The 2022 Dean’s Award recipients and retirees were recently honored with an awards ceremony and celebration. Since 1990, the Dean’s Awards for Outstanding Achievement have recognized outstanding contributions by our community members that significantly advanced the mission of the College.

Kerry Menn and Jim Kiser were recognized for outstanding achievement in fostering undergraduate student success. Nominators noted “Kerry takes great care to ensure that our students are well supported while they pursue international internships or opportunities to study abroad. She is always “there” for them, and this literally means, that wherever they are (or she is), she will always reach out promptly with useful information, and directly intervene to remove obstacles and streamline processes.” Collegues noted that Jim teaches a large proportion of the undergraduate forestry and forest engineering course credit hours, spanning a vast array of FERM, CoF, and university majors. During academic year 20-21, Jim taught 20% of the total FERM teaching load!

Jessica Blunn was awarded outstanding achievement in contributions as a student worker in Jeff Hatten’s lab. Nominators noted “Jessica pursues everything she does in the lab with the same enthusiasm and focus—regardless of whether it is weighing hundreds of soil samples, to complicated and painstaking wet lab analyses. The work she produces and supports is of the highest caliber and the College has been made a much better and more supportive place because of her dedication.”

Mark Kerstens was recognized for outstanding achievement in graduate student leadership. Mark has been involved in FERM as a graduate student since fall 2019, when he started M.S. thesis work focused on assessing the extent to which the vital rates of the Black-backed Woodpecker differ between unburned (green) forests and recently burned forests. Despite being here for just over two years, Mark has achieved remarkable accomplishments that demonstrate his leadership, particularly in the areas of research and service.

The Pauline Barto Award for Commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion went to the Rootstock & Food Drive Committees. Adrienne Wonhof, Allison Culver, Amy Riley, Brooke Harrington, Christina Fierro, Jessica Fitzmorris, Juliet Sutton, Madison Dudley, Nicole Kent, Terralyn Vandetta, Ann Van Zee, Cathy Knock, Hilary McMillan, Jen Elston, Misty Magers, Tunde Jordan and Jenna Baker were honored, as well as Beth Thompson, Irene Schoppy and Julia Lont for their support of the committees.

Juliet Sutton was recognized for outstanding achievement in the mentorship of graduate students. One of the 30+ nominators said “Juliet does an excellent job making graduate students feel like a significant part of the college, even though some of them are remote E-Campus students living far away. She always has each student’s best interests in mind and provides a safe, welcoming, and inclusive environment for students to thrive.”

Madison Dudley and Woody Chung were recognized for outstanding achievement in distinction to the college. Nominators noted that Madison is the heart and soul of the graduate degree program in FERM, and Woody’s service and groundbreaking research has brought international recognition to our college.

2022 retirees Fred Kamke, Mike Bondi, Jon Souder and Brad Withrow-Robinson, and 2023 retiree Sandy Jameson were recognized for their service to the college. Sandy started working at OSU in 1988 and for the last 10 years, she has advised students in forestry, forest engineering, and forest-civil engineering. She was instrumental in implementing the pro-school model for the FERM department. Mike Bondi retired in 2020 after a 42-year career with OSU Extension and the College of Forestry. Mike developed one of the best forestry Extension programs in the nation while advancing his academic rank to achieve full professor in the College of Forestry. Brad Withrow-Robinson worked for OSU Extension for over 20 years, most recently as the extension forester for Benton, Linn, and Polk Counties. Fred Kamke and Jon Souder were unable to attend the ceremony.

October 24, 1932 – August 30, 2022

It is with great sadness that we share that Mike Newton, Professor Emeritus in the department of forest engineering, resources and management, passed away August 30, 2022.

Mike earned both his master’s and Ph.D. at Oregon State and was a faculty member at the College of Forestry for 40 years. During that time he conducted extensive research on the use of herbicides to control weeds in a wide array of forest settings, with the ultimate aim of determining the ideal environment for reforestation initiatives.

Over the course of his OSU career, Mike led significant investigations into competition between trees, shrubs and weeds in areas of differing rainfall and soil type and oversaw a major program in silviculture, with specific focus on the response of trees to different managed competition environments. In the latter stages of his tenure on the OSU faculty, Mike turned his attention to tree growth in cold weather climates. He also oversaw a mature forest study, which attempted to model the ideal regeneration of segments of forestland based on planned thinning and harvesting schedules. Mike was likewise involved in stream temperature studies during this period, working to determine the ideal types of riparian cover to maintain water temperatures that are optimum for healthy freshwater fish populations.

Although Mike retired from the College over 20 years ago, several folks shared memories of him. Jeff Hatten remembered how welcoming Mike was to both him and Ben Leshchinsky shortly after being hired at OSU. Jeff recalled Mike inviting them to come out to his forestland and spend the day on multiple occasions and share his knowledge from his forty years with OSU.

John Sessions, a close friend of Mike’s, shared a favorite memory of Mike. He said a number of years ago he was on a tour where Mike was explaining his work on conifer restoration in riparian zones in the Coast Range. One of the audience members challenged Mike by asking, “How do you know conifers grew here?” Mike replied, “I am standing on a conifer stump.” John said he was proud to call Mike a friend.

Mike retired from OSU in 1999, but remained very active as a scholar and mentor. Over the course of his career, Mike supervised 66 graduate students hailing from 11 different countries and published over 400 papers on forest science. To learn more Mike’s career and his contributions to the College of Forestry, please visit the Oregon State Oral History Project.  To learn more about Mike’s life, family, and legacy please visit his obituary.

Mike is survived by his children, Dan and (Kathy), children and great grandchildren, Linda & (Mike), and children, Tom and (April) and children.

A Celebration of Life will be Saturday, October 29th, 2022 at 11:00 am at the First Presbyterian Church of Corvallis, Dennis Hall: 114 SW 8th St. Corvallis, OR. Memorials are welcome to Oregon Small Woodland Association or Community Outreach, Inc. of Corvallis.

It is our pleasure to announce that Professor Temesgen Hailemariam has been appointed as the N.B. and Jacqueline Giustina Professor of Forest Management and the Director of the Center for Intensive Planted-forest Silviculture. 

Temesgen earned his Ph.D. in Forest Biometrics from the University of British Columbia in 1999 and has been with the College of Forestry since 2003. Temesgen has a prolific career in growth and yield modeling, silviculture, forest operations, carbon estimation, and climate change issues. His work has resulted in over 90 peer-reviewed publications and $4 million in funding. Importantly, he has trained 7 Ph.D. and 15 M.Sc. students that have gone on to distinguished careers in academia, agencies, consulting, and private industry. Over his career, Temesgen has been honored with several awards including the Dean’s Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Mentorship of Graduate Students (2019), the Xi Sigma Pi Mentor award (2008), and the Emerging Scholar Faculty Award of the OSU chapter of the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi (2007).

The Giustina Professor of Forest Management endowment honors Nat, ’41, and his wife Jacqueline Giustina. Their son, Larry Giustina, ‘71 and his wife Carolyn Keen Giustina, ’71, generously supported this endowed professorship. Larry, an OSU Lifetime Trustee, founding chair of the College of Forestry Board of Visitors, and an OSU College of Business alum, was a staunch advocate and friend of the College of Forestry .

Congratulations Temesgen!