Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering

There is a time for everything under the sun—a time to work and a time to play. Though my years as chair of CCEE have been both work and play, it is now time for me to retire. It has been a fun, rewarding, challenging, frustrating, agonizing, and, I hope, fruitful experience for the past 15 years.

There are parts of this job that I will miss very much. In my "mature years," I have realized how important it is (and has been) to work with people. I will miss the personal interactions at work—the challenge of working together to accomplish a goal and, even more basic, the social and personal interactions and discussions. I do want to take this opportunity to thank the faculty and staff in CCEE who have been very supportive. I believe we have made progress on several fronts during these years.

I will also miss the opportunities I have had to meet with you. Over the past several years, we have hosted several alumni receptions and have visited many of you in your homes and offices. I have very much enjoyed this and will miss it. I want to thank all of you for your support—of me but especially of the department. You have helped us in many ways by

• hiring our students,
• funding scholarships,
• serving on advisory councils,
• funding faculty positions,
• sponsoring our receptions, and
• providing moral support.

As you may know if you have read this fall’s issue of Visions (the ISU Alumni Association’s magazine), I recently received the Iowa State University Alumni Association Award for Superior Service to Alumni. Clearly, your contributions as alumni and the help of the CCEE faculty and staff are being recognized by the award they presented to me. There would have been no award without the participation and work of all of us.

I will be leaving Iowa State on June 30, 2005, after 15 years as department chair and 32 years as a faculty member. As of this writing, Jane (my wife) and I have no specific plans except to stay in Ames. We do plan to have more time for each other, since she is also retiring as a legislator for the state of Iowa, and for our children and grandchildren.

We plan to see you at future ISU alumni functions and at other ISU events.