The News-Gazette.com: Getting Personal: UI professor Bruce Hannon

Getting Personal: UI professor Bruce Hannon

By Melissa Merli

Sunday, October 11, 2009 8:04 AM CDT

Explain in one sentence what it is you do.

As a University of Illinois professor, I teach about and do research on the modeling of ecological and economic systems.

What time do you typically get up? What do you do the first hour of the morning?

About 6 a.m. I go to the Courier, sometime in the 7 a.m. to 8 a.m. period and read The New York Times and then generally have a breakfast meeting there.

What did you have for lunch today? Where? With whom?

I eat often at the vegan restaurant in Channing-Murray on South Mathews Avenue on campus.

University of Illinois Professor Bruce Hannon with the original Champaign County Courthouse clock. By Robin Scholz

Best high school memory?

The discussion I had with (Bement High School) Principal Art Wehmeir that resulted in my decision to go to the University of Illinois in engineering.

Tell me about your favorite pair of shoes.

I must use Finn Comfort, a German shoe, because the European shoes are broader for their length.

What does a perfect Sunday afternoon include?

A walk at Allerton Park with grandchildren.

Was there one book you read as a child that you still cherish? Own? Read?

I cannot recall any particular book. There were many.

Where on Earth are you dying to go? Why?

I am planning a trip to follow the trek of my great-grand uncle who was a (twice-wounded) veteran of the entire Civil War.

Tell me about your favorite pet.

We were raised with English pointers. They were kept strictly outside in all weather and were great hunting companions.

Have you discovered as you matured that you are becoming like one of your parents? Which one and how?

People say I am coming to look like my father. I wish.

What would you order for your last meal?

I usually eat standing up while at home as I have a hobby of repairing antique clocks and it is very time-consuming. I have a minimum of two deficiencies – a selective taste for food or music.

What can you NOT live without?

Nature.

Who do you have on your iPod?

I find that I am not inclined to listen to music. I listen to WILL AM 580 radio when I am in the car.

What's the happiest memory of your life?

When the eight-year battle with the Army Corps of Engineers officially ended in May of 1975 and they gave up their plans to build Springer reservoir on the Sangamon River that would have flooded Allerton Park.

If you could host a dinner party for any three people, who would they be?

(Nobel Prize-winning economists) Amartya Sen and Joseph Stiglitz and Barack Obama.

What's the best advice you've ever been given?

Don't be a quitter! From my father.

What's your best piece of advice?

Try.

What was your first job, and how much did you make an hour?

A summer job as a Gandy dancer on the Wabash Railroad, straightening track, replacing ties, cutting plants at crossing. All by hand, in 1952, for $1.41 an hour.

What was a pivotal decision in your career, and how did you arrive at that decision?

My father got me the above railroad job and it convinced me that college was a great alternative.

Do you have a bad habit? What is it?

I have a tendency to nag people on issues that I care about. I don't want a decline in their attention to the issue and I tend to overdo the discussion.

How do you handle a stressful situation?

At best, think about the ultimate source of the stress and make a good plan to eliminate it. Sometimes it takes years to do that.