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From a Farm on the Plains—Roy Simonson

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Soil Science Americana

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Abstract

Roy Simonson was born in 1908 in Agate, North Dakota where his parents had settled in 1896. They grew wheat and other grains. In 1927, he enrolled at North Dakota Agricultural College as a student in civil engineering. A soil course taught by Charles Kellogg changed the direction of his studies and he graduated in 1934. At the recommendation of Charles Kellogg, he started his Ph.D. studies at the University of Wisconsin in Madison under Emil Truog. He graduated in 1938 and was hired at Iowa State College where he conducted soil survey and taught soils. In 1943, he was hired as soil correlator for the Division of Soil Survey in the south-east. After 6 years as soil inspector in Knoxville and several brief stints of soil survey work in the Pacific, Roy became the assistant chief of the Division of Soil Survey where he worked until his retirement in 1973. He died in 2008, 100 years old.

“Once a man had thrust his hands into the soil and knew the grit of it between his teeth, he felt something rise within him that was not of his day or generation, but had persisted through birth and death from a time beyond recall.”

Martha Ostenso, 1937

“For each of us what we know best tends to become the universe.”

Roy Simonson, 1976

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Soil Science, FD Hole Soils Lab, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA

    Alfred E. Hartemink

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  1. Alfred E. Hartemink
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Hartemink, A.E. (2021). From a Farm on the Plains—Roy Simonson. In: Soil Science Americana. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-71135-1_5

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