Adjunct Professor Bob Stottlemyer Passes Away
John Robert (Bob) Stottlemyer, a faculty member at Michigan Tech from 1979-1990, died unexpectedly of natural causes May 31 on a research expedition at a remote field site along the Agashashok River in northern Alaska.
He is survived by his dear friend of 43 years, Carla (Char) del Mar, and his sister Laura. He remained an adjunct professor with the Department of Biological Sciences until his death.
Stottlemyer's three decades of research at the Agashashok River site were just a small part of his remarkable career studying environmental issues in northern landscapes and his incredibly full life of eight decades.
He was born in Hagerstown, Maryland, on June 19, 1940, and grew up in a family with two brothers and a sister. His boyhood was spent running around the local woods, while family trips to national parks set the stage for his professional focus. He majored in forestry at Pennsylvania State University, with summer jobs fighting wildfires as a smoke jumper in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California and working as an interpreter in national parks. He studied forest ecology for his Ph.D. at Duke University under the supervision of Professor Bill Ralston, focusing on forest soils and water quality. His Ph.D. research at the Fraser Experimental Forest in the Colorado Rockies was one of the first to combine the hydrology of mountain streams with water quality and nutrient budgets, an approach that persisted in his research over the next five decades, providing some of the best long-term records of forests and streams in the world.
After graduating from Duke, Stottlemyer voyaged the world as a professor with Semester at Sea (then called World Campus Afloat), and then joined the freshly created White House Council on Environmental Quality. The CEQ was responsible for documenting the state of the nation’s environment, providing the core information needed for implementing new environmental laws, including the National Environmental Protection Act, Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act.
Stottlemyer transitioned from the CEQ to become the lead environmental scientist in the Washington office of the National Park Service, and then served as the regional chief scientist for the Philadelphia office of the NPS. His heart was more in science and research than administration, and he relocated within the NPS to Houghton, beginning decades of collaboration with Michigan Tech. He focused on hydrology, chemistry and processes influencing water quality in remote watersheds from Calumet to Isle Royale National Park, Denali National Park and Noatak National Preserve.
Stottlemyer's commitment to science was so strong that he self-funded his research for decades following his retirement. His scientific legacy goes well beyond his impressive long-term records for watersheds — he influenced the lives and careers of many colleagues, postdoctoral scientists and students. All of Stottlemyer's projects served as schoolhouses for his collaborators and students, providing unique experiences that shaped careers and continue to bring insights to environmental issues. His legacy also includes a vast trove of professional photographs documenting the beauties of wild landscapes and some of the changes that developed through his long life.
Stottlemyer's loss leaves emptiness in many lives, but each time he comes to mind, we all find ourselves smiling with so many grand memories of our unique colleague and friend.