On Friday, April 21, 2017, thousands of Aggies descended on the Texas A&M University campus to participate in the annual Muster ceremony. The time-honored tradition serves as a celebration of the past, present and future Aggie family. Muster has changed over its more than 100-year history, but the main tenant of honoring Aggies who have passed away in the last year remains.
One of the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering’s very own was honored at this year’s Muster. In August 2016, Texas A&M lost a true visionary of the field when Dr. Christodoulos "Chris" A. Floudas passed away while on vacation in Greece with his family.
Floudas, the Erle Nye '59 Chair Professor for Engineering Excellence, was a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a Texas A&M Institute for Advanced Study Fellow and Eminent Scholar, an American Institute of Chemical Engineers Fellow, a Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Fellow, a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors and Corresponding Member of the Academy of Athens.
In the days leading up to Muster, there is a Reflections Display located in the Memorial Student Center honoring the Aggies who passed away. At the display there was a tribute to Floudas (image above). In the display was the following poem:
Professor Christodoulos Floudas is Gone
We can shed tears that he is gone,
Or we can smile because he lived.
We can close our eyes and pray this is all a bad dream,
Or we can open our eyes and appreciate all that he left.
We can feel empty because we can’t see his smile,
Or we can be filled with resolve like he always was.
We can turn our back on tomorrow and relive yesterday,
Or we can be inspired by him and live our lives to fulfillment.
We can remember him and dwell only on his death,
Or we can cherish his memory and help make it live on.
We can close our mind, feel empty and fret about our loss,
Or we can do what he would want:
Smile, and bring our passion for life’s many possibilities.
Tribute by
Texas A&M Institute for Advanced Study