The moment Susan Alexander and Ross McDonald heard that their friend Rosemary Knight had been honoured with the Society of Exploration Geophysists’ highest award, the Maurice Ewing Medal, they decided the professional recognition demanded a Bowen celebration. Rosemary is the first woman to win the Ewing Medal in the award’s 43-year history, the second Canadian, and the first scientist in the specialized field of hydrogeophysics (a term Rosemary coined while finishing her PhD in 1985). Ross and Susan invited Rosemary’s double vaccinated friends to gather outdoors. Susan and her sister Wendy made waffles. Susan presented “Sonnet for Rosemary,” composed to salute her remarkable friend’s many achievements.
From “Sonnet for Rosemary” by Susan Alexander after Shakespeare’s Sonnet #116
Bowen Islanders don’t know her stellar worth
because she does not blow her golden horn.
Thank God, that Stanford and the scientific world
shower honours on this rose – but does she have a thorn?
Perhaps to prick those who can’t see that Bowen CAN,
this hydrophysicist, teacher, citizen, and friend.
Rosemary’s celebration was, for many, the first group hug in a long, long time. It felt great.
