This article was adapted from PICOGRAM, American Chemical Society, AGRO Division 2015; 88:17

Rod was born in High Point, North Carolina, in 1956. The family was in furniture manufacturing and textile production, and was a part of the heritage from the Bennett Place in Durham, NC, the site of the largest surrender of troops in the US Civil War.

After graduation from Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC, Rod began his career with Ciba-Geigy Corporation in Greensboro, NC. Later he moved to En-Cas Analytical Laboratories in Winston-Salem, NC, where he was Technical Director for 12 years. His professional specialties included residue chemistry, metabolism, environmental fate and worker exposure. Later, after moving to Easton, MD with Wildlife International Ltd., Rod picked up some additional interests in aquatic and avian toxicology. Limited sailing skills were a fun diversion on the Chesapeake Bay even though not perfected.

His professional activities have led him to the Philadelphia, PA, area with Elf Atochem, which became Cerexagri, then part of United Phosphorus, and then JRF America. These last endeavors have entertained him for the past 16 years. Most recently, Rod has joined Critical Path Services, LLC, a Knoell Company (with multiple locations including PA and NC). Each day holds the opportunity to learn something new and to make a positive difference.

Rod’s involvement within the American Chemical Society began in earnest within the Central North Carolina Section (CNC). Excellent program initiatives, such as the Academic-Industrial-Matrix (AIM), sparked a lifelong devotion to the service that ACS provides to individuals and the overall community. On the local front, Rod has had the privilege to serve as secretary, treasurer, vice-chair, and chair of the CNC Section, as well as on the board of managers and as secretary for the Chemical Society of Washington, the Washinton, DC, section of ACS. At various times, he has served as membership chair, regional meeting committee chair, editor, and in other various local ACS activities. On the national front, Rod has been active in the Division of Agricultural Chemicals (AGRO) for the past 36 years. He has served as membership chair, vice chair, program chair, and chair. Currently, Rod is an AGRO Councilor, on the Divisional Activities Committee (DAC), chair of the Technical Programming and Collaboration Subcommittee, chair of the Divisional Officers Caucus (DOC), co-chair of the DAC-IAC working group, and on the editorial board of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

Rod is very humbled and greatly honored to have been selected as an ACS Fellow in the class of 2015. Although nomination for the ACS Fellow award came from the Divisional Activities Committee, AGRO is proud to claim him as our own. To be able to work and serve with such a wonderful group as the ACS family is a very special privilege. He hopes that he can live up to the superb examples shown by the current ACS Fellows whom he now proudly joins.