Compiled by Mike Goatley, Ph.D., Extension Turfgrass Specialist, Virginia Tech
Editor’s note: At the end of this year, Dr. Erik Ervin will leave Virginia Tech to become the head of the Plant and Soil Sciences Department at the University of Delaware. Erik Ervin spent 17 years as a professor and turfgrass physiologist at Virginia Tech, advancing in his academic career to the level of Assistant Dean of Academic Programs and interim head of the Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences Department. Several of his university and Virginia turfgrassindustry colleagues offered a few memories of Dr. Ervin’s tenure at Virginia Tech, and they join countless others in saying thanks to Dr. Ervin for his years of service. Erik, we wish you great success as the head of the Plant and Soil Sciences Department at the University of Delaware.
Dr.
DICK FISHER, CGCS
Superintendent, Lake Chesdin Golf Course Erik and Stacey Ervin joined the Vessells and us for a great ski vacation a few years ago in Park City, Utah. The first day, Erik showed up with telemark skis, like you see in cross-country ski racing. He proceeded to bust some new trails through the trees in deep powder at breakneck speed. We were suitably impressed until we saw him ski faster and jump higher the next day on regular skis. We asked him how he learned to ski so well while growing up in sorta-flat Iowa, for crying out loud. He said, “Well, we did have a place in Colorado, too. And there was that graduate-school stint at Colorado State, as well!” If you think he’s competitive on a golf course, you ain’t seen nothing ‘til you’ve seen him on skis. Those mountains in Delaware are going to take quite a beating!
DAVE CHALMERS, PH.D. former Extension Turfgrass Specialist, Virginia Tech
I have enjoyed keeping in touch with Erik through the years at meetings and in my occasional visits to Blacksburg. And yes, there have been a number of rounds of golf together along the way with mutual friends and colleagues; eight of us in Scotland for a great week in 2015 was a highlight! Erik is a good friend. I was pleased to play a small part in bringing him to Virginia Tech and pleased to be asked by Dr. Goatley to express my good wishes to Erik as he departs VT after 17 years. I first met and interacted with Erik during his Ph.D. program at Colorado State University while I was there on sabbatical leave during the summer of 1997. I was impressed with Erik as a graduate student, and we kept in touch as he started his academic career at the University of Missouri as the state turf Extension specialist. During that time, those of us at Virginia Tech knew that Dr. Dick Schmidt was soon to retire. Erik was early in his career at Missouri, and the search committee invited him to apply. Well, the rest (from 2001 on) is “in the books.” Erik focused on continuing and further developing Dick Schmidt’s work in biostimulant-type research as well as in many other areas. He has been good for the turf program (undergraduate and graduate students) and the turf industry, and he has been a productive and respected scientist and colleague. More recently, he was able to “kick the tires” in administrative roles as Assistant Dean of Academic Programs in the College of Agriculture
Journal of the Virginia Turfgrass Council
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