Merry Announces Retirement

After 25 years of distinguished service to the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geodetic Engineering at Ohio State, Carolyn J. Merry has announced her retirement to become effective at the end of May, 2013.

Carolyn began her career at OSU in the fall of 1988 as an Assistant Professor teaching surveying and remote sensing.    Moving up through the ranks, she became department chair in 2004. 

During her tenure as chair, Carolyn made major improvements to department labs, offices and meeting rooms with money, time and equipment donated by civil alumni and industry partners.  Her relationship with alumni and donors is remarkable and sincere.  Her calm and gentle demeanor has fostered significant long-lasting relationships both personal and professional. In turn, the department has benefited with nine endowments and five pending endowments created since she became chair.

Carolyn has also fostered in a new group of seven faculty hires in the areas of geodetic engineering/image understanding; ecological engineering; environmental fluid mechanics; biotechnology and biomolecular engineering; watershed hydrology and hydrodynamics; infrastructure engineering; and engineering energy policy.  She also mentored four faculty members through the assistant to associate professor level and three faculty members through the associate to full professor level.  In addition, she has increased the department’s research activities from $2.1M (FY05) to $3.4M (FY12) and has continued to teach when her schedule permits.

While chair, Carolyn advised and graduated 3 PhD and 3 MS students which adds to the 7 PhD and 22 MS students she advised and graduated as a faculty member.  She directed a successful ABET review of the department’s two undergraduate programs and directed an academic program review, including external evaluators in 2008-09.  She established a separate degree program in environmental engineering at the undergraduate level and shepherded a department name change.

Her service and leadership to professional societies and agencies has been extensive and include: President, University Consortium for Geographic Information Science; President, American Society of Civil Engineering (ASCE) Central Ohio Section; President, American Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing; and President, Coalition of Geospatial Organizations (COGO).  Her leadership positions at the national level are: Chair, ASCE Civil Engineering Department Heads Coordinating Council; Member, National Geospatial Advisory Committee (NGAC); and Member, National Academy of Sciences, Mapping Science Committee. 

Carolyn’s accomplishments and dedication to the department is by no means at an end. She plans to continue her research and teach as an emeritus faculty member of the department. 

Carolyn Merry may not be a buckeye by the degree, but there is no better representative of this great institution and what it means to be a “Buckeye”.  Her love of the students, the alumni, the donors, and the football and basketball teams is unsurpassed.  She truly bleeds Scarlet and Gray.

“But for Ohio State,” we would not know Carolyn and for that, we are truly thankful.  We wish her and her husband Bob many happy retirement years and, as always, GO BUCKS!