In Memoriam

3 April 1934–29 August 2020 Ronald W. Goede passed away, age 86, of complications related to cancer. His last days were at home under hospice care with his wife Lisa and family at his side. He was born in Columbus, Nebraska, and graduated from high school in Lincoln. Ron served 8 years in the Air Force and earned a BS from the University of Nebraska, majoring in zoology and botany. He completed a MS in fisheries biology at Utah State University in 1961. His career began with the Missouri Conservation Commission as a research biologist and expanded to training in fish disease at the Fish Farming Experiment Station at Stuttgart, Arkansas. In 1963, Ron was hired as Missouri’s first hatchery biologist, where he was sent to the Eastern Fish Disease Laboratory in Leetown, West Virginia to study fish diseases under his mentor, Stan Sniesko. In 1966, Ron was recruited by the Utah Department of Fish and Game. He served for 34 years as director of the Fisheries Experiment Station in Logan, retiring in 2000. As the sole state fish pathologist, Ron directed efforts on standard aquaculture methods, fish quality, health management, and disease control, while building a full-service diagnostic lab. He wrote policies, rules, and regulations for Utah’s public and private hatcheries and fought for their implementation during a time when IPN (viral disease) and whirling disease plagued the resource. Ron developed and presented a drainage concept of disease control, which was approved and adopted by all seven states of the Colorado River Wildlife Council in 1972. This initiative became a template for the states of the Great Lakes Commission and Canada, the Atlantic Seaboard, and the Columbia River drainages, effectively changing disease management nationwide. Ron was instrumental in changing the constitution of the American Fisheries Society to establish discipline sections. He helped develop the Fish Health Section as the first section, which established peer-reviewed standard methods and professional certification. Ron was president of the Bonneville Chapter, the Western Division, and the Fish Health Section of the American Fisheries Society. In 1988, Ron chaired an international 3-day meeting in Denver on Whirling Disease, and hosted the first Rocky Plains Fish Health Workshop, which continues annually. In subsequent years, Ron developed the Health/Condition Profile (HCP), a necropsy-based fish-health assessment protocol, illustrated by his own photographs. Ron taught the protocol to over a thousand biologists representing state and federal agencies, universities, and countries. The HCP became a standard tool used by fisheries professionals. Ron also taught a 2-week aquaculture course periodically to all Utah fish culturists, changing Fish and Game fish culture from an art to a shared science. From 1976 to 1986, Ron was part of the lecture staff at the National Fisheries Academy at Leetown, West Virginia, teaching diagnostic approach, health assessment, and bio-legal perspective. As an adjunct professor at Utah State University, he taught a course on fish diseases for 12 years and served on graduate committees. He was certified as a Fish Health Inspector and Fish Pathologist and was an expert witness in legal disputes. Ron worked to get legislation that created a Fish Health Policy Board with the mission to balance natural resource stewardship and commodity. In 1998, the Board was created within the Utah Department of Agriculture and continues to set policy for fish health management. Throughout his career, Ron received numerous awards and was well known for his quick wit and humor. Ron co-founded the Bridger Folk Music Society, which produced concerts featuring internationally-acclaimed artists, dances, and workshops. We’ll miss him.

Récupéré en direct depuis OpenAlex et désinversé. Les résumés ne sont pas conservés dans cette base de données : les index inversés représentent 8,6 Go des 9,3 Go de texte de la base, et le serveur dispose de 13 Go libres.