Past Presidents Addresses
After their term is up, presidents of the ESA give a speech. Originally a “President’s Address,” this task later became a primary project of the outgoing Past President. Addresses are given at the Annual ESA Meeting one year after the president leaves office and two years after a president takes office. They are published in the ESA Bulletin the following December.
After their term is up, presidents of the ESA give a speech. Originally a “President’s Address,” this task later became a primary project of the outgoing Past President. Addresses are given at the Annual ESA Meeting one year after the president leaves office and two years after a president takes office. They are published in the ESA Bulletin the following December.
The Past Presidents Addresses provide interesting perspective on events of the times, whether addressing broad environmental concerns of society, or specific challenges of ESA. Because these became demanding on the time of Past Presidents, they were discontinued in 2000 by Kay Gross; she became the last Past President to prepare one. However, the ESA bylaws still state that “The Past President shall deliver an address to the membership at the Annual Meeting.”
The available speeches are listed in the table below. The year column reflects not the year the address was given but the year the individual began his or her term as President.
| Start | Name | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1916 | Victor Ernest Shelford | ||
| 1917 | Ellsworth Huntington | ||
| 1918 | Henry Chandler Cowles | ||
| 1919 | Barrington Moore | ||
| 1920 | Barrington Moore | ||
| 1921 | Stephen Alfred Forbes | ||
| 1922 | Forrest Shreve | ||
| 1923 | Charles Christopher Adams | ||
| 1924 | Edgar Nelson Transeau | ||
| 1925 | Arthur Sperry Pearse | ||
| 1926 | John William Harshberger | ||
| 1927 | Chancey Juday | ||
| 1928 | Homer Leroy Shantz | ||
| 1929 | Warder Clyde Allee | ||
| 1930 | John Ernst Weaver | ||
| 1931 | Asa Orrin Weese | ||
| 1932 | George Elwood Nichols | ||
| 1933 | Edwin Booth Powers | ||
| 1934 | George Damon Fuller | ||
| 1935 | Walter Penn Taylor | ||
| 1936 | William Skinner Cooper | ||
| 1937 | Robert Ervin Coker | ||
| 1938 | Herbert Christian Hanson | ||
| 1939 | Charles Taylor Vorhies | ||
| 1940 | Francis Ramaley | ||
| 1941 | Alfred Edwards Emerson | ||
| 1942 | Clarence Ferdinand Korstian | ||
| 1943 | Orlando Park | ||
| 1944 | Robert Fiske Griggs | ||
| 1945 | Alfred Clarence Redfield | ||
| 1946 | John Mulvaney Aikman | ||
| 1947 | Rand Aldo Leopold | ||
| 1948 | Paul Bigelow Sears | ||
| 1949 | Zeno Payne Metcalf | ||
| 1950 | Emma Lucy Braun | ||
| 1951 | Samuel Charles Kendeigh | ||
| 1952 | Frank Caleb Gates | ||
| 1953 | Lee Raymond Dice | ||
| 1954 | John Ernest Potzger | ||
| 1955 | William John Hamilton Jr. | ||
| 1956 | Henry John Oosting | ||
| 1957 | William Albert Dreyer | ||
| 1958 | Stanley Adair Cain | ||
| 1958 | Frank William Preston | ||
| 1959 | Thomas Park | Ok St U, Oklahoma; August 1960 | An Ecologist's View. ESA Bulletin 42(1):4-10 |
| 1960 | Charles Edward Olmsted | ||
| 1961 | Arthur Davis Hasler | ||
| 1962 | Murray Fife Buell | ||
| 1963 | William Franklin Blair | ||
| 1964 | John Frederick Reed | ||
| 1965 | Eugene Pleasants Odum | ||
| 1966 | Bostwick Hawley Ketchum | ||
| 1967 | Rexford F. Daubenmire | ||
| 1968 | LaMont Cook Cole | ||
| 1968 | John Edward Cantlon | U Vt, Vermont; August 1970 | |
| 1969 | Edward Smith Deevey Jr. | ||
| 1970 | Frederick Herbert Bormann | Minneapolis, Minnesota; August 1972 | |
| 1971 | Stanley Irving Auerbach | U Ma, Massachusetts; June 1973 | |
| 1972 | Robert Baxter Platt | Tempe, Arizona; June 1974 | |
| 1973 | Frederick Edward Smith | Corvallis, Oregon; August 1975 | |
| 1974 | Richard Samuel Miller | New Orleans, Louisiana; June 1976 | |
| 1975 | Forest Walden Stearns | East Lansing, Michigan; August 1977 | Urban Ecology--Opportunity or Tar Pit? ESA Bulletin 59(1):7-9 (excerpt) |
| 1976 | Frank Benjamin Golley | Athens, Georgia; August 1978 | |
| 1977 | George Masters Woodwell | Stillwater, Oklahoma; August 1979 | Ecology 1979. ESA Bulletin 60(4):190-195 |
| 1978 | William Dwight Billings | Tucson, Arizona; August 1980 | American Deserts and Their Mountains: An Ecological Frontier. ESA Bulletin 61(4):203-209 |
| 1979 | Robert Treat Paine | Bloomington, Indiana; August 1981 | Truth in Ecology. ESA Bulletin 62(4):256-258 |
| 1980 | Arthur Wells Cooper | State College, Pennsylvania; August 1982 | Why Doesn't Anyone Listen to Ecologists And What Can ESA Do about It? ESA Bulletin 63(4):348-356 |
| 1981 | Gene Elden Likens | Grand Forks, North Dakota; August 1983 | A Priority for Ecological Research. ESA Bulletin 64(4):234-243 |
| 1982 | Lawrence Carroll Bliss | Fort Collins, Colorado; August 1984 | Ecologists Need to Increase Their Involvement in Society. ESA Bulletin 65(4):439-444 |
| 1983 | Francis Cope Evans | Minneapolis, Minnesota; June 1985 | In Praise of Natural History. ESA Bulletin 66(4):455-460 |
| 1984 | Paul Gillan Risser | Syracuse, New York; August 1986 | Ecological Literacy. ESA Bulletin 67(4):264-270 |
| 1985 | Richard Bruce Root | Columbus, Ohio; August 1987 | The Challenge of Increasing Information and Specialization. ESA Bulletin 68(5):538-543 |
| 1986 | Jean Harmon Langenheim | Davis, California, August 1988 | The Path and Progress of American Women Ecologists. ESA Bulletin 69(4):184-197 |
| 1987 | Margaret Bryan Davis | Toronto, Canada, August 1989 | Insights from Paleoecology on Global Change. ESA Bulletin 70(4):222-228 |
| 1988 | Harold A. Mooney | Snowbird, Utah, August 1990 | Toward the Study of the Earth's Metabolism. ESA Bulletin 71(4):221-228 |
| 1989 | Dennis Hal Knight | San Antonio, Texas, August 1991 | Congressional Incentives for Landscape Research. ESA Bulletin 72(4):195-203 |
| 1990 | Simon Asher Levin | Honolulu, Hawaii, August 1992 | Sustaining Ecological Research. ESA Bulletin 73(4):213-218 |
| 1991 | H. Ronald Pulliam | Madison, Wisconsin; August 1993 | Human Population Growth and the Carrying Capacity Concept. ESA Bulletin 75(3):141-157 |
| 1992 | Jane Lubchenco | Knoxville, Tennessee; August 1994 | |
| 1993 | Jerry Forest Franklin | Snowbird, Utah, August 1995 | |
| 1994 | Judy Lynn Meyer | Providence, Rhode Island; August 1996 | Beyond Gloom and Doom: Ecology for the Future. ESA Bulletin 77(4):199-205 |
| 1995 | Gordon Howell Orians | Albuquerque, New Mexico; August 1997 | Human Behavioral Ecology: 140 Years without Darwin Is Too Long. ESA Bulletin 79(1):15-28 |
| 1996 | James Hemphill Brown | Baltimore, Maryland; August 1998 | |
| 1997 | James A. MacMahon | Spokane, Washington; August 1999 | |
| 1998 | Katherine Lynn Gross | Snowbird, Utah; August 2000 | It's a Good Time to Get Involved: Perspectives on the ESA, from Aldo Leopold to Today. ESA Bulletin 82(2):112-118 |
| 1999 | Diana Harrison Wall | ||
| 2000 | Stephen Russell Carpenter | ||
| 2001 | Pamela Anne Matson | ||
| 2002 | Ann Marie Bartuska | ||
| 2003 | William Harrison Schlesinger | ||
| 2004 | Jerry Michael Melillo | ||
| 2005 | Nancy Beth Grimm | ||
| 2006 | Alan Paul Covich | ||
| 2007 | Norman LeRoy Christensen Jr. | ||
| 2008 | Alison Gail Power | ||
| 2009 | Mary Eleanor Power | ||
| 2010 | Francis Stuart Chapin III | ||
| 2011 | Steward T.A. Pickett | ||
| 2012 | Scott L. Collins | ||
| 2013 | Jill Spann Baron | ||
| 2014 | David William Inouye | ||
| 2015 | Monica Turner | ||
| 2016 | David Lodge | ||
| 2017 | Richard Pouyat | ||
| 2018 | Laura F. Huenneke | ||
| 2019 | Osvaldo Sala | ||
| 2020 | Kathleen Weathers | ||
| 2021 | Dennis Ojima | ||
| 2022 | Sharon K. Collinge | ||
| 2023 | Shahid Naeem | ||
| 2024 | Stephanie E. Hampton | ||
| 2024 | Peter M. Groffman |