Dan's Zebra Chair

Dan in his Zebra chair in his office with me and three of his former graduate students.

Almost thirty years ago now, I was shopping in Durham with my mother and I happened to see a recliner covered in an African motif in a store window.  I told my mom I was going to get it for Dan's birthday.  Dan's career was spent mainly in research on African lakes, and I thought the chair would be perfect for him.  At first the chair had a place in our den in our Durham house, but when we moved to Raleigh there wasn't a place where it fit, so Dan took it to his lab at Duke.  It provided a perfect place for him to rest in his office or to sit while he had tea with colleagues or students.

Lou in chair in Dan's office at Duke Lab. 

When we cleaned out Dan's lab recently, there was the issue of what to do with his chair.  Although I have fond memories of the chair, I still don't have a place for it here, and one of his last work study students had such wonderful memories of having tea with Dan while he sat in the chair and the two of them had tea that I decided the chair belonged with her. She has told me what an influence Dan had on her as her mentor while she was at Duke.  The student, Dr. Lou, is now a pediatrican at Oregon  Health and Science University Hospital in Portland, Oregon. 


It was quite an ordeal getting the chair to Portland. 

Unloading chair at UPS.

We checked around with various shipping agencies and found that UPS freight would be the best bet.  The owner of a UPS store near Duke went over to the lab and got the chair.  Dr. Lou takes a ride in the chair at UPS.

As it turned out it was going to be more expensive to send it by UPS so the nice man found a less expensive company to ship it for us.

Chair arrived in Portland.

The chair arrived in Oregon with no damages.

The Zebra chair in Dr. Lou's office.  Dan would be pleased.

And now the Zebra Chair resides in Dr. Lou's office in the OHSU Hospital.