Colorado College abruptly lost a beloved professor and friend when Phil Kannan, legal-scholar-in-residence and fixture of CC’s Environmental Program, passed away. A moment of reflection was held in Shove Memorial Chapel on Nov. 6 as the community braced itself to endure the loss of Kannan, who’d become a student favorite since he began teaching at CC in 1997.

Howard Drossman, professor of environmental science and director of the Teaching and Research in Environmental Education (TREE) program, says, “I am quite sure that no one at Colorado College has taught more EV students than Phil Kannan. I estimate that in EV Policy alone, it is likely that Phil taught more than 750 students since we started offering the class as a requirement in 2000.” Drossman adds, “I am also sure that no one at the college has inspired more students to pursue law than Phil has, but I won’t hold that against him. We lost a lot of excellent science majors to law because of Phil’s inspiration.”

Kannan was known for his eccentric characterizations in class that he’d use to help clarify otherwise obfuscated environmental laws and regulations. Environmental science major Cory Page ’19 began a document of “Phil-isms” when he took Environmental Policy with Kannan.

Of all the quotations and quips collected in Page’s document of “The Wonderful World of Phil Kannan: Comments, Quotes, and Other Memorable Moments,” his favorite is “Environmental Policy doesn’t need more spectators, it needs participants.” Another of Page’s favorite “Phil-isms” from his four-page document is “Chemists, those energetic little beavers, are out there creating new hazardous air pollutants … way to go chemists!”

Jonah Seifer ’16, a project specialist with the State of the Rockies Project, also was amused by the comedic quips alongside dense environmental policy. “Phil was also tickled by telling the same ‘razorback’ animal joke over and over again. Not all endangered species are as charismatic as pandas or whales, so Phil would constantly attempt to spice up more mundane animals, like the vole, by adding ‘razorback’ to the beginning,” Seifer says. Hence, the “razorback vole.”

At the moment of reflection, students and faculty reminisced about another Kannan quirk: his diagrams. Kannan was a fan of illustrations and frequently took to the whiteboard to draw illegible maps. Page says, “I mean, the way he draws the United States. Good Lord. Half the geographers roll over in their graves. I don’t even think Florida and Texas make the cut. It’s just like a square with a little blip for Maine.”

Aside from the laughter and levity Kannan brought to sometimes draconian environmental policy, his most enduring legacies at CC will be the inspiration he provided to students, the willpower he showed in his career, and the passion that he brought to every day.

This is a shortened version of the story by Censky that appeared in the Nov. 14, 2017 issue of The Catalyst.