Texas Soil Profiles
|
Texas Soil Profiles |
Vol. 19 No. 1 |
March 2001 |
Published by the Professional Soil Scientists Association of Texas |
In this Issue... |
President's Message ... Dennis Brezina Death of Hank Mills Minutes of the 2001 PSSAT Annual Meeting PSSAT Officer Biographies PSSAT 2001 Committee Assignments |
President's Message ... Dennis Brezina I send greetings to all members of the Professional Soil Scientists Association of Texas. I feel very humbled to serve as your President this year. I have always felt privileged to be able to work as a cooperator wit h my professors. Hopefully I will help carry on what the Association has built in the past 18 years. I have listened to members saying what they like and dislike about the organization over the years. Many have felt we don't do anything, but I feel that the organization fulfills a purpose even if we only continue to provide a yearly scholarship. (You do what you can, as they say). This is not to say that we do not need to improve in many areas. I would like to see us improve the advertisement of the scholarship. I feel that less than three applicants for this scholarship are unacceptable. I don't believe that the problem is that we have not been offering a large enough scholarship, and this past year's number of applicants should prove that. I feel that increasing the dues to $15 this coming year will help support the scholarship fund to the $1000 level that we presently have. I also want to thank all of you who contribute even more money to the scholarship fund each year. As we near our 20th Anniversary, I would like each of us to think about where we have been as an organization, where we are now and where we would like the Association to go. If you have any thoughts or ideas along these lines, please let us know, or bring it up at the next a nnual meeting. I would like us to think about giving more money to the State 4-H Soils Judging Contest, FFA Land Judging Contest and Regional Soils Judging Contests. These young men and women are the future of our organization. If we do not support them now, there may be no one to support them in the future. My plan for this year is to employ some of the more recent graduates of each University into the Scholarship Committee. These young men and women know more about what today's students are going through, and what they want and need. Many of these young men and women also have ideas that could improve the way we offer our scholarship. We owe it to ourselves to at least listen to them. Several members came up with the idea of us offering a second scholarship to High School Seniors or incoming College Freshmen. This scholarship would be about $250-$500, and would serve to make High School students aware of our profession. I think this is an idea that we should consider. We may have to drop the Collegiate Scholarship back down to $750 or so to do this. In closing, I would like to thank all of you who came to this year's annual meeting. I think it went well, and I think the facilities were excellent. Please give us feedback on where you would like next year's meeting to be. I have heard many say that they'd like to continue to have the meeting at the Holiday Inn, and I think that it has worked well there the past two years, but if you have any other thoughts, please let us know. I would like to thank Dan Kowalski for providing us the leadership this past year, and also for handling all of the meeting's arrangements. Finally, I would like to thank Nellie Frisbee for being our Treasurer the past two years, and also thank Eddie Bearden for taking on that responsibility. It and Jamey's job of Editor are the two toughest and thankless jobs in the organization. I have also included a list of the Committees and Chairpersons of those committees. If someone listed does not want to serve, or if someone else in the Association would like to serve on a committee, please let me know. |
|
Death of Hank Mills We received news this morning of the death of Mr. Hank Mills, long-time professor and advisor to undergraduate students in our department. Following is the e-mail I received from Dr. Murray Milford. *************************** Mr. Mills (Professor Emeritus for Soil and Crop Sciences) died about 9:30 PM on Thursday evening, March 7th. Plans will be made Friday. Marilyn indicated that Memorial Funeral Home in College Station would probably handle the arrangements. He had been in ICU continuously since his surgery on Feb. 25 and really off the ventilator only for shorts periods. His quality of life was such that death was probably welcome. Murray Milford |
|
|
||||
President, Dennis Brezina I was born in Waco, Texas. I grew up and graduated High School in Axtell (pronounced Axe-tl, not Axe-tell). Texas A&M class of 1988. Worked as a student intern for Servi-Tech, a crop consulting company, in southwest Kansas. Started my career with SCS in January 1989 at Limestone County. From there I moved to Robertson, (4 month detail to Burleson), Lee, and presently Kenedy & Kleberg Counties. I think everyone has had the misfortune of meeting all of my family except for Ethan. Wife Laura, Blaine (6) and Megan (2). My hobby used to be golf, now I guess it's yardwork, though you'd never guess it by the looks of our yard. President-Elect, Jon Brandt I was born in Denver, Colorado. Lived in California, Guatemala, and Canada before moving to Texas to go to college. Received a B.S. in Agronomy and a M.S. in Soil Science from Texas A&M University in 1982 and 1986, respectively. I worked for the Texas Agricultural Extension Service from 1985 to 1989, helping manage a multi-agency demonstration project that focused on soil conservation measures to reduce wind erosion damage. In 1989, I moved to Austin to work for the Railroad Commission of Texas, in the Surface Mine Reclamation Division. The majority of time has been spent in the Abandoned Mine Land section, where I am responsible for mine site characterization and remediation (soil and minespoil sampling and analysis, GIS, and delineation/treatment of radioactive and acid spoil materials). I married Cheryl Burrier in 1989. She is the insurance practice coordinator at a law firm in Austin. Two sons, Stefan and Ryan, live in California. Stefan is in the Coast Guard and Ryan will be starting college this year. Involuntary hobby: renovating a house built in 1939. Vice President, Maurice Jurena I grew up on a farm in Hallettsville, Texas. I graduated from TAMU in 1974. I started my career with the SCS in Jan, 1975. I am married and have 3 daughters. My main hobby is playing the steel guitar in a C&W band which I have been doing for about seven years. Treasurer, Eddie Bearden I was born in Pampa, Texas. I graduated with a B.S. in Agronomy from TAMU in 1974, and a M.S. in Soil Science from TAMU in 1984. I worked 10 years for SCS at San Marcos, state staff in Temple, Gatesville, TAMU (Master's) and Caldwell. My wife, Denise, is Controller & Systems Manager for a law firm in Dallas. Son, Toby, is a Network Administrator for Soma Networks. Son, Nathan, is a student at Blinn College in Bryan. My main hobby is reading. Editor, Jamey Douglass I was born in Modesto, California and lived in the state for about 8 years. My dad was transferred to Des Moines, Iowa. I lived there for four years, and was able to experience all four seasons of the year. The last 30 years of my life have been spent in Texas. I graduated Texas A&M University in 1980 with a B.S. in Agronomy. I worked for a geotechnical engineering firm for about eight months after graduation. In 1981, I went to work for the Soil Conservation Service in Mt. Pleasant as a soil scientist. I worked on the four-county survey (Camp, Franklin, Morris and Titus), Fayette County, Mason County, and the Colorado County survey. My last move was to Victoria, and I am on the MLRA 150 Update survey. I have worked soil survey details in the Tongass National Forest (southeast Alaska) and Big Stone County (MN), as well as the Hockley, Terry, Lynn, Carson, Duval, Kenedy, Jasper and Newton counties. I am single again and live with three cats. My hobbies include singing, photography, and volunteering. Each year, I ask PSSAT members who attended the Soil Survey and Land Resource Workshop to share their comments. This year, Charles Pehl, CPSS, had these observations: "It was good to visit with you again at the Soil Survey and Land Resource Workshop in College Station. Thanks for the opportunity to comment. Larry Wilding, Richard Drees, Sam Feagley and the others, once again conducted a smoothly run workshop. The presentations on both carbon sequestration and nutrient management were topical and informative. The presentation by our Russian colleagues added an international dimension to the meeting. For me the workshop is more than two days of lectures, it is an opportunity to exchange ideas with other professional soil scientists, make important new contacts and broaden perspectives through inputs from other fields. As a soil scientist working in industry, I often feel cut of from the profession. The workshop which gives me the opportunity to associate with others of like mind and professional interests, helps me return to work charged up about our profession, ready for another year. I am looking forward to the 2002 Workshop in College Station and encourage all other soil scientists to attend and participate." |
PSSAT 2001 Committee Assignments Finance Committee: Constitution and
Bylaws Committee: Ethics Committee: Membership Committee: Nominations Committee: Public Relations and
Education Committee: Scholarship Committee: |
Want to see back issues of Texas Soil Profiles? Click on the Hyperlinks below to view back issues that have been posted on the website. Volume 17 No. 2 - August
1999 |
|
 Texas Soil Profiles is
Edited By: Jamey DouglassTexas Soil Profiles on the web - designed by: Ricky Lambert Questions and comments on Texas Soil Profiles newsletter: Jamey Douglass or PSSAT<webmaster@pssat.org> |
 |
