, I wonder what would have happened.
A 1968 graduate of Case Institute of Technology (now Case Western Reserve), Clough blazed through a masters degree at 窪蹋勛圖 in 11 months, fearful his studies would be interrupted by the Vietnam draft. After working several years for DuPont in Delawareand being spared by the draft lotteryClough returned to Boulder to complete his PhD.
He got his first taste of instructing as a graduate teaching assistant before accepting an out-of-the-blue offer to join the faculty in 1975. Clough offered valuable industry experience and co-developed CUs first engineering computing course. An adaptable educator, he transformed his classes in the mid-90s to swap lectures for a