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FORESTRY
EDUCATIONby
Archie P. McDonald, PhD | |
Lately
I have been involved in an interesting project. A number of years ago I read in
the paper that a colleague, Monty Whiting, a member of the faculty of the Arthur
Temple School of Forestry at Stephen F. Austin State University, was engaged in
writing a history of the school, and, by inference, of forestry education in East
Texas.
I congratulated Monty and may have offered to help, because sometime
later he did ask me to become associated with the project. What I have learned
is yet preliminary, but it is a fascinating story. What follows are some examples.
SFA's forestry program began as one of Dr. Paul Boynton's plans to grow the
college by capitalizing on its assets when he became president in 1942. It began
with his collaboration with lumberman Lacy Hunt to have an old farm that the federal
government had acquired through one of the New Deal programs transferred to the
US Forest Service for experimentation in conjunction with the college. Stephen
F. Austin Experimental Forest remains the only such facility specifically created
by Congress.
Then, Boynton wanted to offer classes in forestry at the
college at the end of World War II. He hired Robert Owens to get the program started,
and later Arne Kemp, served as chairman of the Department of Forestry. Owens and
Kemp began most of the programs at SFA associated with forestry education, including
a summer camp located in the Sabine National Forest near Milam, Texas.
Kemp could never clear the hurdle of accreditation with the Society of American
Foresters, so a new president, Dr. Ralph W. Steen, hired Dr. Laurence Walker,
a forester who was teaching at the University of Georgia, to accept the chairmanship
of the department at SFA. It was understood that accreditation was expected, and
it was delivered.
Walker became the first dean of the College of Forestry
when SFA was reorganized, then accepted an endowed chair, the first at the University.
He was succeeded as dean by Kent Adair, who founded the schoolıs conservation
center on Sam Rayburn Reservoir, among other innovations. When Adair retired,
he was succeeded by Dean Scott Beasley, one of the schoolıs own earlier baccalaureate
graduates. In a way, forestry education at SFA has come full circle with Beasley'
service as dean.
I need help to complete the story of forestry education
in East Texas. Anyone who wishes to share information, photos, or in anyway be
a part of this project is invited to contact me at the East Texas Historical Association,
Box 6223, Stephen F. Austin State University, Nacogdoches, TX 75962, or by email
amcdonald@sfasu.edu.
İ Archie P. McDonald
All
Things Historical
October
19 , 2003 column
A syndicated column in over 40 East Texas newspapers
This column is provided as a public service by the East Texas Historical Association.
Archie P. McDonald is director of the Association and author of more than 20 books
on Texas. | | |
