Wild Rice

Wild Rice

How well do you know your fellow members of the Rice community? The Rice News flipped through the campus directory recently and randomly selected Geneva Henry to answer a few questions and allow us to get to know the hidden side of the executive director of the Digital Library Initiative:

Geneva Henry

How long have you worked at Rice?
It will be five years in mid-March of this year.

What is your spouse’s name?
David Eichen

What are your children’s names?
Hallie and Kacey Eichen

Pets’ names?
Sadie and Jasmine, both lop-eared bunnies, and a new addition: Pixie, a guinea pig.

Where were you born?
Lajes Field A.F.B., Terceira Island, the Azores. But my passport just says “Portugal.”

What is your favorite place on campus?
Martel Hall in Duncan Hall. I absolutely love the space. The ceiling is wild and wonderful and the confluence of rivers metaphor flowing into the river delta conjures up a wonderfully imaginary intellectual Mecca of scholars from multiple disciplines joining together to create new knowledge.

What book are you currently reading?
I’m actually reading four books: Dumas Malone’s “Jefferson the President: First Term 1801-1805” (I enjoy biographies), Noam Chomsky’s “Middle East Illusions” (it’s too intense for me to read much of it at a time at bedtime), Amy Tan’s “The Joy Luck Club” (I like to read whatever my teenage daughter has finished reading for school) and James Michener’s “Space” (I’m a big Michener fan).

If you could have any job you wanted, what would it be?
I’ve always thought it would be so cool to be a museum curator at some famous museum like the Smithsonian.

What is your favorite snack food?
Dark chocolate truffles

What is your favorite movie?
“Gallipoli.” I saw it when it first came out 20-some-odd years ago, and it left me totally speechless. I recommend it to anyone who wants to see a very human portrayal of war and how futile it can be. It’s always difficult to find other people who’ve seen it. The response I usually get is, “Gallipa-what??”

What do you wish you had known when you were 18 years old?
The importance of taking a wide diversity of courses in college, in as many disciplines as possible, to learn different approaches to thinking. The value of an education isn’t the specific things you learn; it’s learning how to think. If I had known that when I was 18, I would likely have viewed all of my studies as worthwhile and none of them as a waste of time.

Least favorite food?
Peas

What’s the best thing about living in
Houston?
The arts — museums, orchestra, the Houston Ballet — they’re all world-class.