A great forester, teacher, and I am proud to say my friend, Dr. Benjamin Stout, passed away last Fall. The following obituary was written by his family, especially by his daughter Susan, Research Project Leader at the USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station in Irvine, PA. Ben and Susan were the only father/daughter Fellows of the Society of American Foresters in the history of that organization.
Ben was greatly admired, respected, and loved, and he is greatly missed. All of his friends in Oregon once again extend our sympathies to his family.
Benjamin Boreman Stout, 83, 1545 Takena St., SW, Albany, OR died Sunday morning July 29, 2007 at the Good Samaritan Hospital in Corvallis, OR.
He was born March 2, 1924 in Parkersburg, WV and grew up on the Stoutland Farm in Ben Lomond, WV. He graduated from Point Pleasant (WV) High School in 1941 and enrolled as a forestry student at West Virginia University. After the start of World War II, he enrolled in the Enlisted Reserve and was called to active duty on May 13, 1943. He served with Patton’s army in the Europe, liberating a concentration camp, and participating in Patton’s grand march toward Berlin. His military experience was recognized with the Bronze Star “for meritorious achievement in ground combat against the armed enemy in the European Theater of Operations.”
After his return from war service, he completed a bachelor’s degree in forestry at West Virginia University in 1947. He went on to earn a master’s degree in forestry from Harvard University in 1950 and a Ph.D. in forest ecology from Rutgers University in 1967. The first steps in his career were as a consultant forester, and then as manager of Harvard’s Black Rock Forest in Cornwall, NY. Later, he served as Professor of Silviculture at Rutgers University in New Jersey, where he went on to serve as Chair of Biological Sciences and Associate Provost (1959 - 1978). He ended his academic career as the Dean of the School of Forestry at the University of Montana in Missoula from 1978 through 1985. Finally, before his retirement, he served as director of the acid deposition research program for the National Council for Air and Stream Improvement from 1985 until his retirement in 1991.
February 19, 2008 | Leave a Comment | Topic: In Memorium
