Memories - M Masters

SLA Alumna Megan Masters reflects

I first met Steve when I was taking an exploratory course, Applying the Rasch Model, within the SLA department prior to applying to the program. Steve was a visiting scholar at the time and, having never taken a testing or item-response theory course before, I was really worried that the course would be out of my league. Little did I know that this single course would set the foundation for my entire graduate training and professional career. Just a few years later, Steve joined the SLA faculty at UMD and also served as a Research Scientist at CASL (now ARLIS), where I was serving as a research assistant and project manager. Given my new affinity for language testing and assessment, I was assigned to support Steve's projects at CASL, and was given the opportunity to lead his projects when he returned to Japan during the summer. We kept this routine up for almost a decade, and each year I received increasingly advanced responsibilities as I developed intellectually and analytically under his close mentorship and training. The research projects we supported sent us all over the country to meet with clients and present our research findings, from Monterrey, to Vancouver, to Princeton. No matter where we went, Steve always drove. And he always drove so.slowly. "Why rush" he would say, "when you could drive at leisurely pace and enjoy the ride"? He always insisted that we figure out where we were going using paper maps that I could never read, and I would never know the answers to his civil war history trivia questions. We were an unlikely duo that enjoyed one another's company. One of my favorite memories is the time when he introduced himself as the "chauffeur and chaperone" to the Commandant of the DLI, referencing our team of relatively new research scientists. I also remember waiting on a flight back from California to Maryland and asking him if he had any vacations planned over the summer. He looked at me, sort of tilted his head slightly with the trademark Steve glimmer in his eye and said, "I don't think I've ever taken a vacation." You see, for Steve, there was no such thing as work life balance. It was just life. Statistics, reasoning, argumentation, logic - these were all fundamental components of life for Steve. He never considered work as "work", at least as far as research, statistics, and teaching went. Thinking critically, creating avenues for discovery and insights for his students and fellow colleagues were as integral to his DNA as walking. It's only appropriate that he taught, advised, and consulted through his final days. I don't think he'd have it any other way. I was able to check-in with Steve throughout his battle this past year. During our last conversation, he said he was at peace. After all he stated, "the average lifespan of a male is 73, and I am 72." Always the statistician. 

- Megan C. Masters, PhD