Texas Tech University

Greg Geis, Lab Director—Umlaut, Spring 1989

The following farewell message for and about Greg Geis appeared in the spring 1989 edition of "Umlaut", the newsletter of the Department of Germanic & Slavic Languages.

Greg Geis
Foreign Language Lab Director
1981-1989

Greg Geis, affectionately known as "Gregor", "Herr Direktor", "Computer Whiz", "Laboratory Genius", and always experienced as a positive, creative, gentle presence, hath wrought wonders in the basement of the Foreign Language Building at Texas Tech. When he became the Lab Director in 1981, the facility was a Level-II, open-reel-based, dial-a-channel-and-pray system with no independent control of recorded material. An equipment check included: reel-to-reel and cassette players, record players, slide projectors, and the random television. Over the years, Greg has steadily moved our technical capabilities ahead to a Level-III cassette-based system with a tape library for every language in Texas Tech's curriculum. Video tapes and computer software have been introduced as language learning tools. In addition, there is a new Sony Teaching Console System with 35 listening positions and the new Computer Laboratory Annex contains IBM-XT and Apple Ile computers, for which Greg has designed a computer program in Turbo Pascal, used to teach French, German, Latin; and Spanish.

Our foreign language laboratory today has an outstanding reputation among students and faculty across the Tech campus. Excellence in technology is matched by competence and helpfulness of the staff, handpicked by Greg and trained to support student/faculty needs and requests in a professionally organized manner.

Besides all this, there are important extras Greg provides: the friendly working atmosphere, rejuvenating humor, and visually pleasing surroundings. The elegant navy and grey decor invites one to "be at home" with state-of-the-art equipment and the graphic art by those famous impressionistic painters Geis and Roseberry) confirms that, indeed, one is in a special place in the Lab.

As our friend Greg leaves Lubbock for Louisville, Kentucky, we admit our loss and summon up joy for his trip into the outer world where things are green and the land is reported to curve.

Hoch soll er leben,
Hoch soll er leben,
Dreimal hoch! ! !

Our warmest best wishes to Greg and Linda!

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