I can definitively say that without Dressler's guidance and mentorship, I would not be where I am today, either in life or in my career. It was Dressler who reignited my passion for engineering as a TA for an undergrad lab course I was in, and it was Dressler who helped guide me towards the lab where I would eventually work as an undergraduate researcher and then a grad student, paving the way for me to get my Masters Degree, which in turn opened so many doors for me. Along the way he was a great mentor, but more importantly, he was a great friend that will be greatly missed. I like to think of life like a massive ocean liner, in that it tends to amble along a set course at a given pace, deflecting minor storms, waves, etc and doesn't deviate from that course unless acted upon by a major force. And throughout life, there are people and events that have such a profound influence on our lives that they turn the boat, so to speak. Kris was one of those people that turned the boat, not just for me, but for so many people, and is the only way I can think to truly give meaning to how big of a hole in the world he leaves behind. 

The bit above was pretty serious, and if there's one thing I learned from Dressler, it is you have to have fun in life, so here's something a bit more fun and light-hearted. I was working in the lab one day when Dressler came in, and you could just tell he had a great idea brewing that he was very excited about. Wally had just been born and he was telling us all of the fun activities he planned to do with him, one of which was to hypothesize which household objects would float and which ones would sink, followed by acquiring a giant tub of water, throwing said objects into the water, and testing the hypotheses. I said to him, "You mean like the bit Letterman does on his show called Will It Float? Where he and Paul Shaffer guess if an object will float and then they unceremoniously toss it into a swimming pool?" Dressler looked at me with stunned silence. Finally he said "So you're telling me that this great scientific activity I have thought of to do with my son has already been thought of by...David...Letterman?" He was pretty deflated, and I felt bad, so I reassured him that it was still a great idea, and that he and Wally would definitely inject more science into it than a late night talk show host ever did.