Citation as read
October 16, 2003
Mount Vernon, Iowa
John Mark Dean: marine scientist, conservationist, public servant, distinguished professor emeritus at the University of South Carolina, and outstanding alumnus of Cornell College. Today we honor you as one who has exemplified our highest ideals in applying your liberal arts perspective to the study and teaching of aquatic ecology.
Your service to numerous organizations has helped shape policies for developing natural resources at the domestic and international levels. Among the forms of marine life you have researched and aimed to protect are the loggerhead turtle, striped bass, marlin, shrimp, swordfish, and tuna Dr. Dean, in 1958, you earned a Bachelor of Science in biology from Cornell College, where you recall being “shaped, molded, and pushed” in particular by Dr. Ed Rogers. Next came master’s and doctoral degrees in aquatic ecology from Purdue University, followed by postdoctoral work at the Duke University Marine Laboratory. For seven years you conducted research for General Electric and the Battelle Memorial Institute at Richland, Washington, focusing on stream pollution and the aquatic ecology of the Columbia River. Then in 1970 you joined the faculty of the University of South Carolina and helped establish the Baruch Institute and the Marine Science Program that are so well known today.
Your research has emphasized the age and growth of recreationally and commercially important fish in fresh water, estuarine, and oceanic ecosystems, as well as environmental resource policy and management. A hallmark of your teaching is interfacing with disciplines ranging from politics to economics, literature, ancient history, language, and the arts. Your excitement in discovery, your openness to new opportunities, and your drive to make science relevant have brought you many teaching honors, including the University of South Carolina’s 1992 Golden Key Faculty Award for Creative Integration of Research in Undergraduate Teaching, and the South Carolina Wildlife Federation 1996 Conservation Educator of the Year award.
Furthermore, you have extended your marine research by publishing dozens of scholarly articles and consulting with international colleagues on fish ecology, fishery resources, and habitat utilization. Upon your retirement from the University of South Carolina. In 2002, your former students established the John Mark Dean Chair in Science and Ocean Policy in the Baruch Institute, where you continue to serve as a Senior Fellow. You and your students are currently studying the ecology of tuna and swordfish in the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean, collaborating with colleagues in Italy, France, the Netherlands, Greece, and Turkey.
Your service on numerous natural resource advisory groups has brought a unique perspective to policy makers and to your students, whom you have guided by example into service roles. You served four terms on the U.S. Advisory Committee of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas. Your other policy advisory involvements include the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council, the National Marine Fisheries Service Highly Migratory Species Advisory Panel, and the National Academy of Science’s Committee on Technology and Marine Habitats and its Committee to Identify High-Priority Science to Meet National Coastal Needs. Last year the South Carolina Chapter of the American Fisheries Society named you Fishery Conservationist of the Year.
John Mark Dean, you are esteemed among your peers. Your alma mater is proud to recognize your many enduring contributions to your students, to science and conservation, and to the future of international marine life. It is our privilege and our pleasure to confer upon you the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa.
Leslie H. Garner Jr. Gilbert X. Drendel Jr.
President of Cornell College Chair, Board of Trustees