Hubert Byrd, a prominent member of the society, passed away on September 26, 2000 at his home in Raleigh, North Carolina. Mr. Byrd was born and raised on a farm near Valdosta, Georgia, and served in the U.S. Navy as a flight crew radioman during World War II. He received a B.S. in Agriculture from the University of Georgia in 1950, attended the Soil Science Institute at Cornell University in 1960, and earned an M.S. in Soil Science from the University of Georgia in 1966.
Mr. Byrd began his career as a soil scientist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Soil Conservation Service (USDA-SCS) in 1950. For ten years, he mapped soils throughout Georgia. From 1960 to 1967, he supervised soil mapping, soil investigations, and the correlation and classification of soils for the state of Georgia.
Under the auspices of the U.S. Agency for International Development, Mr. Byrd spent the year 1967 in Saigon as Soils Advisor to the South Vietnamese government. Upon his return to the states, he resumed work with the USDA-SCS, this time in Hyattsville, Maryland. In 1969, he transferred to North Carolina where he served as State Soil Scientist until his retirement in1983.
From 1983 until his death, Mr. Byrd engaged in private consulting and was co-founder and Chairman of the Board of Soil and Environmental Consultants, Inc. His notable achievements include establishing and serving as the first Chairman of the North Carolina Board for Licensing of Soil Scientists and writing the standard definition of wetlands currently used by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Mr. Byrd received the Soil Science Society of North Carolina’s annual achievement award in 1977.
Who is eligible?
The Hubert Byrd Family Scholarship in Soil Science is a merit and need based scholarship open to NC State University students with an undergraduate major or minor in Soil Science. Preference is given to residents of North Carolina that are in their third year of their academic program.
How to apply?
This scholarship is part of the Department of Crop and Soil Science’s financial aid portfolio and managed through the normal College of Agriculture and Life Sciences selection process. Interested NC State students are encouraged to complete the Pack Assist scholarship application (go.ncsu.edu/packassist).