ROY W. SIMONSON, MAPSS First Honorary Member
The above picture of Dr. Roy W. Simonson examining a soil profile near Ithaca, NY, was taken several years ago by Dr. Ray R. Weil and is used with Ray’s permission. It also appears in black and white format on page 75 of the Brady and Weil (2002) textbook.
Roy Simonson was elected by MAPSS in 1989 as its first honorary member. Roy is also an honorary member of state associations of professional soil scientists in North Dakota and Ohio.
Roy was born September 7, 1908 in Agate, North Dakota. His pre-college education was in public schools in North Dakota. Roy obtained his B.S. from North Dakota State University in 1934, where he took soils courses from and was advised by Charles E. Kellogg, who later became Chief of the U.S. Soil Survey. Roy earned his Ph.D. in soil science from the University of Wisconsin, where his major advisor was Emil Truog, in 1938. He also has an honorary doctor’s degree from a school (Landbrukshogsksole) in Aas, Norway, awarded in 1984.
Roy served as Assistant Professor of Soils at Iowa State College, 1938-42. His subsequent employment was in the USDA federal soil survey programs, first with the Bureau of Chemistry and Soils and then with the Soil Conservation Service. He served as Principal Soil Correlator for the Southern United States, 1943-1946; Chief Soil Scientist for Pacific Surveys, 1947-48; Assistant Chief of Soil Surveys, 1949-52; and Director for Soil Classification and Correlation, 1953-1971.
While Roy was Director for Soil Classification and Correlation his office was for a time in the Federal Center Building in Hyattsville, MD. During this time Roy and his wife Susan (and until they went off to college etc., his sons Walter and Bruce) resided in College Park, MD. Roy and Susan continued to live in College Park until they moved to a retirement village in Oberlin, OH, in 1993, to be near their son Bruce and his family. Bruce is a geology professor at Oberlin. Roy’s presence in College Park was a blessing for Del Fanning and other soil professors at the University of Maryland who recruited him to help on a volunteer basis with their teaching and research programs. Roy gave numerous invited lectures on soil science topics to classes and seminars at the university. For many years Roy presented his annual two hour “soils of the world” lecture, on soils of the (then) 10 orders of Soil Taxonomy, to the annually taught soil morphology, genesis and classification class (AGRO 414, now NRSC 414). For these lectures he utilized his vast collection of 35mm slides of soil profiles and landscapes -- taken during his professional travels around the world. His outstanding ability to photograph soil profiles was also utilized at the university when he taught a segment, on photographing soils, in a graduate level agronomic photography class. He also on three occasions in the 1970’s and 80’s taught a graduate level class at the university on “Theories of Soil Genesis”.
Roy developed and published in 1959 a generalized theory of soil genesis. This theory of soil development by additions, losses, transfers and transformations appears in many soil science textbooks including those of Fanning and Fanning (1989) and Brady and Weil (2002). Roy also authored many other outstanding publications. A list of some of them is given at the end of this sketch. The one on “concept of soil” has been especially instrumental in getting the concept of soil as an organized natural body recognized and used throughout the world.
In 1962 Roy became a member of the editorial board of Geoderma, then a new international soil science journal. Five years later, Roy became editor-in-chief of that journal. He was very active in this position, with secretarial help from his wife Susan, for many years to help this journal become a respected international soil science journal.
Roy is known for his many writings and presentations pertaining to soil science/pedology history. Roy started writing soil science history articles in the 1950’s with articles in Soil Science on “Lessons from the first half-century of soil survey”. One of Roy’s history papers on “Soil classification in the past – roots and philosophies”, first published in an annual report of the International Soil Reference and Information Centre (Netherlands) was selected as a history chapter for the Fanning and Fanning (1989) textbook. Other chapters of that book on the gross processes of soil formation and change were inspired by Roy’s lectures to his Theories of Soil Genesis classes at the University of Maryland.
Roy continues in the new millennium to publish his writings. In 2003 he wrote a little book published in 2004 on his experiences doing soil survey work in Montana in 1935, entitled “Six months along the Missouri”.
Roy met Susan at Iowa State in Ames in 1938 and they were married in 1942 in Albia, Iowa. Susan unfortunately deceased Dec. 31, 1996. For those who would like to correspond with Roy, his address and telephone number are available from Del Fanning, who put this sketch together, in part from information supplied in an exchange of letters with Roy.
A chronological list of some of Roy’s more influential and interesting publications follows:
- Studies of buried soils formed from till in Iowa. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. Proc. 6: 373-381.
- (with F. F. Riecken and G. D. Smith) Understanding Iowa soils. Wm. C. Brown Co., Dubuque, Iowa.
- The changing place of soils in agricultural production. Scientific Monthly 81: 173-181.
- Lessons from the first half century of soil survey: I. Classification of soils. Soil Science 74: 249-257.
1952. Lessons from the first half century of soil survey: II. Mapping of soils. Soil Science 74: 323-330.
- A generalized theory of soil genesis. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. Proc.23: 152-156.
1962. Soil classification in the United States. Science 131: 173-181.
1968. Concept of soil. Advances in Agronomy 20: 1-47.
1978.A multiple process model of soil genesis. pp. 1-25. In W. C. Mahaney (ed.) Geo-Abstracts, Norwich, England.
1989. Historical highlights of soil survey and classification with emphasis on the United States. Tech. Bull. 18, 78pp. International Reference and Information Centre, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
1991. Soil science – goals for the next 75 years. Soil Sci. 151: 7-18.
1995. Airborne dust and its significance to soils. Geoderma 65: 1-43.
1997. Early teaching in the USA of the Dokuchaiev factors of soil formation. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 61: 11-16.
2004. Six months along the Missouri. Infi∞ity Publishers, Haverford, PA. 103 pages.
References:
Brady, N. C. and R. R. Weil. 2002. The Nature and Properties of Soils. 13th edition. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ.
Fanning, D. S. and M. C. B. Fanning. 1989. Soil: Morphology, Genesis, and Classification. John Wiley and Sons, New York.