University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

Celebrating an annual tradition

Marcus Bursik mans the grill with the help of Alison Lagowski. Photo: NANCY J. PARISI

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• “It really helps with the winter doldrums—and making it about Groundhog Day is great because geologists love being outdoors.”

  Marcus Bursik

  Professor of Geology

By KEVIN FRYLING

Published: February 4, 2009

For a groundhog pushing 30, Ridge Lea Larry is remarkably well-preserved.

Ridge Lea Larry, the star of the Department of Geology’s annual Groundhog Day celebration—and his handler, David Borden—have been bringing people together for 26 years.

“No matter where our department, no matter who our students, we’ve had great participation,” says Borden, a retired project support specialist in the Department of Geology, College of Arts and Sciences, who created the tradition of Ridge Lea Larry in 1983. He returned Monday to grill up hotdogs and hamburgers for hungry students, faculty and staff during a picnic behind the Computing Center on the North Campus.

“We’ve got a lot of faculty-student interaction here,” says Borden, “not only on an educational basis, but on a social basis.”

Among the partygoers was Monica Ridgeway, B.A. ’08, a graduate student in geology, who says the annual celebration is more important than ever during the department’s ongoing relocation from the Natural Sciences Complex to Hochstetter and Cooke halls.

“It’s fun, but it’s also a way to reunite with everyone, now that we’re moving between different buildings,” Ridgeway says. “It’s a way to get together and see everyone you haven’t seen in a while.”

Marcus Bursik, professor of geology, who’s rarely missed a celebration since joining UB in the early ’90s, agrees.

“It’s good for department camaraderie, especially when it’s cold,” he laughs. “It really helps with the winter doldrums—and making it about Groundhog Day is great because geologists love being outdoors.”

Another longtime attendee is Alison Lagowski, B.A. ’92, B.A. ’92, M.A. ’96, assistant to the chair, Department of Geology. She has been coming to the event since 1987, when she joined the department as a freshman. She went on to earn both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in geology, along with a second B.A. from UB.

In addition to manning the grill, Borden was also on hand to interpret for Larry, who’s famously silent around strangers. The message? We’re in for an early spring because he did not see his shadow—a prediction that agrees with Western New York’s other rodent weatherman, Dunkirk Dave. These predictions might create some tension between him and the country’s biggest celebrity groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, who foresaw six more weeks of winter.

But for the crowd of 50 or more who turned out Monday, Larry’s annual weather forecast wasn’t the main event so much as the perfect excuse to get together, eat lunch, snack on groundhog-shaped cookies and peruse old departmental photos and scrapbooks.

Even Larry’s name is part of departmental history, Borden says, pointing to Geology’s old location on the former Ridge Lea Campus. Although Geology joined the North Campus in 1991, the groundhog’s name remained even after a contest was held to change it in 1995.

That year, Borden says, everyone voted by a landslide to stay with “Ridge Lea Larry” and so carry on the tradition.