CSMP Workshop
University of Florida Soils Department

First Row -- (left to right) J. F. Ritchie, N. Powell, E. L Skidmore, F. D Whisler, L. C. Hammond; Second Row -- J. S. Rogers, R. M McCurdy, Third Row -- J. G. A. Fiskell, R. van Genuchten, J. C. Corey, W. G. Duncan, S. Selim; Forth Row -- J. M Davidson, R. S. Mansell W. O. Willis, P. J. Wierenga, Larry Mixson, (moustache) Ron Jessup

Dr. P. J. Wierenga, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, severed as discussion leader for a workshop at the University of Florida, November March 4, 1972, on the use and application of CSMP (Continuous System Modeling Program) for the simulation of time dependent systems.   The workshop was sponsored by the Institute of Food and Agriculture Sciences of the University of Florida an was coordinated by the Department of Soil Science.    It was Dr. Hammond (front row right most) that got me into the workshop for he was was one of the UF sponsors.  I was working for Dr. Hammond as a student assistant in his lab.  He had a funded project in which he took hundred of soil samples all over Florida and determined the soil type (sand, loam, clay, etc.) and determined the perk rate at which water flowed though the soil.  The samples were rings about two inches in diameter and two inches thick.  These samples were put in a contraption in which water was put in the top and the amount of water that came out the bottom was measured.  This was my job, day after day, putting the samples in the contraption, starting the timer and water and then measuring the outflow water and recording it.   I think that Dr. Hammond and I had a special connecton, somewhat like father and son.   After working with him for some time I learned that his son had commited sucicide, he would have been about my age. 

R. M. McCurdy, or Dick as I knew him worked in the Soils Department electronics shop where I would often go and hang out with him. See more about working in the Soils Department here.