cipal founder of Georgia’s Institute for Ecology, where he trained genera-
tions of graduate students from around the nation and the globe as well as
conducted and supervised laboratory and field research. In Gene won
a contract with the Atomic Energy Commission to study the square
miles of vacated farmland and woods surrounding the new Savannah River
nuclear plant. The project occupied him, many colleagues, and squadrons
of graduate students for years. Both brothers were fascinated (and one must
say, enchanted) by wetlands. Gene produced a book about coastal Georgia,
while his talented wife, a watercolorist, painted Sapelo Island and other
tidal scenes., holder of an endowed chair and director of the University
of Florida’s counterpart of Gene’s institute, famously described the steady-
state ecosystem of Silver Spring. The s and s were the heydays of
ecosystem studies, and the brothers Odum were arguably the greatest stars
of the International Biological Program, which sponsored huge and costly
biome studies. They traveled the world, often together, with their wives,
reading conference papers and accepting awards. There is no Nobel Prize
for ecology, but there was probably a worldwide consensus that Gene and
were de facto laureates.
It may seem ironic, then, that such globe-trotters remained profoundly
provincial. Gene was the ur-Georgian. And, descending from New
Haven, did a stint in Puerto Rico, rambled among other excellent institu-
tions before settling (for three decades) at Florida, but spent his long career
entirely in the South, too. Surely either scholar might have left, but both
were not only self-consciously southern but committed, like their father,
to southern missions. Wetlands must be preserved, for instance, and if
endangered, saved by wise management. Virtually all the physical South
was threatened in some way—by overdevelopment, mining and other in-
dustries, outdated sanitation, or inadequate and compromised water sup-
plies. The Odums would apply their expertise and versatility to solving their
homeland’s persisting ills. They were not merely ecosystem ecologists but
unabashed environmentalists.
Both brothers insisted upon addressing their work not only to peers but
to students at every level, to public officeholders, and to the public. Gene’s
Principlesevolved through several editions for two decades, and even rather
late in his life he sought to make ecosystem ecology accessible with such
works asEcology: A Bridge between Science and Society(). Likewise,
offered (in ) his Odumesque contribution to public education,Environ-
ment, Power, and Society. The work was dedicated to his father, ‘‘who sug-
gested,’’wrote, ‘‘a synthesis of science and society.’’ He also ‘‘acknowl-