Thanks and Farewell
Jack Schmidt, Chief at Grand Canyon Monitoring and
Research Center (gcmrc) is retiring from his post to
return to teaching. He made the remarks below at the
Glen Canyon Dam Adaptive Management Work Group
meeting on August 28, 2014.

I

Anne, Lori, and Bob Snow,
absolutely wonderful people that are supportive
at the highest level. Dave Lytle, my boss, who has
made it possible for me to be me and still keep my job.
I want to thank all the stakeholders who I’ve gotten to
work with. And I really mostly want to thank the staff
that I work with, because all I’ve been is the shill, or
spokesman, for the hard-working staff of gcmrc.
I’ve been part of this river for 35 years. The only
person in this room who has worked longer on the
Colorado River is Larry Stevens, and I’m honored to
be on the same page with Larry. We’ve come such a
long way. I’ve been part of so many things. Whatever
you think of him, this program wouldn’t be where
it is without Dave Wegner, and what he started way
back then. The whole cast of scientists who didn’t
really know what they were doing back in the 1980s,
who did their science and also sat around on sandbars and beaches and said “well, this could be a better
place than it is.” The program’s evolution has partly
been due to good scientific work and partly taking the
time to sit with river guides and other folks concerned
about the river.
A bunch of us sat around the campfire during one
trip and wrote the first draft of what we called the
Beach Bill that ended up being an early draft of the
Grand Canyon Protection Act. Others of us came up
with the idea that we ought to have floods in Grand
Canyon, and then we worked on that issue for many
years before the first flood was implemented. I’ve had
wonderful students to work with. And it’s one of my
greatest satisfactions that some of those folks are now
on the staff at gcmrc and others work throughout the
basin or on other rivers.
The reality is that the Colorado River has given me
much more than I’ve given it. It gave me a career. It
gave me a passion. It gave me an entire professional
life. I’m now returning to life as a university professor,
because I think that’s a good place for me to be. I’ve
gotten so much from the River. What I’ve learned from
all of you in these three years is the depth of dedicated
service provided by government civil servants, government appointees, and stakeholders who represent
agencies. I didn’t realize just how much work goes on
behind the scenes, how much selfless behavior and
really want to thank

page 24

actions occur to make
the world a better place,
that you are all part of.
Maybe I was a little cynical
about that once, but I have
learned so much and I
appreciate what all of you
have done.
You all know that Larry, I, and others wrote in
a paper in the late ’90s in
Bioscience where we said
that, “America could have
whatever kind of Colorado River it wanted. It just
needed to figure out what
it wanted.” We said that
Jack Schmidt
in an unambiguous way,
and we published that a
long time ago. I still believe that statement, and I have
tried to work hard to get gcmrc to contribute the basic
information so that you, the stakeholders and policy
people, could decide. Sure, I have my own personal
opinions on these things. Some of you know what my
values are, but the bottom line is that gcmrc must give
you the best information we can, and we must ask
the most insightful scientific questions so that we as
a society can all make the best decision. I have a great
belief in the fact that we have the best river science in
the world right here in the United States, and I believe
that we have a wonderful democratic republic in
which transparent and open decisions can be made. I
celebrate diverse opinions, and it’s been a great honor
to be part of this program. Thanks an awful lot.
			

Jack Schmidt

A 1984 USGS sediment sampling trip. From left to right: Tim Whitney,
Jon Stoner, ?, Julie Graf, Richard Wilson, ?, Jack Schmidt (sitting).
grand canyon river guides