Dr. Tom made his mark at Orange Coast College

I never knew anyone who loved his life’s work more than Tom Garrison.

He was an Orange Coast College marine science professor for 42 years. He retired in 2011. I was one of a multitude who called him “my friend.”

The Newport Beach resident died of lymphoma Feb. 24 at age 72. He was diagnosed in 2008.

I met Tom in 1971, his third year on campus. Word on the street was that he was smart, charismatic and perhaps the most gifted young marine science professor in the land.

“Dr. Tom is in love with his students, his campus, his academic discipline and his professional colleagues,” I wrote in a 2007 article. “Put (him) in a large lecture hall crammed with eager students, flick on the switch to his microphone and watch him soar. He’s Jonathan Livingston Seagull, wheeling and sweeping over a golden sea.”

A former Naval officer who served on destroyers, a nuclear submarine and within the Navy’s Service Schools Command, Garrison taught nuclear physics at the San Diego Naval Station. He earned his Ph.D. at USC and served as a teaching assistant at San Diego State University before joining OCC’s faculty in 1969.

What a catch he was for the college!

Dr. Tom specialized in teaching large lecture hall classes, and in 42 years as a member of the faculty he taught nearly 50,000 students.

In 1997, Garrison was named faculty member of the year. The surprise announcement was made during his morning marine science class. Three hundred students rose and applauded.

But they weren’t surprised.

He served for many years as chairman of OCC’s Marine Science Department, the largest community college marine science program in the nation. For more than a decade he was co-chairman of the college’s honors program.

The National Marine Technology Society named him an outstanding marine educator. In 2009, he was selected as OCC’s first distinguished professor.

Garrison worked as a writer and science advisor for the Emmy Award-winning PBS television series, “Oceanus,” produced in the late 1970s. He was a writer and editor when that series was updated in 2004, and re-titled “Endless Voyage.”

He authored the bestselling textbook, “Oceanography,” used by colleges and universities nationwide.

Over the years, Garrison attracted a substantial number of surfers to his classes.

“(Surfers) seem to have a special affinity for marine science,” he told me in a 1993 interview. “I enjoy having them.”

Garrison wasn’t reluctant about giving his student-surfers inside tips. For years, OCC’s Marine Science Department maintained an ocean satellite monitoring system. In August 1993, Hurricane Greg passed below the tip of Baja and headed west in the general direction of the Hawaiian Islands. Garrison tracked its progress.

“By looking at a number of photos over a short period of time, you can calculate a storm’s size, direction and speed,” he later told me. “Then you calculate its distance from Orange County, and you can predict with great accuracy when large waves will begin arriving.”

When Hurricane Greg was a couple of hundred miles west of Cabo San Lucas — in a direct line with Newport — Garrison began his calculations. He told his 300-student class on a Friday morning to expect big waves by Sunday morning. The big waves arrived, and Tom had lots of happy surfers in class the following week.

Garrison was more than just an expert on the ocean. Early in his OCC career he wrote classical music reviews for a national magazine. He was a fan of Mozart and Bach and played the cello, “though quite poorly,” he would hasten to add.

Tom and his wife, Marsha, were fans of Orange Coast College’s crew for nearly 50 years. Their daughter, Jeanne, rowed for Coast in the 1990s. The Garrisons have two granddaughters, Grace and Sarah.

Over the years, aside from interaction with his students, Tom’s greatest professional joy was his relationship with his colleagues.

“We have a long-standing Friday lunch appointment at which the week’s triumphs and tragedies are dissected over a glass of IPA,” he told me in 2007. “Our teaching assistants have found out about these meetings, and we have the pleasure of bringing along the next generation of professors who will replace us when the time comes.”

Not just a celebrated scientist, Garrison was also a gifted wordsmith. It’s long been my contention that good speakers generally make good writers. Tom wrote with clarity, effervescence and humor (just as he spoke!).

“I have never in my life met such an amazing man,” marine science student Kevin Durand told me in 1997.

Durand later transferred to UC Berkeley.

“No one person has ever motivated me as much as Dr. Garrison,” he said at the time. “I am now an honors student with a 4.0 grade-point average, and that would never have happened without his assistance.”

Garrison had a reputation for hospitality. He frequently served tea and cookies (he called them “crumpets”) in his office for students and visitors.

“I learned long ago that the best way to attract students to your office is to offer free food,” he once told me. “We faculty members don’t sit cloistered in dreary research labs, far away from the rest of the world. We love having our students and others drop by. Food is always an inducement.”

Garrison loved the teaching profession.

“Professors have the world’s best job,” Garrison told a faculty audience when he was named OCC’s Faculty Member of the Year. “We tell students what we love to think about; we have the freedom to grow; we are protected from the vicissitudes of fortune by tenure; and we give students our lives. We work 24 hours a day enthusiastically, willingly and joyously passing knowledge to another generation.”

A professor’s most important mission, Garrison told me, is to bathe students in encouragement.

“I frequently find myself looking at a student -– and I’ve become rather good at this over the years -– and evaluating his or her future prospects. Often I say to myself, ‘This person is going to be great.’ Most frequently, you, as the teacher, know that fact before the student does. It’s imperative that we inspire students and make them aware of their potential.”

Dr. Tom was ever a font of inspiration.

He’ll never be replaced.

JIM CARNETT, who lives in Costa Mesa, worked for Orange Coast College for 37 years.