{"id":11859,"date":"2016-09-15T10:47:13","date_gmt":"2016-09-15T14:47:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/?p=11859"},"modified":"2016-09-15T10:47:13","modified_gmt":"2016-09-15T14:47:13","slug":"remembering-orie-loucks-teacher-mentor-and-plant-ecologist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/2016\/09\/15\/remembering-orie-loucks-teacher-mentor-and-plant-ecologist\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering Orie Loucks: teacher, mentor, and plant ecologist"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Loucks,<\/a>

Loucks, O. & Hufford, M. (1994) Orie Loucks, Chair of Ecosystems Studies for the State of Ohio Miami University, conducting a field trip in Rock Creek.[Image] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https:\/\/www.loc.gov\/item\/cmns000831\/.<\/p><\/div>\n

Guest Post by Don Waller
\n<\/strong><\/h4>\n

I was sorry to learn that Orie Loucks died on Saturday Sept. 10.\u00a0 Just a week before, I visited with him and his family and was pleased to share news from his old department at UW-Madison and reminiscences of shared colleagues and students.\u00a0I also realized that I was probably saying goodbye.\u00a0One of Orie\u2019s favorite colleagues, Prof. Hugh Iltis, also managed to visit him at the hospital despite being handicapped himself.<\/p>\n

I owe my job to Orie Loucks, and sit at his former desk most days.\u00a0He left UW-Madison in 1978 to become the founding Director of the Holcomb Environmental Institute at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana.\u00a0This was a place I knew, having grown up there as the son of two Butler professors.\u00a0I appreciated the chance to visit both Orie and family on return trips and always benefited from his encouragement and interest in my success.\u00a0He shared his perspective generously and opened professional doors for which I will always be grateful.\u00a0Under his leadership, the Holcomb Institute gained expert staff and engaged effectively on several key environmental issues of the region.\u00a0These included work on the effects of acid rain \/ N deposition from coal-burning power plants up and down the Ohio River valley \u2014 on farms as well as forests.\u00a0Orie never shied away from leadership on several issues, inducing key work with NAPAP \u2014 the National Acidic Precipitation Action Program.\u00a0 After this work concluded at Holcomb, he resumed an academic career as a distinguished professor at Miami University in Ohio.<\/p>\n

In addition to the best job I could hope for and his desk, Orie bequeathed me a graduate student named Eric Menges who was a pleasure to work with on a variety of projects.\u00a0Orie then managed to get him back by hiring him as a post-doc at Holcomb before Eric continued his illustrious career at the Archbold Biological Field Station<\/a> in central Florida.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Loucks,<\/a>

Loucks, O., Unidentified Appalachia Forest Action Project Volunteers & Hufford, M. (1994) Orie Loucks orienting Appalachia Forest Action Project volunteers to mixed mesophytic growth on the property of Joe Aliff, Rock Creek. [Image] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https:\/\/www.loc.gov\/item\/cmns000831\/.<\/p><\/div>\n

I heard glowing reports of Orie\u2019s teaching and mentoring\u2015especially about his prowess in the field when leading excursions to the natural areas he knew so well.\u00a0These accounts of him left me wondering if I could ever promote the high reputation of plant ecology at UW-Madison to the same degree that he had. Orie\u2019s \u201cbig shoes\u201d did nothing to allay the imposter syndrome I felt.<\/p>\n

Orie left UW Hospital to spend his last days at home with his family.\u00a0His many friends and colleagues all miss Orie for his insights, his dedication to students, his willingness to get engaged on the important issues of our day, and for his unfailing concern for others.<\/p>\n

Don Waller
\nJohn T. Curtis Professor of Botany & Environmental Studies
\nDepartment of Botany, University of Wisconsin<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Orie Loucks, Chair of Ecosystems Studies for the State of Ohio Miami University, conducting a field trip in Rock Creek.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":11861,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guest-posts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}