Tech Professor Breaks Stereotypes, Promotes Individuality

After realizing a sailboat was unrealistic to build in Lubbock, Susan Tomlinson, Ph.D., started making her own canoe paddles, followed later on by her own bicycles and greenhouses.

Susan Tomlinson

Susan Tomlinson

The Texas Tech environment and humanities program director and assistant dean of the Honors College, from Midland, Texas, has become well known for her unique hobbies.

Megan Conley, an honors academic adviser from Coahoma, Texas, said she has worked with Tomlinson for the past year and a half.

“Unique is definitely a word for Dr. Tomlinson,” Conley said, “She is one of those people who is just an inspiration. She’s just found this niche of an academic area and turned it into a thriving successful career, and she’s been able to stay genuine to her belief system and her lifestyle choices in every area of her life.”

Tomlinson said she was already a woodworker when she decided to begin making canoe paddles.

“Before that, I wanted to build a sailboat,” Tomlinson said, “and I started to build it, and I had all the parts cut out, and I just had to put it together. And, I realized: A. I didn’t have any place to sail; B. I didn’t know how to sail; and C. if I built it, it’d probably be this big thing in my yard that I’d never use.”

Even though Tomlinson could not build a sailboat, she said she still wanted to build something. Tomlinson’s class on canoe trips gave her the inspiration she needed to make canoe paddles, instead.

Tomlinson said she found the paddle-making process soothing, and she started to tackle more projects.

Susan Tomlinson's first canoe paddle

Susan Tomlinson’s first canoe paddle

“I guess I’m just curious,” Tomlinson said, “and I’m not afraid of not being able to do it.”

“I guess I’m just curious, and I’m not afraid of not being able to do it.”

Tomlinson said in her mid-40s she was sold an entry-level race bike that had cheap components, so she attended a bike clinic at the Robert H. Ewalt Student Recreation Center to try to improve it. Tomlinson said instead she learned so much about bikes that she decided to strip down her bike and replace its parts with better ones.

“We have this idea that bikes are really complicated,” Tomlinson said, “too complicated to work on, but they’re really not, and that’s the thing that I got from the clinic.”

Elizabeth Hash, a senior environment and humanities, English, and psychology major from Waxahachie, Texas, said Tomlinson’s love of bike riding is something she shares with her students.

Elizabeth Hash, student of Susan Tomlinson

Elizabeth Hash, student of Susan Tomlinson

“In one of the classes I took with her,” Hash said, “called ‘Literature of Place,’ she talked a lot about biking and how it’s a lot more realistic than people realize here in Lubbock.”

Hash said in the class they biked every day, and it helped fellow students realize how biking can be a safe and easy way to commute.

“I know that [Tomlinson] biked like 10 miles in one day to get to a location,” Hash said. “She just goes, no matter the weather.”

Since that first bike, Tomlinson said, she has built three more and is working on a fourth. She said this fourth bicycle will be different because instead of just building the components, she will be building the frame of the bike as well.

“I just felt like I really accomplished something,” Tomlinson said. “I kept thinking about that kid that sold me the cheap bike, and I thought ‘I’m showing you.’ And then, I thought the next step would be to build the bike from scratch, to buy the frame and go from there.”

Tomlinson said she is building the frame using a technique called brazing, which is a step up from soldering and down from welding. She is almost done with her fourth bike, Tomlinson said as she demonstrated on the bike outside her office the parts she has left to braze.

“I don’t know if that’s just how my brain works,” Tomlinson said, “because I can see how things go together or if it started back with that sailboat, where it’s just like, ‘gee, I just want to build a sailboat.'”

Tomlinson said on her blog, entitled The Bicycle Garden, the progress of her bike can be seen. On this blog, her canoe paddles and other various projects such as a greenhouse she recently built are also displayed.

Dr. Tomlinson's third bike

Dr. Tomlinson’s third bike

When she looks back on that day at the bike shop, Tomlinson said, she thinks there are quite a few lessons to be learned.

“A middle-aged woman walks into your bike shop,” Tomlinson said, “don’t treat her like she’s an idiot, but at the same time, I shouldn’t have let him treat me like one.”

Hash said Tomlinson has become a mentor to her during her years at Tech.

“The only thing stopping us from doing things is our fear and assumption that they are too complicated for us to do them.”

“She is very strong and tough to what she wants to do,” Hash said. “She is very dedicated and determined. At the same she has a lot of compassion for her students and really pushes them and encourages them to do things that are unconventional or maybe they’re afraid of doing, and I really appreciate that about her.”

“The only thing stopping us from doing things,” Tomlinson said, “is our fear and assumption that they are too complicated for us to do them.”

About Kaitlin Thogmartin

Kaitlin Thogmartin is a senior Environment and Humanities major, Journalism minor from San Antonio. She hopes to become an environmental reporter.