Life After Retirement: Duane Kouba
I started my Lectureship in the Department of Mathematics at UC Davis in 1982 and reluctantly retired in the spring 2021. During that time I also spent 18 years as a member of the UC Davis Men’s Basketball coaching staff, highlighted by a Division II National Championship in 1998, an exciting four-year transition from Division II to Division I, and becoming a member of the Big West Athletic Conference. It was a long, busy, and rewarding journey with many ups and downs. But without a doubt this was a dream job for me to work in a world-class Department surrounded by award winning researchers, and to be able to teach some of the best and brightest California, U.S., and international students. I was also able to coach some highly talented student-athletes, many of whom have become highly successful professionals and coaches.
I would be remiss if I didn’t sincerely thank every Chair who enthusiastically and generously supported my employment and merit reviews over the years: Borges, Mangel, Krener, Alder, Tracy, Hunter, Mulase, Nachtergaele, Hass, Romik, Thompson, and Schilling. There were certainly many other generous faculty members who also befriended, mentored, and advised me. Thank you to all of you for enriching all of my experiences at UC Davis.
Even though I won’t be teaching for a while I do have a few academic projects planned. I have two completed rough drafts of calculus papers which I would like to edit and submit for publication. For the past 20 years I have collected survey data from students from all of my classes regarding majors, GPAs, SAT scores, AP courses, and study habits - hours spent studying alone or with groups, use of the Calculus Room, use of technology, use of my course websites, etc. I hope to organize this data, look for trends, and write a report about these trends. I certainly will continue to work on my Calculus.org website, which has given me a great deal of personal and professional satisfaction over the years, adding more problem and solution sets to this widely used website.
Since retirement I have continued to stay in good physical condition with more frequent basketball workouts and mountain biking. I am also spending a bit more time now on Sudoku puzzles and online card games (cribbage and high-low poker) while sipping on coffee at Starbucks. Long neglected organization, painting projects, and repairs have been made to my house since retiring. After travel restrictions are lifted in the Philippines, I want to continue my traveling, teaching, and basketball charity work in Cebu City, where I have spent extended time living for the past ten years pre-COVID.
I deeply miss the daily excitement and energy of interacting with students, staff, and faculty, but I also look forward to the chance to again teach a class at UC Davis from time to time as an Emeritus Lecturer.