A famous quote bt Gene Kranz hangs outside of Dr. Rick Ott’s office. It reads: “Failure is not an option.” If you have taken a statistics course at Mesa State, you may be familiar with Dr. Ott’s self-described, “firm, tough, and loving” teaching style.
Dr. Ott is Mesa State’s Assistant Professor of Statistics. He earned his bachelor of science from St. Mary’s University, master of science from the University of Missouri and Ph.D. from Rice University.
Dr. Ott went to St. John Vianney Catholic High School, which follows a Marianist tradition which is also found at St. Mary’s University. Dr. Ott embraces the ideals of The Society of Mary (Marianists). Marianists are “People of faith, followers of Mary, people of community, discipleship of equals, and leaders in mission,” according to their website.
The American Statistical Society defines statistics as, “A mathematical science pertaining to the collection, analysis, interpretation or explanation, and presentation of data.”
He wanted to “play in everybody’s backyard,” so Dr. Ott chose this field because it offers him the opportunity to explore various professions and not be limited to just one area of concentration.
Dr. Ott is that he was a Mission Control Engineer at NASA. He took part in shuttle landings between 1997 and 1999 and even help land astronaut John Glenn. He worked on mission plans, ran simulations and worked with winds and atmospheric pressure data. He also worked in preparing for typical landings and abort scenarios. He got to walk inside the space shuttle Columbia a year before it fell apart. However, Dr. Ott left NASA due to his love of teaching.
Dr. Ott chose to teach at Mesa State because of the academics and area. He learned to ski at Powderhorn, and enjoys golfing. A few years ago he passed the players ability test to become a Club Golf Pro.
When Dr. Ott arrived here the campus reminded him of a “small high school” setting and with the new buildings and construction has made it a “nice college.”
The Marianists’ fundamentals add to Dr. Ott’s activities outside of the classroom. He has led a campus ministry and started a Bible study at the Newman Center.
Dr. Ott also enjoys sharing his expertise with middle school teachers. He challenges them to go above and beyond middle school curriculum with the help of other content specialists to have new and exciting ways to present the information to students on the Western Slope.
Dr. Ott, his greatest accomplishments are his graduates. Before he started teaching there were two statistics graduates. In the last five years, he has had nine graduates.
An experience that Dr. Ott will never forget was at the graduation party of a nontraditional student who had gone down the wrong path. Dr. Ott took this student under his wing and worked with him on projects. The uncle of the graduate, who happened to be a 250-pound Harley Davidson biker, went up to Dr. Ott and gave him a huge hug and thanked him profusely for the teaching and guidance of his nephew.
In essence he teaches to “change hearts.
“I am not perfect, I do my best to be a role model and about 90 percent of my students enjoy my teaching,” he said.
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