John Boggan & Daniel Speck

College of Agriculture & Life Sciences and College of Arts & Sciences

Tell us about what you're doing with your life
My husband, John Boggan, and I are both recently retired. We spend most of our time these days at our beach house in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware where John spends a lot of time in the garden and Dan tinkers with things. John recently retired from a career in botany at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History. Since retiring, we have been spending most of our time at our second home in Rehoboth Beach with our cats Sweetie and Nuki. We finally have the big garden we've always dreamed of!

What was your favorite class at Cornell, or the one you found most useful?
John: It's hard to pick out one favorite! I took several awesome Entomology classes and it was great to be in a small department and get to know the professors a bit. But one that had a long-range impact was Karl Niklas's Introductory Botany course, which nudged me in that direction for a career.

Dan: took Latin his whole freshman year. The class was 5 days a week at 8:00am.

What is your favorite memory of your time at Cornell?
John: I lived in Risley Residential College during my senior year and I really miss the communal dining. The dining hall was one of the best on campus, and I had many memorable meals with my fellow Risleyites.

Dan: Eating psychedelic mushrooms and walking up Cascadilla  gorge and through campus shortly after graduating.

Which Cornell classmates do you keep in touch with?
We have a few Cornellian friends that we keep in touch with: Carol Leister, David Indest, Harvey Cohen, Geoff Murphy and John Taylor.

How has your time at Cornell influenced you since you graduated?
John: My time at Cornell has influenced every day of my life every since, because it's where I found both my husband and my future career.

What extracurricular activity or hobby from your time at Cornell was most meaningful?
Dan took karate as his phys ed class earning a brown belt in Shito Ryu. At 35 he started practicing Uechi Ryu and has earned his 5th degree black belt. John was involved in the gay student group (Gay People at Cornell or "GayPAC" at the time) and it was through this group that he met Dan, who he is still with 40 years later.

If you could change anything about your Cornell experience, what would it be?
Dan would have taken fewer math/science classes and more language classes.

What advice would you give to a student starting at Cornell?
Take elective courses outside your department or your major. Take as many of them as you can. They'll make being a student a lot more fun, and you never know when one of them might send you in a different direction entirely.

What are you most looking forward to at Reunion 2024?
The food! The older we get, the better they feed us!