THE MAESTRO
PROFESSOR -JOSEPH LOPREATO, SOCIOBIOLOGIST,
JULY, 1928- MARCH,2015
JULY, 1928- MARCH,2015
It was January 1977 when the heavy classroom door banged
open and shut. I glanced to my left and first spotted our professor, a short
man with black hair slicked back on his head, wearing horn-rimmed glasses with
a show of intellect and social savvy. He pranced down the aisle toward the
podium. He had a happy, but somewhat cocky grin on his face, as he glanced toward
us students, the small group to his right. The professor showed a flamboyant
style of confidence in a manner of vitality that a conductor of a small
symphony attacks an often and repeated performance with much love and gusto.
As he settled his notes on the tall stand with the sun
shining brightly through the windows behind, I expected to see at any moment a
baton with symphony music mysteriously appearing from somewhere in the room. I
realized I was observing a maestro that was preparing to give us a “Great
Performance” and he surely did as the semester evolved.
The Maestro Professor
greeted us in his deep melodic voice with an Italian accent
and vocabulary I had
never experienced in all my years. I
immediately knew I was totally unprepared, as a student from rural south Texas.
But in his European voice, he assured us we were in for a flight to which he
would expose our minds to the greatest thinkers of sociological theory,
Vilfredo Pareto, Emile Durkheim, Karl Marx, etc. And if we opened our minds, listened, and
studied with him it would be worth it. He would teach us logic through these
great scientists that would bring enrichment and much meaning to our
lives.
And so he did. My mind was indeed open and grasped so much
that has carried me through years of teaching and observing human behavior. I
will always be grateful for the education I received from my wonderful
professors in sociology, especially from Professor Joseph Lopreato. Yes, he
will be sorely missed, but his spirit will live in the minds of many through
generations of his students. I can still
hear his voice pointing out the teachings of Pareto’s logic and nonlogic of human
behavior. Then I better understand the
world around me. THANK YOU PROFESSOR LOPREATO.
