e-newsletter - fall 2007
Long-time Institute Associates Retire
Dr. William E.”Bill” Sharpe retired from the School of Forest Resources and PSIEE on June 30, 2007, with service dating back some 46 years
Sharpe started working at Penn State in the College of Agriculture at the old Poultry Plant in 1961 and lived and worked there during his undergraduate years. He attended the Mont Alto campus in 1962-63 with the last class of freshman foresters required to spend the first year at that location. He cruised timber on the Rio Grande National Forest in summer 1963. As an undergraduate, Sharpe was president of the forestry society and selected as the outstanding graduating senior in 1967. He spent two summers as a member of the Lolo Hotshots, an interregional fire crew based in Missoula, Montana. He was also named a Distinguished Military Graduate of the Army ROTC program, was selected for ROTC flight training, and earned a private pilot’s license.
In 1967, Sharpe began work on his master’s degree in affiliation with Richard Lee, an early associate of the Land and Water Research Institute which later became part of the Penn State Institutes of Energy and the Environment. Funding for Sharpe’s work was provided by the Water Resources Research Center within the Institute. Sharpe completed his master’s degree in 1968 and entered active duty with the U.S. Army.
Sharpe’s three years of military service, included a tour of duty in Vietnam where he was a Huey helicopter pilot for the first Aviation Brigade. Sharpe was promoted to the rank of captain and served in a variety of leadership posts in Vietnam, including acting operations officer of the 175th Assault Helicopter Company and Assistant Operations Officer and Intelligence Officer for the 214th Combat Aviation Battalion. He received the Air Medal and a Bronze Star among other awards for his Vietnam service.
Sharpe returned to the Institute in 1972 as an Instructor in Forest Resources Extension. He earned a Ph.D. from West Virginia University in 1979 and was promoted to Professor in 1989. His Extension work was recognized with the Gamma Sigma Delta Extension Award in 2001.
Sharpe’s early research and outreach work emphasized residential water conservation. He helped write water use standards for plumbing fixtures and testified before the U.S. Congress on several occasions in support of requirements for water efficient plumbing fixtures. This testimony contributed to the passage of legislation requiring the use of water efficient plumbing fixtures in the United States and subsequent reductions in domestic water use.
Sharpe and his colleagues began the Safe Drinking Water Clinic Program and more recently, Sharpe collaborated on the creation of the Master Well Owner Network that uses volunteers to educate well owners. Both of these programs have gained national recognition. The Master Well Owner Network received the 2005 Ground Water Protection Award from the National Ground Water Association and Sharpe’s work was recognized by the Universities Council on Water Resources with its 2007 Public Service Award.
For the past 30 years, much of Sharpe’s research has been devoted to studying the effects of acid rain on forests, headwater streams, and drinking water. Sharpe, his many students, and colleagues have investigated the influences of acid deposition on red oak and sugar maple decline, forest regeneration, water quality, fish populations, soils, soil animals, wildflowers, and forest birds. He has also studied remediation techniques including limestone sand application and forest liming. Sharpe secured the necessary funds, and helped design and field-test the Penn State Regenerator, the first practical forest-liming machine to be used in Pennsylvania. In recognition of this work, Sharpe received the 2000 Conservation Award from the Eastern Sports and Outdoor Show. Sharpe advised 45 graduate students to completion of their degree and was principal investigator on more than 8 million dollars in grants and contracts.
In retirement, Sharpe plans to do more fly-fishing and hunting, spend more time in the field with his bird dogs, and continue his efforts to improve trout habitat at his Sinking Creek farm.
David R. DeWalle, professor of forest hydrology and former associate director of the PSIEE, retired on October 1, 2007
DeWalle is a distinguished researcher on issues of acidification and its effects on forest ecosystem health that has had a long-standing joint appointment with the School of Forest Resources and the PSIEE.
During his tenure, he has actively served the College of Agricultural Sciences and School of Forest Resources. He has served as Assistant Director for Research and Graduate Studies and Forest Science Program Chair in the School of Forest Resources. As a Heinz fellow and Executive Board member of the Center for Watershed Stewardship – a collaborative initiative of the Department of Landscape Architecture and School of Forest Resources – he helped create the graduate Option in Watershed Stewardship, which is an interdisciplinary hands-on watershed planning program funded by Heinz Charitable Trusts. He has performed as chairman of various committees in the School of Forest Resources, president and officer of the Penn State Chapter of Gamma Sigma Delta, and member of coordinating council for the Environmental Pollution Control graduate program. He has also served on the faculty advisory committee to the dean and strategic planning committee in the College of Agricultural Sciences.
Since coming to the University in 1969, DeWalle has been major advisor to more than 45 M. S. and Ph.D. students and has authored numerous journal articles and book chapters on acidification and its effects on forest ecosystem health. His area of expertise also includes snow hydrology and he recently coauthored a book on the subject that is currently being published by Cambridge University Press.
DeWalle has a long record of membership and service to AWRA that began with his joining the organization in 1980. DeWalle was recognized a Fellow Member in 2003. In 2005, he was elected President-Elect and succeeded to President in 2006. His activities include serving as the faculty advisor for the AWRA Penn State Student Chapter, and as a member and as Vice President, President, and Past-President of the Pennsylvania State Section. The Student Chapter won the Outstanding Student Chapter Award three times in 1990, 1992, and 1998. He was an Associate Editor of the Journal of American Water Resources Association (JAWRA). DeWalle also developed the popular Water Resources Career Profiles that provides job descriptions and career advice from exemplary water resources professionals in a variety of professional backgrounds. He has served as a member of several national-level AWRA committees including the Long Range Planning Committee and the Student Affairs Committee. From 1998-2001, he was a member of the AWRA Board of Directors.
He also is a member of the American Geophysical Union and has served on the Water Resources Advisory Committee of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection; as the Penn State representative to the Pennsylvania Consortium for Interdisciplinary Environmental Policy; and as a member of Urban Forestry Advisory Board of the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Bureau of Forestry. He was the Associate Director of the PSIEE from 2003 to 2005 and is the Director of the Pennsylvania Water Resources Research Center.
During his career, DeWalle has had three sabbaticals: he was a Visiting Fellow in the School of Forestry at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand; a Visiting Professor in the School of Environmental Science at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England; and most recently, a Visiting Scientist at USDA’s Agricultural Research Service’s Office of Hydrology in Beltsville, Maryland.
DeWalle received his bachelor’s degree in forest management and master’s degree in forest hydrology from the University of Missouri, and doctorate in watershed management from Colorado State University.