PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING & REMOTE SENSING
July 2016
465
A N I N T E R V I E W
What was your greatest joy in working with ASPRS?
PE&RS
?
I would have to say that there are really two things that
come to mind here:
First, as President of APSRS in 2004, I was the ASPRS
Delegate to the ISPRS Congress in Istanbul, Turkey.
This Congress only occurs every 4 years and I was
extremely lucky that it fell when I was president. The
meeting lasted almost 2 weeks and I was able to spend
that time learning not only about our profession on the
international scale, but also about the culture and people
of Istanbul. It was a fabulous experience, but it was not
over. The delegate from the previous meeting gets to
attend the next Congress as the advisor to the delegate
and so in 2008 I was able to go to Beijing, China with the
then current president, Ms. Kass Green, who is also one
of my very best friends. So, spending almost 2 weeks
in Istanbul and then the same in Beijing has been the
experience of a lifetime.
Second, I have gotten great joy as editor of
PE&RS
mentoring young authors through the publishing
process. These days, most publishing (paper submission,
review, and editing) is done electronically and is quite
impersonal. We have had a more personal process based
on email where I was able to directly communicate with
all authors and provide feedback and mentoring on each
paper, especially to young authors. I think this effort
made a difference to these authors and it was great to be
able to help them just as so many helped me when I was
just starting out.
Your biggest challenge?
The biggest challenge was the transition between
Executive Directors of ASPRS. Jeanie and I were
very close to Kim Tilley and her untimely passing was
extremely difficult for all of us. It also made the transition
for Michael Hauck taking over for Jim Plasker extremely
difficult. Instead of having the great benefit of Kim’s vast
experience and knowledge, Michael had to figure much
more out by himself. Since the journal was doing quite
well, he naturally concentrated on much more pressing
issues. We continued on and took the challenge to make
the journal the best it could be until we were in a place
where it could be transitioned to a new editor.
37 years is a long time. What are some of your fondest
memories? Funniest stories?
I have been a member of ASPRS for 37 years. There are
lots of great memories and fun stories.
As I mentioned, I was the ASPRS delegate to the
ISPRS Congress in Istanbul in 2004. My advisor was the
President of ASPRS from 2000, Mr. Alan Mikuni. I knew
Alan very well as he was part of the excellent team that
put on GIS ’87 in San Francisco. Neither of us brought
our spouses to Istanbul so he went to all the social and
technical events that I needed to attend as the delegate
with me. Everyone starting calling him my date and we
just went with it. To this day, when we see each other he
calls me “honey” and I call him “sweetie”.
Also, in Istanbul, the ASPRS Executive Director, Jim
Plasker, was a big fan of ice cream. Almost every day we
would go on these long explorations to find the best ice
cream in the city. The only Turkish word that I learned
the entire time there is the word for ice cream. We had
quite a few adventures.
Finally, I got to spend my 51st birthday on the Great
Wall of China. What an amazing sight. When I got back
to our hotel after this great day, the hotel had prepared
a birthday cake for me and it was waiting for me in my
room. It was not a large cake and I just sat down and ate
the whole thing for dinner.
What’s next?
I still have much to contribute and I am happy to do so. I
am currently working with some co-authors on a book on
image analysis for ESRI. In addition, this summer I will
begin to work on the 3rd edition of the book on Assessing
the Accuracy of Remotely SensedData that I co-author with
Kass Green. Some of my research is now concentrating
on the use of UAS for image data collection in natural
resources. I am not sure what the next big activity will be,
but I am sure that there will be opportunities to serve and
I will be happy to do so.
Jeanie is now employed as the IT and Event Planning
staff member at AmericaView, a consortium funded by
the USGS that is dedicated to education, outreach, and
applied research of remotely sensed data. AmericaView
works closely with ASPRS as the goals of both groups are
closely aligned.
Russ and Jeanie were honored at IGTF 2016 — the ASPRS
Annual Conference. Russ received an ASPRS Outstanding
Service Award for his excellent editorship and dedication
to PE&RS and his continued service during our search for
a replacement. Jeanie received a Presidential Citations
for her years of hardwork and dedicated service to
PE&RS
.
