22 Last summer marked Dr. Jim Puckette’s retirement as field camp director. Puckette attended OSU Field Camp as a student in the ’70s and has since become one of the longest-tenured professors to lead a field camp nationwide. “When I completed field camp in 1975, it was one of those unforgettable life experiences,” Puckette said. “I was also fortunate to have Jim Puckette teammates on group projects who were as passionate about geology as I was. All aspects of field camp were enjoyable: fieldwork, breakfast and supper … organizing informal field trips to see more geology, and the recreation, which consisted mostly of playing volleyball in camp in the evening.” During his first summer at the camp, Puckette established a friendship with the camp’s namesake, Les Huston, and his neighbors who lived on the land where the field camp is located. Huston’s daughter, Tiny Striegel, told Puckette throughout their friendship how important the camp’s research was to the local community. “This relationship with our neighbors was more than social because during the severe drought season in the summer, the Eight Mile Creek dries up and our neighbors haul water from the camp well to use domestically and water their livestock,” Puckette said. “Through good times and the tough times, Ms. Tiny Striegel remained our most important benefactor and advocate. Tiny, like her father Les, looked forward each year to the day the camp opened.” spring.2025
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