John O. Ludwigson: A brief professional history
Ocean World, 1977-1979
Earth is a water planet: the oceans affect nearly every aspect of human endeavor,
from farming to literature and from commerce to warfare. Convinced that the time
had come for a popular magazine that would reflect this, Robert C. Keith and I began publication of Ocean World. We offered original paintings in the centerfold, and articles on major developments in the oceans such as the use of icebergs as a water source for Saudi Arabia, international efforts to establish a law of the sea, and ocean education in the schools. From 1977 through 1979, as Associate Editor and Publisher, I wrote some of those articles, covered ocean-related news, edited the magazine, and designed and wrote promotional materials. Things went well, but not well enough; 1979 was our last year of publication.
Mosaic, 1980-1992
For this gem of a magazine, once published by the National Science Foundation, I was privileged to write articles on marine biology, the academic ocean research fleet, the new field of paleoceanography, and marine geology. These appeared from 1980, until the NSF ended publication in 1992. The articles can be retrieved from the World Wide Web by going to the Mosaic Article Retrieval Service.
Ocean Science News, 1972-1977
As Associate Editor for Science and Technology, I contributed weekly news reports
on such fields as hyperbaric physiology, oil pollution, offshore oil industry technology, marine communications, marine geology, professional diving (both civilian and military), and federal government actions concerned with these and other aspects of ocean research and commerce. My
reports also appeared in the other publications of Nautilus Press, Inc. such as Coastal Zone Management, Marine Fish Management, and Marine Mammal News.
Science News, 1967
As Earth and Environment Editor, I covered geological sciences and the nation's growing awareness of the importance of environmental protection, including such topics as
air and water pollution, ocean science and technology, and related legislative matters.
The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer, 1964-1966
In the mid-1960s America was hell-bent to beat the Soviet Union to the moon. Astronauts in the Mercury and Gemini programs were proving they had the "right stuff" as they
were flung into orbit around the earth and made the first space walks. Ranger and
Surveyor spacecraft reconnoitered the moon, while huge Saturn rockets blasted aloft
from Cape Canaveral. Meanwhile, engineers at NASA's Lewis Research Center in Cleveland
were busy inventing the "electric rocket engines" they were sure would someday power
deep space probes. And the cleanup of a century's filth dumped into Lake Erie was beginning.
I wrote about it all as the paper's science writer.
The New Castle News, 1963
One of the most enjoyable jobs I ever had was the six months I spent at this small
town daily in western Pennsylvania, where I was the farm reporter. After a morning
doing general assignment chores, I could take my camera and spend the afternoon visiting local farms
to see what was going on. Often the local agricultural extension agent went along to point
out the latest successes in the never-ending effort to preserve the family farm.
We enlivened the dog days of August with a week-long series on the discovery
of a long-lost Pennsylvania Dutch farm implement: the witzonsnickle. After we finally had
to admit it was a hoax, a reader called to ask us if we'd like to see his Blickensdorfer
#5. We called his bluff, only to discover that there really is such a thing: it's an early forerunner of the IBM Selectric typewriter!
On November 22, 1963, I was sitting in the newsroom when the assistant city editor ran from the wire room shouting that the President had been shot. He headed straight for the press room and became the only person I know of who actually yelled, "Stop the presses!" To his astonishment, they stopped. Later that week I wrote a four-line poem about the assassination, which the paper printed. To this day, it's my only published poetry:
The pond froze over last night,
And little icy fingers of frost
Have touched the leaves,
As lately they have touched our hearts.
Other Stuff......
United Nations Conference on the Human Environment,
Stockholm, Sweden, June 5 -16, 1972. I wrote the official background paper, VII. Environmental Aspects of Natural Resource Management (101 pp), for the Conference. This was edited and reprinted as a 24-page pamphlet, Resources: Used and Abused, the first in the five-part Man's Home series published by the Conservation Foundation in April 1972 for the Conference. The work of the Conference is now carried on by the United Nations Environment Programme.
U.S. National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council, U.S. National Committee for the International Hydrological Decade, 1969-1975. I wrote, compiled, and edited the 145-page report on the Objectives and Activities of the International Field Year for the Great Lakes (IFYGL), Two Nations, One Lake--Science in Support of Great Lakes Management, which was published in May 1974 by the Canadian National Committee for the International Hydrological Decade. As a consultant to the U.S. Committee, I also edited the quarterly IHD Bulletin, designed and implemented an IFYGL exhibit for a 1972 EPA conference, and represented the Committee on an interagency public affairs committee for IFYGL.
U.S. National Academy of Engineering, Marine Board (formerly National Committee on Ocean Engineering), 1969-1972. As editorial consultant to the Board's first executive director, Dr. S.R. Keim, I edited and wrote much of the Proceedings of the First General Assembly of the Engineering Committee on Oceanic Resources (ECOR) in 1972, and edited other reports such as Wastes Management Concepts for the Coastal Zone--Requirements for Research and Investigation, Toward Fulfillment of a National Ocean Commitment (a review of national needs in ocean engineering, published in March 1972), and Mobilizing to Use the Seas (the report of the President's Task Force on Oceanography, 1970).
Conferences. Proceedings of the International Oil Spill Conference, 1977 - 1995 (but not 1981). These biennial conferences are sponsored by the American Petroleum Institute, U.S. Coast Guard, and Environmental Protection Agency in the United States. As Proceedings Editor, I shepherded the manuscripts for the 600-700-page volumes from acceptance to final publication in the three months preceding each conference. Proceedings of the Hazardous Material Spills Conference, 1980, '82, and '84. These conferences were sponsored by EPA, USCG, the Chemical Manufacturers Association, and the Association of American Railroads. Work on these volumes was similar to that for the Oil Spill Conferences.
Source Material. Many of the publications listed here are available in the collections of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. You can search for them at the Library of Congress catalog.
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