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Doc? When Doc died in 1990 the family and Edgerton foundation put to- gether a little committee and came to MIT interviewing people. They asked them what was special about Doc and what should we do that would be an ap- propriate legacy to him. Everybody was talking about the photographs because they were famous, but I took a little dif- ferent point of view. What made Doc so loved by students and faculty and everybody at MIT was that he was an extremely generous person. If a student came in and said they had always want- ed to do something or learn how to build something Doc would always say, ?Well, there is a lab bench and a soldering iron, it only takes a few micro-seconds, what are you waiting for?? He would give space, he would give materials, and he would give advice. He sounds like he was an in- credible mentor. He was. I remember one day when I was his TA and we had some- thing called the freshman seminar, when students would show up once a week and we would show them  lms. One thing he was famous for was his post cards. Doc never carried business cards. If you ever met Doc, sitting next to him on a seat in an airplane you would not leave without one of his post cards. He would strike up a conversation with anyone and hand them a post card. On the back of the post card he would have printed many of his iconic shots, and they had his name and address on the back of them and he would just hand them out like popcorn. If you ask people one thing they can remember about Edgerton even if they only met him once it would be the post- cards. That is the way he was, you could be standing outside of his of ce looking at his images and he would walk out and strike up a conversation and give you a postcard. It also sounds like his students admired him a great deal. They did. One time one of the freshman showed up at the door and Doc and I were standing at the door as the students were  ling in. There was this one freshman that was looking sort of sheepish and he asked Doc ?would it be OK if my girlfriend came to class?? Doc gave the young lady this really stern look and said ?You can?t get into my class without a pass.? She about looked like she was going to die and Doc reach- es into his pocket and pulls out a post- card and hands it to her and says, ?here?s a pass.? He was a character but a really generous character. People loved him Innovator Left Underwater camera; Woods Hole trip on Bear; 1952.RightMarine organism on the deep sea ß oor, photo- graphed in black & white. (Images Courtesy of MIT Museum) Doc would always say, ?Well, there is a lab bench and a soldering iron, it only takes a few micro-seconds, what are you waiting for?? He would give space, he would give materials, and he would give advice.January/February 2013 22 MTRMTR #1 (18-33).indd 22MTR #1 (18-33).indd 221/30/2013 10:18:13 AM1/30/2013 10:18:13 AM