[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 186 (Tuesday, December 6, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2183]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       IN HONOR OF DR. BOB CURRY

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. SAM FARR

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, December 6, 2011

  Mr. FARR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the long and 
distinguished career of Dr. Robert Curry. Dr. Curry, a prominent 
professor of hydrology and geology at both the University of California 
at Santa Cruz and California State University at Monterey Bay, has 
spent his entire professional life teaching generations of students how 
human activity can change the earth's surface. He has also spent 
countless hours, many without pay, working for conservation 
organizations on issues ranging from soil conservation, wetland 
preservation, water quality, to endangered species protection. Dr. 
Curry is truly a modern renaissance man. He has mastered many 
disciplines, including hydrology, geology, fluviual geomorphology, 
climatic history, wetland delineation, forest ecology, and geologic 
hazard evaluation. It is important we honor his vision, dedication, and 
tenacity in doing as much as humanly possible to protect the natural 
environment from unnecessary harm.
  Dr. Curry is a native Californian, raised in the Sierra Nevada area 
of eastern California where both sets of grandparents instilled in him 
a love of natural history, hiking and camping. Dr. Curry and his three 
younger siblings, Barbara, Judy, and Joe as well as aunts, uncles and 
many cousins have deep roots in the land. He ultimately completed his 
doctoral dissertation on the climatic history of the Sierra Nevada and 
his parents are now buried at high elevation in what is now a 
Wilderness Area.
  Dr. Curry studied at the undergraduate and masters level at the 
University of Colorado. He later earned a Ph.D in Geology and 
Geophysics at UC Berkeley, where he helped draft California's Forest 
Practices Act. Dr. Curry subsequently taught for over 45 years, 
beginning at UC Santa Barbara. He later served as Provost and professor 
at UC Santa Cruz before joining the California State University 
Monterey Bay faculty where he created the Watershed Science curriculum.
  Perhaps his most significant contribution was the cooperative 
authorship of Section 102(2)(c) of the National Environmental Policy 
Act. In 1969, Dr. Curry served as the initial science advisor to the 
U.S. Senate Public Works Committee following its review of the Santa 
Barbara Oil Spill. Working with Senator Ed Muskie, chairman of the Air 
and Water Pollution Subcommittee who was drafting the National 
Environmental Policy Act, Dr. Curry's work lead to the clause that says 
if public funds are used to develop information about projects of 
national interest that could guide public policy, the information must 
be released to the public. This became the basis for the Environmental 
Impact Statement, which has served the public by bringing transparency 
to the policy process.
  Mr. Speaker, I know I speak for the whole House in honoring the 
career of this remarkable scientist and conservation leader. 
California, and indeed the world, are better for his efforts.

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