A Conversation With...
Dr. Blair Sterba-Boatwright

Q: Where did you grow up and how did you get here, (A&M-CC)?

A: I was born in Paris, France. My dad worked for one of the big oil companies, and they sent him abroad right after he and my mom got married. We left when I was just six months old, though, so I don't remember anything. I mostly grew up in Williamsburg, Virginia. It was a tourist town then, although a lot of folks have moved there to stay since I was a boy. They have restored and re-built a lot of American Colonial buildings and re-enact a lot of historical events from 225 years ago. I met my wife-to-be in college and I had no real plans after college, so I followed her back to Texas. I went to graduate school at the University of Texas in Austin just because my wife Sandy was in law school there. Fortunately, they had a good math program. She graduated before I did, and took a job here in Corpus Christi. I drove back and forth between Austin and Corpus Christi each week for two years, until I graduated. I knew I wanted to be a math professor, but there were no jobs for me here. So, I got a job at St. Edward's University in Austin, and drove back and forth to Corpus Christi for ANOTHER two years. Finally, in 1989, a position opened up here (back when it was CCSU) and I was lucky enough to get it. We live near the bay (and near Selena's grave site) and have two dogs and lots of cats.

Q: What motivates you and has helped you become who you are today?

A: I'm inspired by my parents and my wife. They were and are all hard-working, intelligent, fundamentally decent people who let me know I was worth caring about. So I try to live up to their examples, and maybe try to pass along to other people the favors these three passed on to me.

Q: What makes you passionate about your field and teaching students?

A: So many people in this country have bad emotional feelings about mathematics—it's like we've all agreed to be neurotic about the same thing. I try to move students beyond that, to show them that mathematics is ultimately just a way of looking at and thinking about the world around us. Every so often, the light will dawn in a student's eyes and I'll know I did something good then.

Q: What course(s) are your favorite to teach?

A: I guess Advanced Calculus (MATH 4301), but I like all the classes I teach regularly.

Q: What co-curricular activities are you involved in, and how can students become involved with you in those activities?

A: This is NOT one of the things I'm real good about—I'm a little involved in the math club, but other than that, my involvement with students outside of class tends to come through talking to them in my office and around campus as I run into them.

Q: Outside of TAMUCC, what extracurricular activities are you involved in; what do you do for fun?

A: First and foremost, I love to read, primarily fiction. I also really find the stock market fascinating, I guess that's what I do instead of going to Las Vegas. I spend a lot of time running computer models about various investment ideas. I'm also interested in bird watching specifically, nature in general. I like to know what's going on with the plants and animals I see around me.

Q: Who inspired you the most or had the greatest impact during your collegiate experience which directed you to your field of study?

A: What directed me to my field of study? Sometimes, big life decisions get made for silly reasons. I was trying to decide between a history major and a math major, and I put off the decision until my college forced me to decide. Finally, I went with math because if I was a history major, I had to write a senior thesis and that sounded like a lot of work. So here I am. But definitely family members inspired me the most in college: my dad, who showed me how to overcome obstacles; my mom AND my dad showed me how to get along with other people; and my wife, who holds herself to pretty high standards and inspires me to try to do the same.

Q: What is your greatest achievement and whom do you attribute this to?

A: I haven’t yet attained my greatest achievement: I want to be as wise as my father. Probably the best thing I HAVE accomplished is my marriage, a work in progress.

Q: What question does the study of Math attempt to answer?

A: This doesn't directly answer the question, but I'd say that the study of mathematics gives you a way of seeing the world from a different perspective. I find that I understand ideas and situations through numbers, through sets, through functional thinking, in ways that other people sometimes don't. And I think that these ways of thinking, along with the problem solving skills you have to pick up to succeed in mathematics, are what makes the study of it valuable.

Q: Wouldn’t be caught dead wearing?

A: Anything baring my navel.