Having witnessed economic hardship at the time of the Great Depression and seeing the effect of prolonged drought, he was inspired to focus on water resources.
His first wife, Dolly (Myrtle Marie Campbell originally of Waterloo, IA), the mother of his two daughters, Kay and Sarah, died in 1976.
[7] He recalled that the phone rang at two o'clock in the morning in 1961, and that when he answered he found himself talking to Sargent Shriver, first director of the Peace Corps.
[4] His honors include: American Society of Civil Engineers, J. C. Stevens Award; Emil Hilgard Prize; Croes Medal; CSU Centennial Professor and Public Service Award; Peshawar University of Pakistan, Honorary Doctor of Laws; Asian Institute of Technology, Honorary Doctor of Technology; Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, Lowell University; Colorado Governor’s Award of Merit for Science and Technology; honorary doctorate from Colorado State University; National Society of Professional Engineers Engineer of the Year; Iowa State University Professional Achievement Award.
He was president and co-founder of Village Earth, the Consortium for Sustainable Village-Based Development, and worked almost until the moment of his death on plans for the organization.