Guy Donald Smith (1907-1981) was a distinguished international

soil scientist Soil science is the study of soil as a natural resource on the surface of the Earth including soil formation, classification and mapping; physical, chemical, biological, and fertility properties of soils; and these properties in relation to th ...

,
U.S. Soil Conservation Service, "The Guy Smith Interviews: Rationale for Concepts in Soil Taxonomy"
' (1986). Natural Resources-Planning, Management, and Conservation. Paper 1. who was born in

Atlantic, Iowa Atlantic is a city in and the county seat of Cass County, Iowa, United States, located along the East Nishnabotna River. The population was 6,792 in the 2020 census, a decline from the 7,257 population in 2000. History Atlantic was founded ...

Biography

Guy graduated from the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University ...

circa 1929, earned his master's degree from the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Universit ...

in 1934, and received his PhD in 1940 from the University of Illinois. After the bombing of

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Re ...

, Guy enlisted into the

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

in January 1942.
Guys War
' Amy Smith. (2012). He was first sent to an air base in San Antonio, Texas. Soon after, he was shipped overseas, eventually ending up in India, where he worked on building the

Ledo Road The Ledo Road (from Ledo, Assam, India to Kunming, Yunnan, China) was an overland connection between India and China, built during World War II to enable the Western Allies to deliver supplies to China and aid the war effort against Japan. ...

. Ledo Road was considered one of the toughest jobs during the war by General Lewis A. Pick, because of the physical labor and harsh conditions of the landscape.
The Ledo Road
' Carl Warren Weidenburner. (2014). The road served as a land supply route to China, via the

Burma Road The Burma Road () was a road linking Burma (now known as Myanmar) with southwest China. Its terminals were Kunming, Yunnan, and Lashio, Burma. It was built while Burma was a British colony to convey supplies to China during the Second Sino-J ...

. Upon returning from his service to the US military, Guy was hired to work for the

U.S. Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, and food. It aims to meet the needs of com ...

. In 1946, Guy worked as a soil correlator for the Soil Conservation Service in Iowa, and in 1952 he was made Director of Soil Survey Investigations. As part of his duties, he traveled the world studying and describing soils for the U.S. government. While working for the USDA, Guy was tasked with developing a method for classifying soils. He produced the 1st of seven iterations of what would eventually become a soil taxonomy system used worldwide. Creating a way to classify soils was important because soils are a valuable global resource that we needed to better understand in order to utilize and improve upon. Guy collaborated with European soil scientists in developing Soil Taxonomy. For this and other research publications, Guy received international recognition for his outstanding efforts in soil science. For his contributions to

pedology Pedology (from Greek: πέδον, ''pedon'', "soil"; and λόγος, ''logos'', "study") is a discipline within soil science which focuses on understanding and characterizing soil formation, evolution, and the theoretical frameworks for modeling ...

, Guy received many honors and awards. These include the Department of Agriculture's Distinguished Service Award in 1962, and the Soil Research Award from the American Society of Agronomy in 1964. He was awarded a Doctor of Science degree by the

University of Ghent Ghent University ( nl, Universiteit Gent, abbreviated as UGent) is a public research university located in Ghent, Belgium. Established before the state of Belgium itself, the university was founded by the Dutch King William I in 1817, when the ...

(Belgium) in 1968. Guy retired from the Soil Conservation Service in 1973. After retirement, he spent time consulting with international partners on the application of Soil Taxonomy worldwide. Guy died in 1981 in

Ghent, Belgium Ghent ( nl, Gent ; french: Gand ; traditional English: Gaunt) is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province, and the third largest in the country, exceeded in ...

, where he taught at the University of Ghent.Soil Landscape Analysis. Francis Doan Hole, James B. Campbell. (1985). Rowman & Allanheld, Publishers: NJ, USA.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Guy Donald 1907 births 1981 deaths American soil scientists University of Illinois alumni University of Missouri alumni People from Atlantic, Iowa Academic staff of Ghent University United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II

Biography

See also

References