Estuarine Research Federation

Howard T. Odum
As this newsletter was being prepared, we were saddened to learn of HT Odum's death a month after Gene Odum's passing. We will carry articles on HT Odum's contributions to estuarine and coastal science in the next addition of the newsletter.

Eugene P. Odum, Father of Modern Ecology: 1913-2002

After a lifetime of tremendous achievement, Dr. Eugene Odum died on August 10 of a heart attack at his home in Athens, Georgia. As the son of renowned rural sociologist Howard Odum, Gene's early life was spent near Emory University in Oxford, GA, and the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Gene was proud of his father accomplishments, which set high standards for Gene and his younger brother Howard Thomas (H.T.).

A naturalist from an early age, Gene loved birding in the hills around Chapel Hill and published a birding newsletter as a teenager. His college education was at the University of North Carolina (A.B. 1934, A.M. 1936) and the University of Illinois (1939).

Founder
In 1940, Gene Odum became an instructor of Zoology at the University of Georgia (UGA). There his ideas about a discipline of ecology began to emerge. His colleagues resisted the concept of ecology as a discipline, but Odum persisted and in 1960 became the first director of UGA's Institute of Ecology. The Institute became an international center of excellence in ecology. It merged with the School of Environmental Design in 2001 to form a College of the Environment and Design, where Gene's active legacy lives on.

But the Institute of Ecology was the second institute started by Gene. The first was the Marine Institute on Sapelo Island, Georgia. Always able to recognize and sell a good idea when an opportunity presented itself, Gene made the most out of a serendipitous encounter with R. J. Reynolds, Jr., Don C. Scott and Gene visited Sapelo Island in 1948 with Game and Fish Commission biologist Jim H. Jenkins, later Gene's student.

After a few unsuccessful ventures on the Island, Reynolds invited UGA President O. C. Aderhold to bring a delegation to Sapelo Island in 1952 to consider research and education opportunities on the Island for biology, agriculture and forestry. Gene Odum was the only delegation member who was enthusiastic about the possibilities and his enthusiasm carried the day.

The Marine Institute was born in the summer of 1953 with an operating budget of $25,000. Three young scientists, lead by Robert A. Ragotzkie, arrived in 1954. They also included Ted Starr and Lawrence R. Pomeroy. John Teal replaced Starr in 1955. A 50th Year anniversary celebration of its founding is planned for 2003. The Savannah River Ecological Laboratory in South Carolina also owes it existence to Gene's vision and ability to sell good ideas.

An ecosystems approach to ecology characterized Gene's life work. He first learned of G. Evelyn Hutchinson's ecosystem approach from his brother, H. T., who was Hutchinson's student at Yale. Gene refined the concept and today ecosystems management is the thrust of ecology and resource management. Gene nurtured generations of graduate students, including Eugene Turner (LSU) and Chris D'Elia (SUNY, Albany), and contributed over 200 publications, including several books oriented to lay audiences.

Author
In 1953, Odum published "Fundamentals of Ecology." Known as the "The Green Bible" to my generation, it became the basic textbook of ecology and has gone through several editions. Eugene Odum's energy and creativity continued throughout his "retirement." Ecologist Gary Barrett and Gene completed work on the latest revision of the "Fundamental of Ecology" only weeks before his death.

Honors followed his productive academic career. In 1970, Gene became the first member of the University of Georgia faculty named to the National Academy of Sciences. In 1973, Gene and his brother and lifelong collaborator, H. T. Odum, received the Institute de la Vie prize from the French government; and in 1987 they received the Crafoord Prize from the Swedish government, the equivalent of a Nobel Prize in ecology. In a typically generous gesture, the brothers created a foundation to promote research and education in ecology with the $125,000 prize.

Visionary
Gene Odum's impact went far beyond academia. He thought it was very important for him to write books explaining ecology to the lay reader. In fact, his ability to communicate ecological concepts lay audiences and his effectiveness in working with community and political leaders may be his most important legacy. Gov. Roy Barnes, in announcing an expanded Georgia Community Greenspace Program at The Georgia Conservancy Annual Meeting on September 20, acknowledged Eugene Odum's role in educating him and helping him develop the idea for the Greenspace Program. The goal of the Community Greenspace Program is to preserve 20% of Georgia's land in greenspaces and corridors. It will place 4 million more acres in greenspaces.

Eugene P. Odum was an outstanding scientist, an international leader in his profession and a founding figure of the broader conservation movement. And to those of us lucky enough to have known him, Gene Odum, the man, was as intelligent, engaging, effective and kind as his legend. He is an inspiration for us all.

Thanks to Larry Pomeroy, Gary Barrett and Frank Golley who were his friends and lunch companions and the sources of much of this information. Learn more in Holistic Science: The Evolution of the Georgia Institute of Ecology by Gary W. Barrett and Terry L. Barrett, 2001, New York: Taylor & Francis.

Memories of Gene Odum as a Major Professor

R Eugene Turner
euturne@lsu.edu

In 1969 the Graduate Advisor grinned a reply: "the class is about "Odum-ology." In that class, and since, we were exposed to Gene's ideas about the relevancy of ecology to resource management, to society, and to ourselves. The then-famous scientist passed on the commonsensical and flamboyant ideas of himself, his brother H. T. Odum, and the intellectually rich and committed University of Georgia ecologists. He would push students to consider ecological principles through questions such as

· How much energy does it take to build and maintain a nuclear power plant?
· Can you learn about species diversity in a lawn?
· What is the ecological role of sacred cows in India?

Gene Odum was a Teacher with a capital "T" who talked seriously with his students, sometimes about himself, though never about his impressive awards. After receiving some unfair criticism, Gene described his father, an accomplished sociologist, who was considered a heretic by some, as a man who persevered with his integrity intact. Gene once left a faculty meeting quite agitated after being told that "ecology has no principles," spurred on to finish his masterful Principles of Ecology.

Gene smiled with fondness as he recalled abandoning a game of "hide and seek," leaving his brother, H. T. sequestered high in a tree for 30 minutes. He was the cabbie and bellhop for his wife Martha's art exhibits, an example for our own relationships.

The engaging loveliness of Gene's spending fleeting time to converse inquisitively about what he deeply cared about was his students' and colleagues' reward for being in the right place at the right time. Writing this, I realize that the lessons from graduate school were less about the facts and words and more about the creating of perspectives, leading by example and mentoring.
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Observations into Principles
Summer on Sapelo with Gene Odum

John M. Teal
jteal@mailj.whoi.edu

I had the remarkable good fortune to spend the first summer after my PhD with all three Odums at Sapelo Island, Georgia in 1955. H.T. was the one who got me there. Bill was a teenager who spent most of his time fishing.

Gene and I looked at the salt marshes and birds. Our salt marsh adventures taught me the basics of salt marsh ecology, the interrelated features of substrate, plants, animals and tides and started my life-long study of marsh ecosystems. Our shared bird-watching was a by-product of salt marsh watching.

Gene was ever-observant and I learned an enormous amount about nature and ecology from him. He was a practical scientist also. Lightning struck a shed next to the lab in which were stored propane cylinders. They went off as spectacular flamethrowers. I watched, stunned. Gene raced into the lab and retrieved all the summer's data and carried it to safety.

Gene returned to Sapelo in following summers to continue to share his expertise and observations. Like hundreds of others, I listened to him at society and special meetings over the succeeding 43 years. He was an astute observer of nature. But his special genius was his ability to take observations, which many of us make as we work in the field, and combine them into the principles of ecology for which he will always be famous.