The State Farm Fire and Casualty Insurance Co. and State Farm General Insurance Co. have donated $100,000 toward an endowed chair to honor University of Colorado at Boulder Professor Emeritus Gilbert F. White, known worldwide as the "father of floodplain management."
Becky Turner of State Farm's regional office in Greeley presented the check in a May 2 ceremony at the CU-Boulder Natural Hazards Center. The CU Foundation is hoping to raise $3 million to endow the chair by White's 90th birthday on Nov. 26.
Turner spoke about the importance of the work of White and the Natural Hazards Center, which White founded, in addressing what people can do to limit the impact of floods, wildfires and other natural hazards. White has played a key role in shaping the nation's policies on natural disasters and other environmental issues for more than five decades.
The endowed chair will be in the Natural Hazards Center, which is part of the Institute of Behavioral Science.
On April 6, White attended the dedication of the Arthur Maass-Gilbert F. White Reference Room in the library of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Institute for Water Resources in Fort Belvoir, Va. Both White and Maass, former head of the Harvard Water Program, were critics of the Corps' practices, with White advocating equal consideration of nonstructural flood control measures since the late 1930s.
"No other scholars in the 20th century had more influence on the Corps of Engineers' water resources program," the IWR's dedication materials stated. In White's 1942 doctoral dissertation, he wrote his then-revolutionary idea that "Floods are 'acts of God,' but flood losses are largely acts of man."
"White's work demonstrated that flood control structures not only occasionally fail the standards of reliability set by planners, but can actually increase the damage done when unsuspecting people risk lives and money to develop the land supposedly protected," according to the IWR.
"Dr. White's work has more than stood the test of time; if anything, it is more relevant and accepted today because of the modern awareness of the natural values of floodplains to aquatic ecosystems and the need to emphasize nonstructural floodplain management measures."
White is CU-Boulder's Gustavson distinguished professor emeritus of geography and has won numerous awards including the nation's highest scientific honor, the National Medal of Science in 2000. He joined the CU-Boulder faculty in 1970 after 14 years as a professor at the University of Chicago and 10 years as president of Haverford College in Pennsylvania. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and still conducts research on the CU-Boulder campus.
For information about donating toward the Gilbert F. White endowed chair contact Linda Bachrach in the CU Foundation at (303) 492-5689, email Linda.Bachrach@cufund.colorado.edu or write to her at P.O. Box 1140, Boulder, CO 80306-1140.