Colleagues and Students,
Yesterday, Dr. Robert Westerman died of complications coming from cancer. In his life he endured multiple open-heart surgery operations, the loss of his own son Brent to cancer and many other setbacks that we all face. He did have this incredible ability to recover no matter what the issue was that he faced. It was an honor for me to have been one of his many graduate students. For me, his most important attribute was that he was incredibly kind to everyone. He truly valued people and what we can accomplish together. It is a sad day, but that carries a lot of joy remembering all that he contributed to so many on this great earth.
OSU Faculty I am very sad to hear this news of Dr Westerman's passing. He was a great soil scientist and an extraordinarily caring human being. He was everything you said in your note--and more. All who knew him and worked with him were beneficiaries of his science, his mentoring and his human kindness. His was a life to be celebrated. I have fond memories of him when I was at the University of Arizona (1971-75). With his ever-present smile, he radiated goodness.I treasure the few times I met him in later years at ASA Meetings and on a visit to OSU. All who knew him at the U of A will be saddened to hear of his death. Yes, a light has gone out of our lives. We mourn his loss. But we will cherish his memory. Sadly, John Ryan
Dr. John Solie, June 26, 1946September 26, 2019
Tribute to Dr. Solie
OBIT, Auburn, NE
National Agricultural Sci-Tec Park in Changji City, Xinjiang Province ,
taken by Dr. Brenda Tubana, student of Dr. Stone.
Memorial, November 3, 2015
Marvin and Bonnie Stone,
Nash Lucas, Nikita Nakal
Marv
Stone was not only a visionary, he was also incredibly kind. When asked for assistance to resolve and electrical
problem in my house, Marv proceeded to draw the diagram, and in the end
took it all the way back to the circuit box. And, he explained
what was going on to boot. Lots of stuff in this diagram that only
an engineer would understand! Thank you Marv
October 25, 2015
I was so sad to hear about Marv and Bonnie. When I
first heard the news story before any details I thought about all of the OSU
Greenseeker team and how this weekend must be affecting you all.
When I heard that Marv and Bonnie were killed, I
can't even put in words the grief I felt.
Marv Stone was certainly one of the most amazing men I have ever had
the chance to work with.
I just wanted to reach out and you know that we in
Ukiah will be sharing in the grief you and others must be going through.
Warm Regards,
Ted Mayfield
Cuanto lo lamento, el Dr. Marvin Stone fue siempre un catedrático con una
gran calidad humana y siempre disponible para los estudiantes. Mi sentido
pésame por tan irreparable pérdida.
What a terrible loss. He truly was one of the kindest people I have ever known. My condolences.
Erna LukinaLawrence Aula (Uganda)
Sorry to hear of the tragic news on Dr. Stone and his wife Bonnie, and
thanks for providing us a collage of Marv’s life. He was a great man and
inspiration to all of us. Please pass on my condolences and prayers to
his family.
John
What a terrible thing and what a loss. Thank
you for posting the photos. Despite my sadness, I had to smile a bit
as I thought back through some of those moments – because I know that as
soon as he fixed whatever it was, he was bound to wave us all over and try
to explain to us what he was doing and how it worked. Ever the teacher.
Please do forward the memorial information when available.
Wade
Dr. Stone will be greatly missed. May his soul rest
in peace. Amen.
Peter
Oklahoma State University and the agriculture industry lost a very unique
and powerful mind yesterday. Dr Stone was a visionary. He helped change the
way innovative farmers around the globe view crop production. His ideas and
inventions helped direct the way that my farming operation has taken. He was
instrumental in developing the Greenseeker optical sensors used for many
fertilizer applications, and was an integral part of the "precision sensing
team". I had the privilege of working with him as a student and as a farmer.
A senseless tragedy continues to unfold in Stillwater. Praying for the Stone
family.
Also wanted to share that on facebook many people are
using this image as their profile picture in honor of Dr. Stone.
I am deeply sad of loss of Dr. Marvin Stone. He was really very kind person
and always smile. He made me fell comfortable for studying something
difficult. He will be rememberred as a great scientist.
I heard of the accident also at CNN. Please pass our condolence.
Hasil Sembiring
Director General of Food Crops
MoA of Indonesia
Dr. Stone was one who told me everything about
spectrometer, red-edge and how to bring all your science to producers
field. I loved how you work with Dr. Stone.
He always made me smile with his kitty cell phone
ringtone.
Dr. Stone will be greatly missed. My prayers are with
his family, friends and the entire OSU and Stillwater community.
Yumiko
What a tragedy, I am deeply saddened by this loss. In Dr. Stone we
have lost a wonderful person and great scientist. My prayers are with his
family and the entire OSU community
Hard to believe Dr. Stone is no more. One of the most humble,
cheerful person and great scientist I have met. This is a huge loss to
precision agriculture. Rest in peace Dr. Stone.
I heard the terrible news yesterday morning. Please
accept my condolences on the passing of Dr. Stone. It was an honor to have
known, worked and learned from such a great person and I will truly miss
him. May God embrace you in comfort during this difficult time.
My prayers and thoughts are with the families and
friends of the ones who passed away on Saturday.
Best regards, Jorge
Marvin was such a great guy. He definitely helped
shape my career while I was at OSU, I certainly did consider him a friend and
mentor. I am so sorry to hear of his tragic passing. Please know
you are in my thoughts and prayers.
Jon
Dr. Stone made a huge impact in pioneering precision ag with the GreenSeeker. He was so humble in all he did. Blessed to have known this man and to have witnessed his passion for agriculture. Thank you, Dr. Stone for all you did for agriculture and OSU. Praying for everyone. - Courtney
Darin
There are no words
to express the horror that happened in Stillwater. I knew Marv
and Sue knew Bonnie from Whitehurst. What a shock when Marvs picture
appeared on NBC news last night. I have been thinking about Marv all
day a brilliant and pleasant person to know whose work has helped millions
in the world. I am sure rewards await him and Bonnie. I cannot
imagine the grief many must be experiencing.
What a tragic loss.
Dr. Stone will forever be remembered for being The Patient Teacher.
His ability to teach students at all levels was incredible, and he always
performed this task with a smile on his face. Please pass along my
condolences to his family and the OSU precision Ag community.
I am deeply saddened by Dr. Stone and his wife passing.
I still see his smile. Definitely one of the humble and smart professor I
have very ever met. Dr. Stone you are gone but we will not forget the
enormous contribution you made to this world. Rest in eternal peace.
I am still in shock and deeply saddened. After years of you guys working together, I can only imagine what you must feel. I actually had Dr. Stone come out to SST a time or two to discuss data standards and transfer protocols and would occasionally bump into him around town. I send my heartfelt condolences to you and the entire agronomy and engineering team that worked so closely with Marvin. What a beautiful life. What a terrible loss.
I am still in shock and
deeply saddened. After years of you guys working together, I can only
imagine what you must feel. I actually had Dr. Stone come out to SST a time
or two to discuss data standards and transfer protocols and would
occasionally bump into him around town. I send my heartfelt condolences to
you and the entire agronomy and engineering team that worked so closely with
Marvin. What a beautiful life. What a terrible loss.
Marv
was a brilliant and equally humble man. I always learned something from him
each time we talked. He will be greatly missed. I will also remember his
meowing cat ringtone, that always made me smile.
I am deeply saddened to hear the passing of Dr.
Marvin Stone and his wife. I was speechless and could not express my
emotion. I was boarding a plane when I saw in the news the names of those
who died in the Oklahoma State homecoming parade. When I saw "Marvin Stone"
I was hoping it's a different person. Before taking off for Beijing, I
received your email confirming his death. Ironically, the very reason I
visited China for a week was to talk about the use of GreenSeeker in
managing N fertilizer in cotton. The professor who hosted me bought two
handheld units and an RT200 for her project. This has reminded me of Dr.
Stone's great contribution to make this technology possible, and that
countries across the world began to see the value of this technology. I took
the opportunity to introduce him as among the great people behind
GreenSeeker and also as a way to pay my last respects to Dr. Stone. He was
such a wonderful, humble and intelligent person.
My prayers go to his family, friends, and for all of
us. He will be dearly missed.
Early on, Marv wanted to communicate with me that it wasn't "Engineering" unless you got it right the first time.
After working on many different indexes to predict wheat grain yield, using various passive sensors, and clearly uncalibrated readings, Marv tired of his fellow "agronomists". All of our indexes used empirical approaches that simply did not have "units". He forced our hand and asked that we use NDVI (a good predictor of plant biomass), but in order to combine data over sites or years, the divisor needed to be something that had "definite units". We quickly moved to number of days where GDD > 0. This allowed us to remove days where "growth" would not have been possible in winter wheat.
Marvin (Marv) Stone was our
friend. His pioneering work led to the development of the worlds very
first active NDVI sensor. This was later commercialized as the
GreenSeeker and initially marketed by NTech Industries. Trimble
Navigation later purchased NTech and as such became the owner of 11 patents
that were a part of the GreenSeeker team at Oklahoma State University.
Marv and John Solie started
as Assistant Professors at Oklahoma State University within weeks of each
other in 1983. Marv came from Washington/Colorado, while John was a
product of Nebraska and Maryland. John was also an experienced farmer
and lawyer, having a law degree from Creighton University.
Together these two worked
on an array of projects, but the Greenseeker sensor and system was their
creation and their product. John worked more on the Mechanical
Engineering side while Marv serviced all the Electrical Engineering needs.
They were also incredibly good friends, colleagues, sounding boards, and
collaborators. They had fun working together. If the two of them
were in the room, the two very smartest people on this planet were present.
In the end, I listened a lot, learned a lot, and was absolutely amazed, a
lot, all the time.
When both retired a few
years back, I was lost. While John moved back to Nebraska, Marv stayed in
Stillwater and continued to help so many in the same way he had done his
entire time as a faculty member. John too continued to work on many
issues and unfinished business that we had as a team. Retirement to
them meant they had to provide the same things, just with no office, and no
pay. I talked to John this morning and he promised to get me a paper
from added corn trials he had ran this summer in Nebraska using the
Greenseeker sensors and the Greenseeker nitrogen algorithm.
A vigil will be held
tonight on the south side of the Noble Research Center to remember the 4
people that died in the tragic accident on Saturday, October 24. While the
senselessness of this past Saturday leaves an arduous odor and harsh taste
on our tongues, Marv would take it as an opportunity to get it fixed. He
had very little unfinished business in everything he took on.
