The Explorers Club Washington Group is proud to announce that Dr. Joanne Simpson FN 00 was recently elected to receive the honor of becoming a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS). Not only has Joanne worked in meteorology for 56 years, but she was the first woman to receive a Ph.D. in meteorology and has led research projects, made significant discoveries and been a role model to many young explorers. As Chief Scientist Emeritus for Meteorology at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, she will be elected by the AAAS and join two former U.S. presidents; the current Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court; Pulitzer Prize winners; a former U.S. poet laureate and Martin Scorsese.

Our Education Committee completed an outreach event in April with three speakers at Souse Middle School, Anacostia, Washington D.C. Captain George Martin FN97, gave a presentation on his “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea”, telling the story of the Bathyscaph TRIESTE’s dive to the deepest trench in the oceans and later her search for the nuclear powered submarine THRESHER. Dr. Michael Manyak MED 04 spoke on expedition medicine and the RMS Titanic salvage expedition. Also as a part of our education outreach initiative, John Lentz FN 63 gave a talk on May 25th at Kramer Middle School on his 1983 Hood River Canoeing Expedition. John was searching for the remains of an 1819 expedition led by Captain John Franklin to Canada’s Northwest Territories. John’s story of his expedition appeared in the 1986 issue of National Geographic Magazine.

Speakers for this past quarter included Don Gerson FE 78 who gave a luncheon presentation on his “Photo Journey Through Death Valley”. Last years heavy rainfall produced abundant wildflowers in Death Valley. John N. Maclean FN 02 was our May speaker with a presentation entitled CATASTROPHIC WILDFIRE: The Storm King Tragedy Fire and Beyond. The 1994 South Canyon Fire on Colorado’s Storm King Mountain killed 14 firefighters and became a landmark in fire safety and policy chronicled in his book, Fire on the Mountain.

Field research was done by ECWG Chairman, Robert E. Hyman FN 93, on his recent trip to Honduras. Robert traveled with the executive director of Ecologic, a non-profit organization, to visit various environmental conservation projects being implemented in northern Honduras. He met with local leaders of a community-based watershed management group, visited a village-led sustainable forestry and agriculture site and traveled to the habitat of the critically endangered Honduran Emerald Hummingbird. In addition, he learned about an initiative to build fuel efficient cook-stoves that reduce consumption of fuel wood and improve respiratory health. From these site inspections Robert is planning a return trip to do an Explorers Club flag research expedition.

Upcoming events are a July 15th picnic at Chetwood Park, the Virginia country side home of Dr. Stephen Seager FN 95. In addition, our famous annual BOMBASH has been scheduled for September 22-24 entitled “Exploring Charlottesville, Virginia.”

We morn the loss of long time ECWG member Volkmar “Kurt” Wentzel FE 54 who passed away May 10th 2006 here in Washington, D.C., he was 91. Kurt was a National Geographic photographer and devoted archivist. In addition to his 12,000 images he helped preserve the 10 million current images of National Geographic taken over the past 118 years. Kurt once outfitted an ex-Army ambulance as a darkroom and mobile headquarters for a 40,000 mile photo survey. Kurt was also known for his famous photos of the daring high-altitude sky dives of Explorers Club member Col. Joseph Kittinger HON 63. His photos have been exhibited at The Royal Photographic Society, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art and The Smithsonian Institution to name just a few.