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SFR ALUMNI GROUP NEWS

• President's Message
• Apology for Late Newsletter
• Election Results
• SFR Outstanding Alumni
• SFR Alumni Employment Statistics
• Penn State School Forest Patch
• Centennial DVD/CD and Other Centennial Memorabilia

President’s Message

I hope this message finds all our alumni and friends in good health and still enjoying the memories of our Centennial Celebration. All of us who attended had a great time. The Centennial Planning Committee planned for 350, and we ended up having 489 alumni, faculty, students, and friends register for the Centennial Celebration. We also had many others who stopped by on Friday or Saturday just to visit, so we had well over 500 attendees.

The success of the Centennial Celebration was not an accident. The Centennial Planning Committee began making plans in 2004; they met 3-4 times per year to plan the event and get things right for this once-in-a-lifetime celebration. I would like to personally thank the following members of the committee for the dedicated efforts they made for all of us: Joe Barnard, Paul Blankenhorn, Ted Jensen, Ben Gamble, Hank Gerhold, Ellen Manno, Jamie Murphy, Chuck Strauss, John Steimer, Jillian Stevenson, Amanda Subjin, Lowell Underhill, Angela Yuska, and Rich Yahner.

There are many other people who helped to make the Centennial a success, including numerous student, staff, faculty and alumni volunteers who assisted with registration, tours, exhibits, and more. We also had 43 alumni who served as class representatives; they contacted their respective classmates and encouraged them to them to attend. The large turnout was attributable to the efforts of your class representatives. More than 60 alumni and friends made a donation to sponsor students at the celebration. I’m happy to report that we had sufficient funds to support any student who wanted to attend. We also had more than 70 individuals and organizations contribute items for the very successful raffle and silent auction. (Thank you for your help, Earl Hower!) The proceeds of the raffle and auction will support the student organizations of the School of Forest Resources.

I hope the Centennial Celebration is a new beginning. We renewed our connections with Penn State, the School of Forest Resources, and our classmates and friends. Let’s keep the spirit that we felt during the Celebration alive. I hope the class representatives will continue to stay in touch with their classmates, and I hope we all take the time to write or call a few classmates to say hello and find out what they are doing. If you do make contact, let the rest of us know by sending a note for a future issue of RESOURCES.

Tom Yorke
4384 Antioch Ridge Road
Haymarket, VA 20169
(707) 753-0271
tjyorke@mindspring.com

Apology for Late Newsletter

Many of our alumni and friends received the Winter 2007 newsletter late; that is, after the April 1 deadline for casting ballots and ordering centennial clothing. We apologize for that. The newsletters were mailed on March 16, but they are sent with bulk postage to reduce costs. Bulk postage means that individual post offices can distribute the newsletter as time permits, and bulk mail distribution varies greatly among post offices. As an example, we know of an alumnus in Hawaii who received his newsletter on April 1, but of others in Pennsylvania who did not receive theirs until much later! We will make every effort to get future newsletters in the mail in a timely fashion that allows for distribution delays. And remember, you can also find our newsletter online at http://www.sfr.cas.psu.edu/Alumni/newsletters/.

Election Results

In spite of the lateness of the ballot distribution, 95 ballots were cast by the designated deadline (compared to 104 ballots last year)—54 hard-copy ballots and 41 electronic ballots. Mark Lewis ’78, Bob Rorabaugh ’72, and Cecile Stelter ’89, ’90g have each been elected to a first three-year term on the School of Forest Resources Alumni Group Board of Directors, and Tom Yorke ’64, ‘67g was elected to a second term. For a complete listing of board members, please see the box on page 15.

Tom Yorke and Mark Webb ’73 will continue to serve as president and vice president, respectively.

Terms of four at-large board members will expire in Spring 2008, so we will have another election in January 2008. If you are interested in being a candidate for the board or wish to nominate someone else, please use the Response Form.

School of Forest Resources Outstanding Alumni

Four School of Forest Resources Outstanding Alumni were honored at our Alumni and Friends Banquet on April 28, 2007, at the Nittany Lion Inn at University Park: Jack Byerly ’68, Bruce Edwards ’71, Marc Lewis ’78, and Harry Murphy ’43.

The purpose of the awards is to recognize outstanding School of Forest Resources alumni and to foster closer relationships between the award recipient and students, faculty, staff, and other alumni. The selection criteria for the award include professional achievement, excellence, impact, and recognition; service to the profession, to the School of Forest Resources, and to the community; and demonstration of high personal and professional standards.

The School of Forest Alumni Group will make up to four Outstanding Alumni awards annually, and one Outstanding Recent Alumni award annually. A nomination form is printed on page 26 and is also available on the School of Forest Resources Web site (http://www.sfr.cas.psu.edu). Photocopies are acceptable. Nominations for either award are to be submitted by September 30 to:

School of Forest Resources Alumni Group
Awards Committee
Forest Resources Building
Penn State University
University Park, PA 16802

	Left: School of Forest Resources Director Charles Strauss (second from left) with 2007 SFR Outstanding Alumni (left to right) Marc Lewis, Jack Byerly, and Bruce Edwards at the Nittany Lion Inn on April 28. Unable to attend was 2007 Outstanding Alumnus Harry Murphy, pictured above.

We are pleased to introduce our 2007 Outstanding Alumni Award recipients.

John A. Byerly completed a B. S. degree in Forestry at Penn State in 1968. He served in the U.S. Army (1968-1970) and was assigned to the 1st Cavalry Division during the Vietnam Conflict. While in graduate school in 1970, he was inducted into Phi Epsilon Phi, a botanical honorary fraternity.

Byerly began his forestry career with the Virginia Division of Forestry in 1971. In 1974, he joined the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s (PGC) Bureau of Wildlife Habitat Management. He coordinated and assisted in managing the agency’s Bald Eagle Recovery Program, a venture that began in 1983, by traveling to Saskatchewan, Canada, to bring eagles back to Pennsylvania.  The program ended in 1989 after seven years of successful captures and releases.  Byerly was given the Agency’s Outstanding Employee Award in 1990. 

Byerly’s other positions with the Pennsylvania Game Commission included Southeast Region Field Forester; Wildlife Impact Review Coordinator; and chief of the Division of Federal Aid. 

Byerly served as the agency’s chief forester until his retirement in March 2007. In this position he was responsible for developing policy and management directives for the forest management operations on 1.4 million acres of State Game Lands, which includes both timber cover typing/classification and the commercial timber sales program.  He convinced the agency to assemble a Forest Inventory and Analysis team to survey, inventory, and monitor the forest health on the State Game Lands.

Byerly also served on the Joint Legislative Air and Water Pollution Control and Conservation Committees Joint Legislative Task Force, the Governors Blue Ribbon Task Force on Low-Value Hardwoods, and the Advisory Board for the Penn State School of Forest Resources’ Ibberson Chair, and represented the Pennsylvania Game Commission on numerous other committees.

Byerly served as a deputy wildlife conservation officer for 17 years, retiring in 1999. He has been a member of the Society of American Foresters (SAF) since 1968, and is currently serving as treasurer of the Keystone Chapter of the SAF (2001-present) and has been a certified forester since October 2002.

Byerly is a member of Pennsylvania Forestry Association and served as the association’s treasurer from 1996 to 2000.  He was elected to that position again for another term at PFA’s annual meeting in September 2006.

Byerly is a life member of the Penn State Alumni Association; a member of Tau Phi Delta Fraternity; a life member of the North American Hunting Club; a member of the National Rifle Association; and a member of the Susquehanna Orchid Society.

Bruce M. Edwards completed a B.S. in Forest Science at Penn State in 1971 and a master’s degree in Forest Biometrics at Colorado State in 1973. He then worked for five years at Potlatch Corporation in Lewiston, Idaho, as a research biometrician, helping adapt and implement computerized stand modeling program for management planning on the 600,000 acres of Potlatch forest in Northern Idaho. He returned to the East in 1978 and worked for three years as a consultant forester with Northeast Timbers Service, Inc., in Hancock, New York, providing a wide variety of forestry services to land owners and forest products companies.

In 1981 Edwards returned to Potlach Corporation in Idaho as a research forester. Two years later he returned to Hancock, New York, this time to Mallery Lumber Corporation, where he held various positions including procurement manager, mill manager, and vice president. During his last two years at Mallery Lumber he managed the Hancock sawmill and all other operations in the Hancock area.

Since 2000, Edwards has been owner of Starlight Forests LLC and operator of a tree farming business. Starlight Forests owns more than 11,000 acres of high-quality timberlands in northeastern Pennsylvania and southeastern New York.
Edwards has been a member of the Society of American Foresters since 1971 and a member of the Association of Consulting Foresters since 1978. He is a member and past director of the Empire State Forest Products Association, and a member of the American Chestnut Foundation and the Pennsylvania Forestry Association.

Edwards has been a Boy Scout volunteer since 1983, and in 2006 received the Silver Beaver Award, the highest award given in scouting for lifetime volunteer services. Since 2002 he has been a member of Hancock Partners, Inc., a group of local businesses created to improve the economic, social, and cultural well being of the local community.

Edward’s involvement with Penn State includes membership in the Mount Nittany Society, the Armsby Honor Society, the Nittany Lion Club, A Friend of the Blue Band, and a lifetime membership in the Penn State Alumni Association. He is a member of the Development Committee of the College of Agricultural Sciences, and established a Trustee Scholarship with preference to Forest Science students.

He was one of our School’s earliest “pioneer contributors” to the new building project, donating funds for the Edwards Student Center, and he worked hard to convince other alumni and corporations to join this development effort.

Marc D. Lewis graduated in 1978 with a B.S. degree in Forest Science. He was an active member of the Mont Alto Soccer Club, Alpha Gamma Rho, and the Forestry Society. After graduation, he entered the family business, Dwight Lewis Lumber Company, Inc., and was engaged in sawmill and forestry operations. This included management planning on the company’s 16,000 acres of hardwood forest and the upgrading of mill equipment.

In 1984, Dwight Lewis Lumber Company, Inc. expanded its manufacturing and marketing base, requiring Lewis’s further involvement with mill operations and product marketing. By the early 1990s, the company had installed dry kilns and further expanded lumber sales and marketing, while also diversifying into dimension product manufacture. In 1995, Lewis Lumber established Lewis Lumber Products, Inc, which subsequently led to a near doubling of employment within both companies. Following the leadership of their father, Marc and his brother, Melvin, became co-owners of the parent company in 2001.

The two companies have established a reputation within their industry for high-quality products while maintaining a respect and stewardship for timber resources, the environment, and the future generations of people within their region. They are a FSC Smart Wood Chain-of-Custody certified company and their timberlands are also certified through Smart Wood.

Lewis has maintained an active role with the Pennsylvania Forest Products Association (PFPA), formerly the Hardwood Lumber Manufacturers Association (HLMA), since the group’s inception in 1980. He has served as a board member and has recruited new members from Pennsylvania’s industry.

When Penn State announced the formal inception of the new Forest Resources Building on the University Park campus in 2002, HLMA, now PFPA, stepped forward with a suggested donation of hardwood products for this $30 million project. The two Lewis companies led the way in the donation, design, and manufacture of nearly $700,000 of paneling, moldings, and laminated beams for the building.

Lewis has provided similar leadership to the Pennsylvania Forestry Association (PFA) over the past 25 years, serving on the PFA board and various ad hoc and formal committees. He is currently vice president of PFA. He helped organize PFA’s largest fundraiser and banquet, traditionally held in Williamsport. He coordinated PFA’s campaign to name the Director’s Office in the School’s new building.

Lewis has contributed considerable time and effort to the School of Forest Resources and the College of Agricultural Sciences. He has been a member of the college’s Ag Council for the past 12 years, representing the combined interests of Forest Science and Wood Products, and has served on the Ag Council board for six years (2000-2005). He served on the council’s Partnership Committee (2002), chaired the Publicity Committee (2003, 2004) and the Program Committee (2005, 2006). He organized a Dean’s Tour of six forest products companies throughout central and northern Pennsylvania in May 2005, again putting forward the School’s professional interests. He has been a member of the School’s Ibberson Chair Advisory Committee since its inception in 2002. He has provided advice and council to Alpha Gamma Rho as an active alumnus.

Lewis has been active in regional organizations, serving as a member of the Loyalsock Creek Watershed Association and the Sullivan County Rural Electric Board of Directors, and serving on the board of the North Central Pennsylvania Conservancy, the Forestry Advisory Board of the Pennsylvania College of Technology, and the Board of Directors of the Williamsport Woodlands Bank.

Harry E. Murphy graduated from Penn with a B. S. degree in forestry in 1943, after gaining experience with a summer fire-fighting branch of the U.S. Forest Service. With World War II ongoing, Murphy enlisted in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and was assigned to the Transportation Corps in England. In his free time, to temporarily escape the war, he pursued his lifelong passion for plants and the natural world by earning a “Technical Certificate” from the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew.

After the war, Murphy served as a district forester for the Arkansas Forestry Division before going to Sheffield, Alabama, to work in the Forestry Relations Division of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), a large federal landowner. It was through the TVA, that Murphy met a Yale-educated forester, John M. Bradley, Jr., of Birmingham, Alabama. In 1952, they formed a consulting forestry partnership. At that time, the consulting forestry profession was almost unheard of.

The two men led the way for change, with measures such as loans that allowed private, nonindustrial landowners to borrow money based on the value of their timber, the use of the latest technology (including the first computers) in forest inventories, the acceptance of the pulp and paper markets by local sawmillers, and the development of trade associations for landowners, giving them political clout. The economic value of southern forestland increased as much as 500-fold over the next 50 years, thanks to consulting foresters like Murphy and Bradley who, client by client, developed the practice of long-term stewardship and investment. By 1993, when Murphy retired as executive vice president of the company, it had been renamed Resource Management, Service, Inc. (RMS), and was one of the most prominent and highly regarded consultants in the South.

For his forestry work in the South, Murphy was honored by the Southeastern Society of American Foresters (SAF) with its Award for Forest Excellence and named a Fellow in the national SAF. He also worked at the national level as a member and a leader in the Association of Consulting Foresters (ACF), where his efforts in favor of forest and tax policy reforms earned him a national Legislative Committee award. He worked internationally (mostly in Latin America) on forest resource inventories and feasibility studies, and was a member of the International Society of Tropical Foresters (ISTF) and the World Forestry Committee of SAF. His commitment to natural resources encompassed a broad vision of forest stewardship, as evidenced by his position on the Alabama Governor’s first “Forever Wild” (preservation) Committee and his recognition as a recipient of the W. Kelly Mosley Environmental Award. He has also been honored by the Boy Scouts of America with the Silver Beaver Award and by the American Red Cross.

Though retired, Murphy maintains an office at the RMS Building in Birmingham. He is active in several forestry-related organizations, such as the Forest Landowners Association and the Society of American Foresters. He continues to serve as the secretary/treasurer of the Bradley/Murphy Natural Resources Extensions Trust, which promotes the stewardship of forests and related natural resources in the private sector. An active member of South Highlands Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, Murphy supports many ministries.

School of Forest Resources Alumni Employment Statistics

For more than three decades, the School of Forest Resources has been conducting alumni surveys one to two years after graduation to learn about employment success. The information gathered has been useful in providing current and prospective students, parents, and faculty and staff with information about career opportunities.

In October 2006, we mailed an employment survey to the Class of 2004-05; that is, students who graduated with a B.S. degree from the School of Forest Resources between August 2004 and May 2004. The survey was sent to 30 Forest Science (FORSC) alumni, 42 Wildlife and Fisheries Science (W F S) alumni, and 9 Wood Products (W P) alumni. We attempted to contact all nonrespondents by phone or e-mail. The total survey response rate (mail survey plus follow-up) was 83% for FORSC, 59% for W F S, 67% for W P, and 69% overall.

In total, 91% of the Forest Science (FORSC) graduates from the Class of 2004-05 were using their degrees in professional pursuits (that is, professional employment or graduate school) a year or so after graduation. Slightly more than a quarter (26%) of the FORSC alumni were employed in public forest management; this statistic has been in the 22 - 32% range for the previous four graduating classes as well. Of the six 2004-05 FORSC alumni in public-sector forestry, all were employed by state agencies (four in PA, one in FL, and one in VA). No data on average annual salary is available for this group; none of the six completed the written employment survey, and the follow-up contact by phone/e-mail did not gather salary data.

The number of FORSC alumni employed in the private sector had reached a low of 2% for the Class of 2000-01, was only 9% for the Class of 2003-04, and rose to 32% for the Class of 2004-05. Seven of the eight 2004-05 private-sector forestry positions reported were in Pennsylvania, the other was in Oregon/Washington. The average annual salary (based on two reported salaries) was $30,000.

FORSC alumni in the Class of 2004-05 who were employed in general resource management was only 11%—down significantly from the 47% in the Class of 2003-04, and below the 20-30% range of the previous four years. All three of the 2004-05 FORSC alumni in this category were employed in urban forestry; one works for Davey Tree (in PA) and two work for Bartlett (one in PA and one in MA). The average annual salary for FORSC alumni employed in a general resource management positions (based on two reported salaries) was $37,500.

FORSC alumni pursuing additional education was 11% for the Class of 2004-05—comparable to the 9% for the Class of 2003-04. Blue-collar employment for 2004-05 FORSC graduates was 9%; this statistic has been in the 6 - 7% range for the previous three years.

In total, 88% of the Wildlife and Fisheries Science (W F S) graduates from the Class of 2004-05 were using their degrees in professional pursuits, comparable to the previous two class years.

W F S alumni employed in wildlife/fisheries management was 21%—down from the six-year high of 34% for the Class of 2003-04 but comparable to other class years. Four of the six wildlife/fisheries jobs were full-time positions in Pennsylvania and two were seasonal positions (one in WV and one in MD). The average annual salary for the full-time positions in wildlife/fisheries management (based on two reported salaries) was $25,000.

W F S employment in general resource management was 7% for the Class of 2004-05, the lowest it has been in the past nine years. W F S employment in management/engineering/sales (nonwood industry) reached an all-time high of 26% for the Class of 2004-05; the statistic has exceeded 20% only two other times in the past 20 years.
The percentage of W F S alumni pursuing additional education was 21%, back up to a “usual” level after an unusual low of 6% for the Class of 2003-04. Blue-collar employment for 2004-05 W F S graduates was 12%.

Employment of Wood Products (W P) graduates for the Class of 2004-05 was again excellent, with 80% of the W P alumni employed in some aspect of the wood products industry and 20% using business/marketing skills in a nonwood products industry. None of the W P alumni were in a graduate program; this has occurred seven other times in the past 20 years.

Three of the five wood-products-related positions were in Pennsylvania; one was in North Carolina and one was in Idaho. The average annual salary for W P alumni in wood products positions (based on three reported salaries) was $37,500.

Penn State School Forest Patch

Is the patch pictured here familiar to you? For some period of years it was sold at Mont Alto.

Bob Baldwin ’57 tracked down the company that made them (The Standard Pennant Company in Big Run, PA) using an original patch donated by Paul DeBald ’57. Duplicates were created for sale to the Class of ’57 at the School of Forest Resources Centennial Celebration in April 2007.

Some questions still remain. Who designed the patch, when was it first sold, and when were sales terminated? If you have any information about the patch, please send it to Ellen Manno, 416A Forest Resources Bldg., University Park, PA 16802; 814-863-5831 or exr2@psu.edu. We hope to print answers to these questions in a future newsletter.

Seventeen patches remain from the 2007 order and are available for purchase for $10 each. The patches are 4” x 4” with stitching in three colors: blue letters; green tree; and yellow ax, cone, and leaf. Patches may be purchased from Jamie Murphy, 114 Forest Resources Building, University Park, PA 16802; 814-863-0362; jam563@psu.edu. Please make checks payable to “Penn State” and write “Forest School Patch” on the memo line of the check. Proceeds will benefit School of Forest Resources student groups.
EDITOR'S NOTE 9/13/07: PATCHES HAVE BEEN SOLD. NO MORE ARE AVAILABLE. THANK YOU.

Centennial DVD/CD and Other Centennial Memorabilia

The opening session of the Centennial Celebration in April 2007 included “A Century of Progress by Penn State’s School of Forest Resources”-- a 35-minute Power Point presentation including narration, music, and 133 historic and contemporary photos depicting nine forestry pioneers, 11 directors, physical facilities, summer camps, and many faculty, students, and alumni. The presentation highlights information from Henry Gerhold’s centennial book, “A Century of Forest Resources Education at Penn State.”

The Power Point is available for purchase in two versions: DVD player version ($10) and a CD version for computers ($7). Shipping charge is $2 per disc. Use the Response Form on page 27 to order your copy, or contact the School of Forest Resources at 814-865-7541 or ForestResources@psu.edu. Make checks payable to “Penn State” with “SFR Centennial” written on the memo line and mail to Ellen Manno, 416A Forest Resources Bldg., University Park, PA 16802.

The Cemtennial items pictured here helow are also still available. Use the Response Form to place your order.

Centennial decal	H. Gerhold's book	H. Clepper's book

Framed print of forestry buildings

Penn State | College of Agricultural Sciences | School of Forest Resources