June 2026 will mark the retirement of Dr. Robert Mitchell from the faculty of the WWU Geology Department, and also the end of his tenure as the founding appointee as the Robert and Kathleen Digges Distinguished Professorship. Since his hire in September 1996, Bob has been a very active and successful member of the Geology Department, teaching numerous high-quality courses in Hydrogeology and Engineering Geology, GIS and related fields. His research activity included a large number of local and regional water quality and water resources projects from city, county, state, and tribal government funding, and providing vital data and sophisticated modelling results to allow better understanding of water resources and impacts on water availability and quality due to regional effects of ongoing climate changes. Bob’s leadership in these areas was recognized in 2011 by his appointment as the inaugural holder of the Digges Distinguished Professorship in Engineering Geology, which was the first named faculty position in the history of the department. Through his work at WWU Bob has been an active and successful mentor and advisor for our graduate program, with 29 MS students finishing theses under Bob’s direction by his retirement date. This success was recognized by him being honored as the Arlan Norman Awardee for Excellence in Student Mentoring in 2020. In addition to his teaching and research excellence, Bob has been an active leader in local, state, and national levels in environmental and engineering geology, serving as Chair of the Environmental & Engineering Geology Division of the Geological Society of America, as a member and chair for the WA State Geology Licensing Board, and many local and regional advising boards. In addition to this quality record of external service, Bob also made a number of positive contributions to department, college, and university level committees and working groups, importantly his leadership in advancing WWU’s graduate program and structure within the Faculty Senate. For the department and its students, Bob has been an advocate and mentor for students interested in the profession of geology and related fields such as hydrogeology and engineering geology- organizing activities and trips for the department AEG Chapter, and more recently working with the WWU Foundation to develop and secure funding to pay for costs related to the ASBOG licensure exam.