Citation
Howard T. Odum: Related Documents

Material Information

Title:
Howard T. Odum: Related Documents
Abbreviated Title:
Florida Growth Management Oral History
Creator:
Odum, Howard T. (Howard Thomas), 1924-2002
Publisher:
Howard T. Odum

Notes

Abstract:
The 'Florida Growth Management Oral History' series includes interviews on the topic growth management. Interviews include a UF professor of architecture and a UF graduate research professor in environmental engineering; a banker; an Assistant Secretary of the Department of the Interior; a lobbyist for land developers; political advisors -- one of whom is considered a father of growth management law in Florida; and an executive in the St. Joe Company (and also, formerly, an executive of development arms at Disney). These interviews cover a wide range of topics: growth management laws dating from the early 1970s; various comprehensive plans; the Zwick Report; water quality and beach erosion; media effect on environmental issues; planned urban communities such as Seaside and Celebration; land acquisition philosophy; various governors’ impact on growth management; taxes; and many other issues.

Record Information

Source Institution:
University of Florida
Holding Location:
University of Florida
Rights Management:
Made available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 International license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.
Resource Identifier:
FGM 4 ( SPOHP )

Aggregation Information

ORAL:
Samuel Proctor Oral History Program (SPOHP)
WET1:
Wetlands General Research Collections
ODUM:
Howard T. Odum Center for Wetlands Publications
IUF:
University of Florida

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Full Text






Ecology pioneer



Odum dead at 78


* The award-winning
researcher and UF
professor emeritus made
his mark in the state.
By ERICH SEAN-PAUL SPIVEY
Special to The Sun
Howard Thomas Odum, a
University of Florida graduate
research professor emeritus
who founded the fields of eco-
logical economics and ecologi-
cal engineering, died of cancer
on Wednesday at Hospice
House of North Central Florida
in Gainesville. He was 78.
Dr. Odum founded the Cen-
ter for Wetlands and the Center
for Environmental Policy at UF.
During his six-decade career,
he pioneered ecosystems
research and helped integrate
ecology and economics. His
research led to the formation of
many new fields of science,


including systems ecology, eco-
logical economics and ecologi-
cal engineering.
In 1987, Howard Odum and
his brother, Eugene, received
the Crafoord Prize the equiv-
alent of the
Nobel Prize in
ecological sci-
ences from
the Royal
Swedish Acad-
emy. The
brothers also
received the
Prize Institute
de la Vie in Odum
Paris in 1976.
Eugene P. Odum died on
Aug. 10 at age 88.
"They were the fathers of
modern ecology," said UF envi-
ronmental engineering profes-
sor Mark Brown, who worked
with Howard Odum for 30
ODUM on Page 5B


THE GAINESVILLE SUN LOCAL & ST



ODUM: Wrote more than 300 papers


Continued from 1B


years. "Their research is going
to change the way we perceive
a human's place in the
biosphere."
Odum's research was at the
center of many crossroads in
Florida's environmental histo-
ry, including the Cross-Florida
Barge Canal and Fenholloway
River managements plans. A
central idea throughout his
research was that natural and
human systems must be consid-
ered together for mutual
benefit.
Odum wrote more than 300
scientific papers and authored
15 books. His most recent
book, "A Prosperous Way
Down," was written with his
wife, Elisabeth C. Odum, and
published last year. It discussed
society's plan to maintain a


prosperous future as supplies
Sof fossil fuels decrease.
A revised edition of "Envi-
ronment, Power and Society,"
which was first released in
1971, will be published next
year.
Odum studied zoology as an
undergraduate at the University
of North Carolina in Chapel
Hill before joining the U.S. Air
Force meteorology program in
Puerto Rico in 1943. He earned
his doctorate in zoology from
Yale University in 1951. He
taught at Duke University, the
University of Texas-Austin, the
University of Puerto Rico and
UNC-Chapel Hill before settling
at UF in 1970, where he most
recently served as a graduate
research professor emeritus in
the department of environmen-
tal engineering sciei.ces.
He first taught at UF as an


JN;


assistant professor from 1953
to 1955.
In the 1960s, he developed
the concepts for using natural
systems for wastewater
treatment.
His Florida landscape ecol-
ogy and management research
preceded national policy for
ecosystems management by
two decades.
Funded by the U.S. Depart-
ment of Interior and the Florida
Division of State Planning, the
work, known as the "South
Florida Study," included many
of the Everglades restoration
alternatives that are currently
under way.
"He predated the work that is
going on .in the Everglades
right now," said Brown, who
worked with Odum in South
Florida as a graduate student in
1976.
Odum grew up in Chapel
i1l, N.C. His father, renowned
sociologist Howard Washington
Odum, researched race, folk
culture and welfare in the
South.
Odum is survived by his wife,
Elisabeth C. Odum of Gaines-
ville; daughters Ann Odum of
Gainesville and Mary O. Logan
of Anchorage, Alaska; a sister,
Mary Frances Schinhan of
Chapel Hill; a granddaughter;
four stepchildren; and nine
step-grandchildren.
A memorial service will be
held at UF's Baughman Center
Oct. 13 at 3 p.m.

Former Gainesville Sun Ci
Editor Cynthia Barnett contrib-
uted to this report.


--~~--- ~I















UF professor wins


major research prize


By TOM LYONS
Sun staff writer
The Royal Swedish Academy of
Sciences on Thursday awarded this
year's Crafoord Prize to University of
Florida research professor Howard
T. Odum and his brother Eugene P.
Odum for their studies of interactions
between people and the natural
environment.
The Crafoord Prize, worth
$240,000, is one of the largest prizes
for science in research fields not cov-
ered by the Nobel prizes.
Howard Odum and his brother Eu-
gene; a recently retired university of
Georgia professor, will share the
prize. Both will receive their awards
from King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden
at a ceremony in Stockholm on Sept.
23.
Howard Odum was honored for his
studies of solar energy, lakes, coasts,
coral reefs and tropical rain forests.
Thursday night, hours after learn-
ing of the award, he said, "This is
very exciting. I guess it's a recogni-
tion for systems ecology and environ-
mental sciences."
Odum said he hopes to find match-
ing funds and use the prize to pro-
mote research into ways to bring
human economies and nature into


Howard T. Odum
research professor


search, and belongs freely to the
brothers, but Howard Odum said,
"People who have gotten large Swed-
isli prizes in the past usually have
some cause they want to foster," and
he is no exception.
His older brother Eugene was cited
for forming a basic picture of the


structure and the function of the
environment.
The prize was founded by a Swed-
ish couple, Holger and Anna-Greta
Crafoord, who willed their fortune
from a pharmaceutical business. The
rize has been awarded since 1982,
the year Holger died.
The Associated Press contributed
is not earmarked for re- to this report.






















U


Dr. Howard T. Odum
Graduate Research Professor
Environmental Engineering Sciences
University of Florida


DR. HOWARD T. ODUM was awarded an international
prize for outstanding research by the Institute de la Vie (Institute
of Life) in Paris in June, 1975. His brother, Eugene Odum, a
professor at the University of Georgia, shared the award and
the prize money of 300,000 French francs (some $66,000).
A jury of 53 members, many of them Nobel Laureates,
from 29 countries chose the Odums or th the
global





te reads, "for elaborating on and
perfecting the experimental methods for studies of eco-
systems. They have been pioneers in the passage of ecology
from the descriptive to the experimental stage. Their works
help us to better understand the connections between living
beings and their terrestrial and aquatic environments, and
the mechanisms of diverse stresses. On a scientific basis
they have established the biological study of the
environment. Their findings establish a beneficial relation.
ship between science and society resulting in the protection
and flourishing of life."
Dr. Odum is the Director of the Center for Wetlands.















I hie tilstaiN'dI Imll hlologlmIt-, hl.is bIe'C
lctlected ceeic Ive HS )ni ngmuished
1i,':2 \w;ards: (ico: ge (it'.lold Sinp-
son. thc Simroe FIoilndmtilion: r.gcne P
S'dum. Lni ri: siti of (;eolge:. nd How-
ard T O(dum. universityy of l:l,;ida. The
a\':idt s will Ie presented on 21 August at
the ple:uary session Io the Annual A\IHS
Meeting in A. hen,. (;eorgii.
The .\l .S '.waid wa. established in
1972 to rectiouni/e hiologists who have
made conmrihutions to (it the advancc-
ment .and inlegration of biological dis-
ciplines: bh) the application of biological
knowledge i' tile solulitmn of mankind's
problerns and (c) the Ilnpiovementl of
public poilc ..nd planning by the in-
troduction om peilinent hiological consid-
erations.

George Gaylord Simpson

"Knowing more and more about less
and less nima mean that relationships are
lost and that the grand pattern and great
processes of life are overlooked." Simp-
son wrote in 1944. In a volume of Eovlu-
lionary Biology dedicated to Simpson in
1972. his students and colleagues note
that an awareness of that problem
shaped Simpson's career. "Without giv-
ing up the studies that must precede
sound generalization., he has contrib-
uted it anlmnist all aspects of evolutiona;l
biology, and his writings have had a pro-
found elect on modern ideas about the
history of life." they wrote.
In recognition of his eminence in biol-
ogy and paleontology. Simpson has re-
ceived the President's Medal of Science
and nulllciousl honorary degrees. lie is a
member ol' the National Academy of Sci-
ences, the \merican Philosophical So-
ciety. and several foreign academies.
Simpson early work focused on ver-
tebrate paleontology. By the time he ob-
tained his doctorate, he had already pubh-
lished nearly 20 papers on the March
(ollecilon of Mesozoic Animals in the
I'eahod\ Museum at Yale. F:oi relaxa-
tion. thie young Simpson studied lan-
guages, including Mongolian and San-
skrit. His linguistic ability served him
Sell in lalci expeditions I Euriope.
Noth A.ImencaI. .md Sonlih \meitca
1-ollowins g a.1 ca of sN id, in I 'gl.ad.
Simpson cleIuiinci to this Lounlllr to loin


the stall oi lhe Sliiiin t.,: M' m sc.'iin t:1
\.omial I lisorn IHe subsequently t.i.'hl
:it Columbia and H:ulaird universities.
Simpson is now president ofI the Simroe
Foundatilion. :.lhich he established in
1968 to lr tlher education and r research in
science I he 'Tuson foundation Includes
a large research library in evolutionarl
biology, vertebrate paleontology. and
occupational psychology.
In addition to his contributions in pa-
leontology. Simpson has written on a
Side range of subjects. including organic
evolution. historical biogeography. and
the inte pi station of the meaning of life.
His most i cent books are i'Pefluin..
Pa.,t and 'Prccnl. Ilere and Ihere 1976)
and Co'n/Ie.M< in to he ii' inmprhahl.. tin
Unlimcornveionalil A ulolhiv,(rhy. pub-
lished this spring.
Simpson's career is best summarized
by his students: "Although he is rather
shy and retiring, his pen has revealed
forceful opinions coupled with deep con-
cern for the late of our world.."

Eugene P. Odum and Howard T. Odum

Eugene and Howard Odum were
among the first to recognize the im-
portance of energy flow as a principle of
ecology. Both Odum brothers are known
for their interdisciplinary, holistic ap-
proachets to ecology. and both haiv
worked to integrate the fields of ecology
and economics.
Last year. Eugene Odum won ecol-
ogy's highest honor, the l'ler Ecology
Award. Typical of his dedication to sci-
ence. he has given the entire S150.0(X)
award to the University of (ieorgia's In-


AIBS Honors


Three Biologists


uouim is now ilroui.ate Ksea:icn
essor (of En\ ii onmcnital I-ngincerinti
Sciences and director of' the Centelr for
Wetlands at the University of Florida.
In 1975. the Odum brothers were joint
recipients of the Institute for .ife .\Awuard
in Paris for "elaborating on and per-
fecting the experimental methods for
studies of ecos% stems." One of their
many collaborative projects. Energy
Basis of .l'an M amnl \'.are. was published
the following year.
Although similktu in Iackground. inelcl-
ests, and abilities. each Odum brother
has made a unique contribution to ecol-
o ;-. I'lose \ho i ccoitmended the
(hhlinmn. fir Ihi. AIRN :iwnil ilntvil ih:mi


Howard T. Odum


Eugene P. Odum


BioScience Vol. 28 No. 5


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ince it first1 appeared mu I 195'




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