By Carlos David Mogollón, WC&P Executive Editor
We’ve expanded this year’s WC&P Technical Review Committee to 15 members because we had more people wanting to be on it (or that we’d wrestled onto it) than wanted to depart.
Tried and true
This year, since so many committee members are returning, we again decided to save you the trouble of re-reading their biographies and only include those for new members. Still, we would like to recognize returning members first:
- Peter S. Cartwright, P.E., CWS-VI—(1996- ) A founding committee member, he heads Cartwright Consulting Co., of Minneapolis.
- Lawrence R. Henke—(1996- ) Also a founding member, he’s principal partner in Ionex Inc., of Edina, Minn. He retired in 2003 as senior technical director at Minneapolis’ Robert B. Hill Co.
- Debra E. Huffman, Ph.D.—(2003- ) A faculty research associate at the University of South Florida’s College of Marine Science in St. Petersburg, Fla., Debi is also director of USF’s Center for Healthy Beaches/Healthy Coasts and has broad experience in testing efficacy of drinking water treatment devices.
- Michael C. Keller—(2002- ) Mike is product manager of the Household Ion Exchange Division for Sybron Chemicals, a subsidiary of Bayer A.G.
- Evan E. Koslow, Ph.D.—(2003- ) Founder and CEO of KX Industries L.P., of Orange, Conn., the world’s largest manufacturer of extruded carbon, which was established in 1989.
- Bruce Kucera—(2003- ) Vice president of Norland International Inc., a bottled water systems manufacturer based in Lincoln, Neb., his work in the bottled water industry spans over 12 years.
- C.F. (Chubb) Michaud, CWS-VI—(1996-1999; 2002- ) Another founding member, Chubb is technical director of Systematix USA Inc., of Buena Park, Calif.
- Dale D. Mork—(2003- ) An ozone specialist for GE/Osmonics Inc., of Minnetonka, Minn., he operates out of its Phoenix office.
- Kelly A. Reynolds, Ph.D.—(1997- ) A research scientist at the Environmental Research Laboratory of the University of Arizona’s Department of Soil, Water & Environmental Science in Tucson, she writesour columns on waterborne contaminants: On Tap for WC&P and De la Llave for its sister publication, Agua Latinoamérica.
- Orville Schaefer, CWS-V, CCO—(2003- ) Orville is the semi-retired owner of Schaefer Water Care Centers of Perryville, Mo., which he took over from his father-in-law in 1972.
Fresh faces—New members include:
Robert W. Boerner, CWS-V
Bob “Beto” Boerner is grandson of the first independent Culligan dealer, Wilbur Walton, who advised Culligan founder Emmett Culligan to start a franchise network. Boerner’s father, Gib, was an employee of Walton’s Wheaton, Ill., dealership—launched in 1938—when his grandfather bought out a small dealer in south Texas and asked him to set up the office before returning to marry his daughter: “But my dad fell in love with Texas and asked Mom to move down with him.”
That was 1947. The Illinois dealership was sold in the 1950s. Gilbert W. “Gib” Boerner died in February 2002. Bob and his sister, Kristi Stanford, co-own Culligan Southwest, which includes Culligan Water Conditioning of San Antonio, as well as Culligan dealerships in Kerrville (acquired 1976), Midland/Odessa (acquired 1960s, merged 1971) and Seguin/New Braunfels (acquired 1972). Bob studied environmental sciences at Ohio’s Antioch College before being tapped to manage the newly acquired Kerrville dealership in 1977 and took over general management of the company 10 years ago.
In 1978, Boerner helped start up the Hill Country Youth Ranch, a home for abused and neglected children. His Culligan honors include: International Circle of Excellence Award (1988), Million Dollar Roundtable Award (1996). He served as Texas WQA president in 1996-97, and has received the following honors: Man-of-the-Year Award (1994) for his work with TWQA’s Education and Training Committee, as well as the Texas Engineering Extension Service of Texas A&M University; Meritorious Service Award (1995) for related work with the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission; and first ever TWQA Sonny Cammack Award (2003) for dedicated service to legislative issues.
In 2003, he also won the Award of Merit from the Water Quality Association for work on septic tank issues. As a WQA member, he’s at the end of his second term on the board of directors. He helped rewrite two of the WQA’s Certified Water Specialist (CWS) tests—of which he holds the CWS-Level V designation. Currently, he serves on the WQA’s legislative committee and septic tank task force.
Larry Gottlieb
Larry Gottlieb, who actually joined the committee last summer, is the general manager of the ARIES Division of ResinTech Inc., a manufacturer of water purification systems, deionization cartridges and clean steam sample coolers. He’s also the vice president of the ACM Company, a ResinTech subsidiary that specializes in wastewater treatment using ion exchange.
Gottlieb has over 10 years of experience in ion exchange and was previously the Northeast regional sales manager for ResinTech. Prior to that, he worked for HOLTEC International doing heat exchanger design and analysis for the nuclear industry.
He holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Pittsburgh and has been published in a variety of technical journals. A guest speaker at numerous seminars related to water purification and treatment, he’s currently a member of the ASTM Committees on Water and Activated Carbon. Gottlieb is also a member of the Water Quality Association (WQA), Water Quality Society and American Electroplates and Surface Finishers Society.
Shannon Murphy
Shannon Murphy joined Watts Premier Inc., of Phoenix, Ariz., last year as vice president, Municipal Water Programs. Watts is a division of Watts Water Technologies, of North Andover, Mass.
Previously, he was with NSF International, which he joined in 1996. In 1999, he became Drinking Water Treatment Unit Program Operations Manager for NSF. Before that he was assistant manager of the NSF Standard 61 Program. From 1994-95, Murphy was chemist, quality control manager and technical service representative for Titan Finishes, an automotive and industrial paint company based out of Detroit. He has also worked for Henkel Surface Technologies, where he was a research and development chemist.
In 1994, Murphy earned a master’s degree in biology from Wayne State University. He also holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from Concordia University, of Montreal, Canada. He is a member of the WQA, American Water Works Association (AWWA) and the NSF Industry Forum.
Bret Petty, CWS-II
Bret Petty is president of Aqua Systems/New Aqua LLC, of Indianapolis. The business was founded in Danville, Ind., in 1959 by his father, Lou, and became a ServiSoft dealership in 1964. It now encompasses three dealerships surrounding Indiana’s capital city and another in Fort Wayne, Ind.
Petty began working at the business at age 14 and became president after graduating from Indiana University in 1982 with a bachelor’s degree in business. That was the same year ServiSoft was bought by the Marmon Group and the dealership chose to go independent as Aqua Systems. Under Petty, the business began assembling its own water treatment systems as an OEM and distributor that sells wholesale throughout the Midwest. It’s grown from a $1 million company to one grossing $14 million a year.
In 1989, Aqua Systems moved to Avon, Ind., where it later added a 5,000-bottles-a-day water bottling plant, a portable exchange DI regeneration operation and a commercial/industrial division. In 1997, it acquired three northeast Indianapolis dealerships and consolidated them into one in Fishers, Ind. That same year, Aqua Systems moved into a new 25,600-square-foot manufacturing and distribution center in Avon. In 1999, it opened another “superstore” dealership in Greenwood, Ind. The Fort Wayne dealership was picked up in 2001.
He holds the WQA’s CWS-II designation. Plus, he’s a member of the WQA Board of Directors as well as the Indiana WQA (of which he’s a past president) and International Bottled Water Association.
John L. Schlafer, P.E., Ph.D.
John Schlafer, of Dow, Ill., retired in 2003 as vice president and chief engineer of Ecowater Systems Inc. He spent 40 years as an engineer working in the manufacturing sector on product design, development, purchasing and quality assurance. He has also been an adjunct instructor and associate professor in engineering at the Universities of Illinois and Minnesota.
Schlafer has a doctorate from the University of Illinois in engineering mechanics, a professional engineering license and, in 2002, was elected to the American Academy of Environmental Engineers in the specialty of water supply and wastewater engineering. He’s a member of the AWWA, American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO) and the Water Quality Society.
He has been involved in writing and reviewing industry product standards throughout his career including sponsor organizations ASHRAE, WQA, NSF and Underwriters Laboratories. He was an author for Auerbach Publishing, contributing two chapters for a series of technology management handbooks and was an editor for the 1999 edition of The Certified Quality Manager Handbook published by ASQ. He was also a co-author of a POU treatment paper published in the Journal AWWA in November 1995.
In recognition of…
We would also like to thank departing members of the committee:
- Dick Chmielewski—(2002-03) Previously regional sales manager for ResinTech Inc., of West Berlin, N.J., Dick joined the U.S. Peace Corps in 2003 and was posted to Kingston, Jamaica.
- Richard J. Lorenzen, CWS-II (2003)—Vice president and operations director of Quality Water Services Inc., of Lincoln, Neb., Rich is also a member of the WQA Board of Directors.
Conclusion
Cumulative years of experience of committee members approaches three centuries. They’re active in a number of organizations committed to water quality improvement. Other than those mentioned above, they include the Pacific WQA, Eastern WQA, Canadian WQA, National Ground Water Association, Water Environment Federation, American Society of Microbiology, North American Membrane Society, International Desalination Association, International Ozone Association, International Ultraviolet Association and International Water Association.
It’s upon the expertise and advice of this committee that we rely to keep the content of WC&P relevant and timely to our readers—water treatment professionals and those aspiring to move up in the water quality improvement industry. Our sincerest thanks to all of you for your continued support of our efforts in that regard.