Evolution

I am originally from St. Louis, MO and Houston, TX where I graduated in 1960 from Bellaire High School. I received my BA and MA degrees in Aquatic Biology from North Texas State University under the direction of J.K.G. Silvey, and my Ph.D. in Applied Aquatic Microbial Ecology from University of North Carolina (1971). I was on the faculty of the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for over 30 years. However, I began a phased retirement on October 1, 2003 which meant that my only responsibility was to teach a single course each semester. I finished teaching my last course in May, 2006. I have been fully retired since then.

Family

I have been married for nearly 47 years to Betty who, in addition to being a red-headed Texan, a lot of fun and a good cook, was the founder, principal owner, and manager of Boyd Income Tax Service at the Europa Center in Chapel Hill from 1990-2010. In November, 2010, she sold the business and has retired. We have a daughter, Vivian, a son-in-law, Chuck, and two lovely granddaughters, Angela (20) and Kimberly (18), who live in Walkertown, NC. They are very special people. I wish you could know them.

Vacations

When they were younger, we took vacations with each of our granddaughters each summer. In summer of 2004, Angela, Betty, and I went to Boston. Kimberly, Betty and I went to British Columbia. During the summer of 2005, we all went to the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone. Betty and I went to Amsterdam for the first time in 2005 as well. It is a lovely city. In 2006 we took Kimberly to New York City while we went to Italy and Madrid. Our big 2007 trip was to Peru, but we also traveled to Texas several times, San Diego, Kentucky, Asheville, and Charlotte. Our 2008 trips included New York City (twice), Texas several times, the Canadian Rockies, Switzerland, and Kenya. Of course the big trip was to Kenya. This is a link to my Kenya picture album -- http://photos.donaldfrancisco.com/GalleryThumbnails.aspx?gallery=118210.

Travel

As you can tell from the above, Betty and I love to travel. We are going to do as much of that as we can so long as our health is good and the money lasts. Since 2008, we visited Blackberry Farm in Walland, TN several times. This is a luxurious getaway with spectacular food. Betty likes it there. In the economic doldrums occasioned by the unregulated Wall Street billionaires, going there was her way of trying to make up for the absence of these extremely rich people who were busy trying to figure out how to game the US Government to re-accumulate their riches. (BTW, in late 2010 they had gotten most of it back and were going to Blackberry once again.) We have also been to NYC several times. In addition, to various trips around the US to visit with friends and see sites that have previous escaped our observation, we have been to Vienna, Guatemala, and Munich. My favorites of all of the travels abroad is Amsterdam and Munich.

Our Blue Heaven

Betty and I made a really big leap into the future 14 years ago. We've always wanted a vacation/retirement home in the North Carolina mountains. We decided that the best location was in the southeastern part of Alleghany County because it is only a little over 2 hours from Chapel Hill. In May, 1997 we bought a beautiful home in the High Meadows Golf and Country Club. We call our place "Blue Haven" because it is a place for Tar Heels to gather. We have enjoyed the visits of many friends as well as family. After ridiculing golfers for the 25 years that my office and lab were at the UNC Wastewater Research Center by the 9th tee of Finley Golf Course, I have become a golfer! I am hooked, really hooked! Alas, I am still a "high handicapper" though. Now that we are both retired, we have spent a great deal of time at Blue Haven.

Service and Honors

I strongly believe that we all owe dues to our society. I have and am paying my dues by service to my profession, community, and church. I am most proud of the fact that I was a member of the North Carolina Water Pollution Control Systems Operators Certification Commission for over 30 years. I have been Chairman and served on several committees of the NC Section of the American Water Works Association and NC Water Environment Association . I am one of three academics who have led this organization during its 85-year history. Watch for my shovel tie clip. It signifies my election to the "5S" (Select Society of Sanitary Sludge Shovelers). Last year NC AWWA-WEA honored me at the annual awards banquet by naming me the first recipient of the "Educator of the Year Award". Then I was totally stunned when the Chairman told me and the rest of the audience that the award was named for me, the "Donald E. Francisco Educator of the Year Award"!

Most of us dream of the honors we wish to receive as we enter a profession and reflect on the honors we did not receive when we retire. This honor is too great to either dream of receiving or regret not having received. Words simply cannot express my wonder at having received this honor. Most recently, the North Carolina Professional Wastwater Operators Association named me an "Honorary Wastewater Treatment Plant Operator". I operated the Mason Farm Wastewater Treatment Plant in Chapel Hill about 30 years ago. It was the most challenging thing I did during my career. I am greatly honored to be even an "honorary" wastewater treatment plant operator.

I have also been a Director for the Water Environment Federation and a member of its Executive Committee. Diane Crilley, the WEF committee liason, and I reinvigorated the WEF Students and Young Professionals Committee. This was great way to end a service career because I presided over a wonderful group of young people who have made enormous improvements in the services provided for students and young professionals by WEF. I was honored at the 2002 Water Environment Technical Exposition and Conference with an Honorary Membership. Very few people are so honored. It is very gratifying to be recognized for almost 40 years service to the water environment profession.

For 33 years, I coordinated the presentation of the North Carolina Annual School for Wastewater Treatment Plant Operators. Virtually every wastewater treatment plant operator in North Carolina (over 6000) has attended this school. It has earned over 700 Full Time Equivalents of Continuing Education Credit. This is the same as having more than 700 students enrolled for a semester. The curriculum and instructors are approved and selected by a committee of the NC WEA. I chaired that committee for 32 years.

Additionally, I have served my community as a member of the Chapel Hill Planning Board and the Orange Water and Sewer Authority Board of Directors. A member of the University United Methodist Church, I have served on numerous committees. I along with 4 other dear persons constitute the Church's Intercessory Prayer Group. Betty has completed a 3-year term on the High Meadows Golf and Country Club Board of Directors. She was Vice President and Chairwoman of the Finance Committee. Most think that she rescued the Club from potential financial catastrophe and set standards that will serve the Club well in the future. My Club service is to keep her sane.

Golf

In retirement, I am continuing to try to get my golf handicap below 28. I've read quite a number of non-technical books. The best has been Christian Appy's Patriots, Jim Hightower's Thieves in High Places Kevin Phillips's American Theocracy and Charles Mann's 1491. My novelists of choice are John Jakes, John Grisham, Scott Turow, David Baldacci, and Greg Iles. Now I am reading the love stories of Nicholas Sparks. I have gotten more political fixes reading Jimmy Carter's Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis, and Bill Clinton's My Life,. The recent "Great Recession" has caused me to read The Great Short by Michael Steele. It almost made me mad enough to do things never contemplated before. I never seemed to have time for reading books like these when I was working full time. We also tried the Metropolitan Opera for the first time just after I retired. Since then, we have been to the Royal Opera in London and the Metropolitan many more times.

Politics

Politically, I think I am what used to be called a "Rockefeller Republican". That is someone who is economically conservative, i.e. what is wrong with paying the bills?, and a social liberal i.e. we have an obligation to the poor and the environment. In the last 30 years that has increasingly not characterized either of our major parties. Of course, I prefer the Democrat Party because it at least gives lip service to helping the poor, preserving the essential qualities of the environment, and helping the very rich to be socially responsible. The Republican Party, on the other hand, is still the party of the extremely rich and large companies. However, the Republican Party has added a major twist during my lifetime. It has now duped the vast majority of its members into believing that the GOP represents their economic and social interests while, in fact, GOP policies actively harm their interests and only enrich the extremely rich and large companies. I wonder if that is why the Republican Party has been so anti-public education for so long. Is the dumbing of America in the best interests of the Party and the extremely rich? I am not optimistic for our future.

State of the Union

At the present time, I am so disappointed with President Obama's performance, i.e. give up before a fight has been engaged, that I would never vote for him again. However, the Republicans are totally off the wall in their support of the very richest of us i.e. >$1M/year that I will vote for him again. I just can't believe it.