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Illinois' NRCS Employee Vignette
Robert McLeese, State Soil Scientist
Champaign, IllinoisMay 2008
Most NRCS staff have a special attachment to the land, but when you’re a Soil
Scientist, that attachment to the actual organic, living and breathing skin that
covers the Earth is just a little more intense. Intensity and passion for soil
is so much a part of Illinois NRCS’ State Soil Scientist Robert McLeese that
it’s almost contagious.
Bob has been “into” soils (and soil pits) for all his adult life. Like many soil
scientists, he has an appreciation, a fascination, almost an obsession with the
art and science of soil. Not only is he technically up-to-speed with the facts,
figures, characteristics and interpretations of soil, Bob is one of the most
motivated marketing enthusiasts and Public Relations Guru for soil that has ever
roamed the planet.
In fact, Bob is so convinced as to mankind’s absolute and critical dependence on
soil and our dire need to protect against erosion in order to maintain life as
we know it, that he speaks to groups, students, radio and TV personalities
whenever he can. Because he is intelligent, witty, and personable, Bob has the
remarkable ability to tell stories, paint a picture and enrapture his
audience—be it one poor bloke standing in line at the grocery or an
award-winning crowd of 500 NRCS and partner employees.
For a technical scientist and potentially geeky-type person, Bob is remarkably
sociable, poised and talented in public speaking, humor and the art of
persuasion. Over his career, he has performed hundreds of speaking engagements
for NRCS, the Illinois Soil Classifiers Association, and has appeared on many
local news programs, morning shows, radio and TV special broadcasts, and even a
PBS video production. Bob serves as a basketball referee, speaks for FFA
Chapters, the Soil and Water Conservation Society events, recruiting efforts,
University of Illinois functions and never misses an opportunity to make a point
or positively impact those around him. Basically, if you ask Bob to do something
and it offers a chance to promote soil, he’ll do it. He’ll find the time, make
the commitment and do a bang up job and has never disappointed the crowd.
As Illinois’ State Soil Scientist, Bob’s passion for soils and soils technology
has left an imprint on the land and the soils related products available to
Illinois’ private landowners and local units of government. Providing high
quality digital soils data was a dream to Bob long before the Web Soil Survey
was even conceived. Illinois NRCS has been providing soils data on CDs since
1996, giving Illinois the best digital soils report card across the nation.
“Bob really set the standard,” says State Conservationist Bill Gradle.
“Now all the other states have to do is try to catch up!”
Bob works well with his staff, the Illinois NRCS Leadership Team, and elementary
school children. He can talk dirt with PhD-laden old farts or the 3rd grade
students his wife teaches. The bottom line is that no matter who you are or what
you do for a living, if you spend five minutes with Bob McLeese, you will know
more about soil and you will appreciate its importance. Bob McLeese is a
passionate NRCS employee who works everyday to make his slice of the Earth a
better place to live. For Bob McLeese, his purpose and his passion are SOIL.
USDA is an equal opportunity provider and
employer.
This printable document is available in
Adobe Acrobat
format.
EV_BMcleese.pdf (PDF,
195 kb)
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