Columns:: Celebration of life: Memorial service for Eugene Odum scheduled for Oct. 16

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Campus News

Celebration of life: Memorial service for Eugene Odum scheduled for Oct. 16

By Kim Cretors
kcretors@uga.edu

Eugene P. Odum, director emeritus of UGA’s Institute of Ecology, made his wishes clear: in the end, his life was to be

Eugene Odum

celebrated rather than his death mourned. Odum’s colleagues and friends have planned an event that will do just that.
A memorial in celebration of the life of Odum (who died at his Athens home in August) is scheduled for Oct. 16 at 4 p.m. in Hodgson Hall in the Performing Arts Center. The event is free and open to the public--including the many colleagues, students and friends of Odum whose lives, both professional and personal, were affected by the man widely regarded as the “father of modern ecology.”
On display in the Hodgson Hall lobby will be selected national and international honors awarded Odum (of which there were hundreds), his books (he wrote more than a dozen) and many photographs (all chosen from his personal collection).
Odum family members will speak at the celebration. Crawford “Buzz” Holling, Eminent Scholar and Arthur R. Marshall Jr. Chair in Ecological Sciences at the University of Florida, will deliver the afternoon’s main address.
Speakers from UGA include President Michael F. Adams; Gary W. Barrett, Odum Professor of Ecology; Betty Jean Craige, director of UGA’s Center for Humanities and Arts and the author of a biography of Odum; Robert G. Edge, UGA Foundation emeritus trustee; Frank B. Golley, UGA Research Professor Emeritus and Odum’s first hire; and William U. Eiland, director of the Georgia Museum of Art.
Barrett, chair of the planning committee for the memorial, says that it was Odum’s desire “for us to celebrate his life and blessings and to bring together those individuals who were part of his life-long challenges and accomplishments. This event provides us with the opportunity to express our gratitude for and to pay tribute to his wisdom, mentorship and generosity.”
A reception will be held at the Georgia Museum of Art immediately following the speakers’ reminiscences.
Odum’s career was a long and varied one--and one that had a profound effect on the study of ecology.
Though he officially retired in 1984, Odum continued to work and teach every day.
“Eugene Odum influenced the world for the better by teaching several generations of ecologists to understand nature in terms of ecosystems and to see the applicability of ecosystem ecology to environmentalism,” says Craige.
For more information on the memorial celebration, contact Gary Barrett at 542-6065.

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