Oklahoma SCS/NRCS Retirees Newsletter

October 2012

On October 26, 2012, the Oklahoma SCS/NRCS Retirees met at the Golden Corral Buffet Restaurant in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.  Thirty people were in attendance.  They were:  Don & Darlene Bartolina, Ken & Rebecca Blan, Bob Bumgarner, Steve Chessmore, Everett & Helen Cole, Bob & Betty Day, Fred Fortney, Randy Freeland, Lloyd Garrison, David & Janice Haggard, Jim & Mollye Henley, Sandra Hough, Nick Lambeth, Jim McCampbell, Lowell & Minnie McMasters, George Moreland, Nelson Mueller, Glen & Eunice Mullen, Dan Runnels, Gayland Sandy, Jim Smith, Marcella Wagner.

President Dan Runnels called the meeting to order.  Nick Lambeth provided the blessing for the meal and everyone enjoyed a buffet meal.

Jim Smith introduced himself as a first time attendee.  Jim retired in 2002 as the District Conservationist in Kingfisher, Oklahoma.  He said he spends most of his time attending OSU sporting events, traveling, and volunteer work with the Sportsman’s Country Club in Oklahoma City.

Sandra Hough, our Secretary, said she mailed 340 notices about the meeting, 5 were returned, and 3 re-mailed.   Current addresses are needed for Bobby Morton, Chelsea; and Carl Mackey, Kingfisher.  Several retirees have updated their addresses through emails.  The retiree website  www.cyber-shack.net/nrcs/  has been helpful in our effort to keep retirees informed.  This website also has a posting of the attendees, minutes and pictures from each of the meetings.  She asked members to help her with addresses for those we no longer seem to be able to reach.  Addresses “needed” can also be found on the website.

Four new retirees have been added to our retirees list.  They are Tim Miller, Resource Engineer McAlester Technical Office, 6/1/12; Brian Bredesen, Civil Engineering Technician on Design Staff in Stillwater, 8/3/12, 32 yrs service; Randy Wingfield, Conservation Technician at Durant, 8/3/12; & Bobby Cline, District Conservationist at Sulphur, 10/2/12, 36 yrs. service.

Fred Fortney read a list of recent retiree deaths:  Vernon (Spec) Horn, 6/12/04 & his wife Nezzie, 9/5/11; Trudie Green, 8/7/12, mother of Johnny Green former State Conservation Engineer & husband of Joe Green, former engineer with SCS; Helen Riley, 8/21/12, widow of John T. Riley, Jr., Agronomist @ Clinton Technical Office;  Arvel Sumpter, 9/16/12, Conservation Technician,  retired in 1992, 81 yrs. old;  Wayne Holler, 9/21/12, Construction Inspector, Pauls Valley Watershed Office, retired in 2010 with 45 years’ service, 73 yrs. old; Bobby Davis, 10/6/12, Area Engineer Duncan Technical Office, 38 yrs service, 76 yrs. old; Doris Lambeth, 10/17/12, wife of Nickey J. Lambeth, retired Area Conservationist at Clinton living at Okemah; Gene Richardson, Marlow.  A moment of silence was observed and Fred offered a prayer. 

Randy Freeland is the Oklahoma representative to ARCSE and uses information gathered at the meetings to provide news articles for the newsletters sent to members of the organization every other month.  Dues are $18 per year and he has membership applications for anyone interested in joining.  He asked those in attendance who have activities not previously reported to complete an information sheet or update information.

Following are letters and e-mails we received from members not in attendance:

Larry Wright wrote:  Since conservation has been an active part of my life when I began a career in 1971 at 16 years old, I am not quitting yet.  I am volunteering services to RC&D, appointed to Deer Creek Conservation Board of Directors, working for OACD on the new wildlife credit program for the lesser prairie chicken habitat in NW Oklahoma, and providing leadership training workshops with Oklahoma Conservation Commission.  I am still active with the Soil and Water Conservation Society and serve on the national leadership development committee. I am also a member of the Oklahoma Wildlife and Prairie Heritage Alliance and the Oklahoma Recycling Association.  Staying busy keeps me young.

Don Bartolina replied:  Darlene and I took a 14 days trip to Europe. We started in Budapest for 2 days, then got on a river boat and toured on the Danube for 7 days.  We visited Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, Germany and the Czech Republic.  Our trip ended in Prague for 3 days. Other cities visited were Vienna, Durnstein, Melk, Salzburg and Linz in Austria. Passau, Regensburg and Nuremberg in Germany.  Going through the locks on the Danube was quite interesting.  Actually went over the continental divide. We had a great time.  We have 1400 pictures.  Anyone interested?

Terry and Sandra Hough spent summer #5 working at Fun Valley RV Resort in South Fork, Colorado.  Youngest daughter & family purchased an RV Park in Piedmont, MO in March - Beaver Springs Campground.  Pretty park if you RVers are ever in that area.  Granddaughter is a senior at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, OK majoring in Physical Education.

We heard the following from Wilma Fraley:  Since retiring, I have been having a great time doing all those things I missed out on while working. Spending more time with our children and grandchildren and having lunch every day with my husband, George, and the two children who work in our insurance agency is a real pleasure for me.  I sometimes help out around the agency for a few hours at a time and am able to attend a lot of George's out-of-town meetings and conventions with him.  We're in the middle of pecan harvest now, and, believe it or not, that is a lot of fun to be working with George, the kids and grandkids.


Bev and I just got back from Ireland from a 9 day trip.  Weekend before last, we went to Pryor, Oklahoma for grandson's last high school rodeo for the season.  Last weekend went to watch grandsons play football and soccer at Wichita Falls, Texas, reported Chuck Grimes
.

Roland Willis provided the following which I think many will find interesting.  (Editor’s Note:  If you did not catch the Dust Bowl series, it is available in DVD and a variety of others medias.  Please follow this website.  It will make you proud of the work you did). 

                              http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/dustbowl/


Roland’s comments:   Hope everyone will take the time to watch the documentary "The Dust Bowl" By Ken Burns" On PBS-OETA on the evenings of November 18th and 19th.  It is a four hour program, 2 hours each evening.  The pain and suffering and loss of life was terrible and of course the land devastated.

 Being born during a dust storm in the 30's, I suffered from bronchial new pneumonia and barely survived.

In the 1950's as a range conservationist on the southern high plains, we experienced the second dust bowl.  It was dryer and there was more soil erosion where I worked than in the 1930’s.  The Great Plains Conservation program was an outgrowth from this period and helped land owners and operators restore the land. .  

History repeats as again we are in a severe drought.  This is a challenging time for land owners and operators and all those assisting them.  May God bless our efforts.   
Roland

President Dan Runnels noted in the meeting that there were a total of 6 Dust Bowl Screenings at various locations around Oklahoma.  A few that experienced that time in our Nation’s history were present at each event.

Paul May wrote:  Sorry to miss the meeting.  That was Janell's birthday and had company at house.  Went to work in May for NASDA doing Ag statistics on a part time basis and have enjoyed it.  This coming January a CPA has ask me to help with tax season.  We went back to Alaska in July and are planning to go thru the Panama Canal next March on a 2 week cruise.  I invite all who would like to see this engineering marvel to come on with us.  It will be March 8th to the 22nd.

Winnie Jaques said:  Sorry I was unable to attend. I was out of state. I guess you would call this a "part time" job - I worked at the polling place for the presidential election.  Quite an experience! Very interesting people showed up to vote but there were no confrontations as I hear there was in many places. 

I am sorry I missed the Luncheon in Oct.  I made all OSU Football home games. Now I’m looking forward to Basketball.  I still have some cattle, actually about half of what I had before the summer of 2011 was received from Otho Lamar.                                                                                                   

Norm Smola said he had been attending OSU sports, took a trip to Alaska this summer, and playing on the farm in spite of the drought.

“Flashes from the Past” was shown at the meeting by Randy Freeland. It was a slide show of slides he had borrowed from the State Office information section to show to the group.  He invited others who might have slides to bring them to show at future meetings.

The next meeting was scheduled for Friday, April 26, 2013, at the Golden Corral Buffet, 520 South MacArthur Blvd. in Oklahoma City.  It is located between I-40 & Reno behind the Shell Station.  Take Exit #144 off I-40.  Go north on MacArthur Blvd.

 

 

 

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