LOOKING BACK, LOOKING FORWARD

There was no way this young tropical forest engineering graduate could have ever guessed that he would at age 78 be listed in the Raleigh NC yellow pages as a consulting soil scientist. But it was the absence of a soils option at the Wageningen University in The Netherlands, and the dim future of a career as a “colonial forest officer”, that made me seek advice from the “earth science” professor. While in West Africa doing forestry work, he suggested I take a soils assistantship at Michigan State, so off I went in 1952 to be a graduate student for four-plus years, ending up with a PhD based on a dissertation “Soil & Site Studies of Red Pine Plantations in Lower Michigan”. The new 1957 vacancy for a forest soils professor at WV University seemed cut out for me, along with the liaison tasks for the soil survey in that magnificent sedimentary Appalachian landscape. The WVU campus routine was interrupted 1966-71 when I was “seconded” to teach in the land planning section of the Univ. of East Africa on the Kampala Uganda campus (Idi Amin was our residential neighbor!). WV University between 1961 and 1973 was committed to staff a USAID contract for upgrading all aspects of agricultural education in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda from the many rural farm institutes and the five diploma-level schools, to the academic curriculum at Makerere University in Uganda where we helped build the “post-graduate” MSc & PhD program. This position allowed me to help Makerere establish the first forestry curriculum in East Africa, hoping to prove my conviction that foresters are uniquely trained to become outstanding field soil scientists.

My return to the WVU campus in Morgantown (1972) started my new career as the state’s soil and water consultant for the Extension Service with an incredible degree of freedom to embark on multiple innovations, e.g. county soil survey conferences, regional soil test coordination & interpretation, organic farming/gardening initiation, sewage sludge engineering & utilization, onsite wastewater & urban stormwater treatment planning. I spent my sabbatical leave (1976-77) as the first university hire by USEPA at its national office in the water division (non-point source pollution section), helping set up a national coordination network with all state soils & water engineering extension specialists. I initiated the National Small Flows Clearinghouse on my campus as the first national database for onsite wastewater treatment. At WVU, I helped organize a faculty consulting firm(“Academic Associates”) with engineers & economists to handle a variety of environmental projects.

So when I eventually retired from WVU in 1990 after a bout of leukemia, my wife(a nutritionist) and I incorporated as “NC Academic Associates”. But it wasn’t until a group of far-sighted soil scientists helped pass an NC soils scientist licensing bill in 1995 that I was lucky enough to join fellow soil scientists as a private consultant. Being retired and having become involved in many volunteer activities, private consulting was not a high priority but another opportunity to advise young soil scientists and to promote setting up the Carolina regional chapter of NSCSS (=CSSC) It reminded me of my teaching days when I would help young foresters qualify as soil scientists by taking 15 hours of soil courses so they would be ready for a more serviceable career. Many of us near the end of our career can use our experience (& our mistakes) to help and caution others. Also, we have or find time to serve on key legislative or policy committees to initiate or promote sensible land & water management rules which can benefit from our professional knowledge.

We can learn from looking back and with that knowledge and wisdom help others look forward.

January 13, 2007

Willem van Eck, PhD, CPSSc, LSS(NC)

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