Carol Day, Ph.D.
Bushwhacker, Hiker, Mountaneer,
Astronomer, Naturalist, Tutor
(Fall 2002 Newsletter)
 Earlier
this year, National Forest officials needed someone to lead
clean-up efforts of the Santa Paula Canyon behind the Thomas
Aquinas College campus for the 18th Annual California Coastal
Cleanup Day. It was only natural for them to turn to College
tutor Carol Day.
So, on Saturday, September 21, Day led a crew of more than
30 student and local volunteers for trash-picking and clean-up
along the scenic trail following Santa Paula Creek deep into
the Los Padres National Forest. It was the natural thing for
her to do.
Day has combed several hundred miles of hiking trails in
her time, many of those in the 2 million acre national forest
that borders the College's campus. She hikes at least once
a week, 8 miles average, and has backpacked in Alaska's Wrangell-St.
Elias National Park, the Olympic National Park in Washington,
and the High Sierra Mountain Range in California. She has
climbed 14,500-foot Mt. Whitney, and she snowshoes in winter.
She found her love for hiking growing up near the Great Smokey
Mountains in Greeneville, Tennessee. With it, came a love
for science and nature. She obtained her bachelor of science
in Astrophysics from the University of Indiana, a master's
degree in astronomy from the University of Michigan, and a
doctorate in the history of science also at Indiana. She came
to Thomas Aquinas College in 1981 and has been a mainstay
tutor for the mathematics and laboratory courses.
In the 1980s, some Ojai forest rangers interested her in
performing volunteer trail maintenance work. Eventually, she
joined a group of volunteer wilderness rangers in Santa Barbara
where she performed trail patrol, surveys, public outreach,
and ranger station work.
In 1997, she formed a volunteer service group - the Bushwhackers
- comprised of students from the College and community residents
that adopted an eight-mile section of a scenic trail that
had fallen into disuse. That trail, known as the Last Chance
Trail, rises to the top of the 6,300-foot Topa Topa Bluff
that dominates the College's skyline. Since then, Day and
other members of the group have put in over 1,000 hours of
service, clearing overgrowth, repairing pathways, and marking
the trail. All but a mile has been cleared.
When not hiking - or teaching - Day can be found at night,
often on area hilltops or clearings, sometimes out in the
desert, helping students and others look at comets, meteorshowers,
eclipses, planets and deep sky objects. She is a member of
the Ventura County Astronomical Society.
-- Qtrly Newsletter, Fall 2002
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