Charles Allen Black was born Jan. 22, 1916 to Guy Cameron and Katharine L.Koehr Black. He died July 6, 2002 and is buried in Iowa State University Cemetery, Ames, IA.
His Obituary:
Charles A. Black, Distinguished Professor in Agriculture, died July 6 of complications of heart surgery at Israel Family Hospice House in Ames, Iowa. He was 86.
Dr. Black was born in Lone Tree, Iowa and had lived in Ames since 1937. He married Marjorie Anderson June 11, 1939. He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II.
He graduated from Colorado State University with a B.S. degree in chemistry and soil science. He then earned his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in soil fertility from Iowa State University. He began his professional academic career in 1939 at Iowa State as an instructor. Dr. Black became a professor in 1949, and was designated a Charles F. Curtiss Distinguished Professor in Agriculture in 1967. He retired from university employment in 1979 to give full attention to the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST), but continued his service as an adjunct professor and, since 1985, as emeritus professor at Iowa State. He authored two textbooks, Soil-Plant Relationships and Soil Fertility Evaluation and Control, and published many scientific papers.
Dr. Black founded the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST) in 1972. CAST began with Dr. Black’s desire to get accurate agricultural information from food and agricultural scientists to congressional committees, governmental agencies, the media, and the general public. The continued success of CAST and its ongoing endeavors to disseminate sound information on food and agricultural matters is largely due to his dedication and perseverance.
Numerous awards document his contributions as a soil scientist and agricultural science leader. Dr. Black was presented with the Soil Science Award in 1957 and the Agronomic Service Award in 1986, both by the American Society of Agronomy. He was conferred the Bouyoucos Soil Science Distinguished Career Award in 1981 and the Soil Science Distinguished Service Award in 1992, both by the Soil Science Society of America. He was also presented with the Edward W. Browning Achievement Award for the Improvement of Food Sources in 1976. Dr. Black was given the
Distinguished Service Award for Outstanding and Meritorious Service to American Agriculture in 1979 by the American Agricultural Editors Association. The National Agri-Marketing Association awarded him the National Award for Agricultural Excellence in 1983. He also was honored by Iowa State with the Henry A. Wallace Award for Distinguished Service to Agriculture. He was the namesake and first recipient of the Charles A. Black Award for Exemplary Contributions to Public Understanding of Food and Agricultural Science from CAST in 1986.
In addition to these awards, Dr. Black was elected fellow of the following societies: American Society of Agronomy, American Institute of Chemists, Soil Science Society of America, and American Association for the Advancement of Science. He was elected to various leadership positions, including: president of the Soil Science Society of America; president of the American Society of Agronomy; and president, executive vice-president, and executive chairman of the board of the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology.
He had been a full-time volunteer with WOI radio and compiled a 1,500 page pronunciation guide of music vocabulary and musicians’ names for English-speaking radio announcers. Dr. Black enjoyed constructing and operating short wave radios and playing the French horn.
He is survived by his wife, Marjorie; two daughters, Carol Meindl of Mason City, Iowa and Marilyn Schwarzkopf of Jefferson, Iowa; a son, Richard of Saudi Arabia; and six grandchildren.
Source: ancestry.com
