Paul Lord, November 14, 2014
Title
Paul Lord, November 14, 2014
Subject
Mussels
Ostego County
Scuba Diving
Technology
Description
Paul Lord can be seen as one of Otsego County’s most accomplished environmental scientists. Aside from his work observing mussels, he remains committed to helping his community and educating future environmental scientists.
Mr. Lord was born in Queens, New York but ended up moving to one of the many areas that were being developed during his childhood. As a youngster, he would spend hours playing in the woods near his home. At the age of 17, the budding environmental scientist attended State University of New York at Oneonta (SUNY Oneonta), but once he turned 18, he signed his Marine Corps enlistment papers.
During his time with the Marine Corps, he stayed stateside and gained desirable various skills. After his enlistment period, Mr. Lord worked in New York in the private sector. Realizing the harsh reality of having advanced degrees, he returned to SUNY Oneonta for his undergraduate degrees in Philosophy and Biology. Aside from his academics, his time back at SUNY Oneonta was filled with working at the student center and at Biological Field Station.
After several years of working various jobs with the Field Station, Mr. Lord attempted to join Officer Candidates School (OCS) but initially was denied. Instead, he started to consider graduate school in Biology. Then by luck, OCS became an option and he chose to delay his biology studies. At OCS, he worked toward a Master of Science in Operations Research. With that degree in hand, Mr. Lord worked with the military until 1997 when he retired. During that time, he advocated for technological changes in the battlefield. Upon retiring, Mr. Lord returned to SUNY Oneonta for his MA in Biology.
Currently, he lives in Cooperstown with his family. At the time of this interview, SUNY Oneonta employs Mr. Lord as an adjunct instructor and he works with their Biological Field Station. Some of the course he teaches in their Biology department includes Marine Biology, Introduction to Environmental Science, and Aquatic Pollution.
During his lifetime, Mr. Lord amassed a series of skills. He has many years of scuba diving in many different locations, both recreationally and professionally. His scuba diving has helped him with his research in Madison County, New York which consists of the biocontrol of Eurasian watermilfoil. He won the prestigious Lake Tear of the Clouds award in 2013 for his work with aquatic plants, preservation of mussels, and teaching the future scientists. While serving his country, Mr. Lord used his skills in electronic processing, known as coding today. His understanding in coding led him to work on emulation and data communication. He used his skills to advocate use new technology for both the battlefield and scientific research.
Upon receiving his Masters in Biology, Mr. Lord contributed to multiple research projects. Aside from his own research in Madison County, New York, he worked on several other projects. He worked on the New York State Watershed conserving the pearl mussel unionid species. With all of his research, Mr. Lord published many articles about his work in academic journals.
Mr. Lord was born in Queens, New York but ended up moving to one of the many areas that were being developed during his childhood. As a youngster, he would spend hours playing in the woods near his home. At the age of 17, the budding environmental scientist attended State University of New York at Oneonta (SUNY Oneonta), but once he turned 18, he signed his Marine Corps enlistment papers.
During his time with the Marine Corps, he stayed stateside and gained desirable various skills. After his enlistment period, Mr. Lord worked in New York in the private sector. Realizing the harsh reality of having advanced degrees, he returned to SUNY Oneonta for his undergraduate degrees in Philosophy and Biology. Aside from his academics, his time back at SUNY Oneonta was filled with working at the student center and at Biological Field Station.
After several years of working various jobs with the Field Station, Mr. Lord attempted to join Officer Candidates School (OCS) but initially was denied. Instead, he started to consider graduate school in Biology. Then by luck, OCS became an option and he chose to delay his biology studies. At OCS, he worked toward a Master of Science in Operations Research. With that degree in hand, Mr. Lord worked with the military until 1997 when he retired. During that time, he advocated for technological changes in the battlefield. Upon retiring, Mr. Lord returned to SUNY Oneonta for his MA in Biology.
Currently, he lives in Cooperstown with his family. At the time of this interview, SUNY Oneonta employs Mr. Lord as an adjunct instructor and he works with their Biological Field Station. Some of the course he teaches in their Biology department includes Marine Biology, Introduction to Environmental Science, and Aquatic Pollution.
During his lifetime, Mr. Lord amassed a series of skills. He has many years of scuba diving in many different locations, both recreationally and professionally. His scuba diving has helped him with his research in Madison County, New York which consists of the biocontrol of Eurasian watermilfoil. He won the prestigious Lake Tear of the Clouds award in 2013 for his work with aquatic plants, preservation of mussels, and teaching the future scientists. While serving his country, Mr. Lord used his skills in electronic processing, known as coding today. His understanding in coding led him to work on emulation and data communication. He used his skills to advocate use new technology for both the battlefield and scientific research.
Upon receiving his Masters in Biology, Mr. Lord contributed to multiple research projects. Aside from his own research in Madison County, New York, he worked on several other projects. He worked on the New York State Watershed conserving the pearl mussel unionid species. With all of his research, Mr. Lord published many articles about his work in academic journals.
Creator
Matthew Wagner
Publisher
Cooperstown Graduate Program, State University of New York-College at Oneonta
Date
2014-11-14
Rights
New York State Historical Association Library, Cooperstown, NY
Format
audio/mpeg
28.8 mB
audio/mpeg
28.8mB
audio/mpeg
713Kb
image/jpeg
287 × 510 pixels
Language
en-US
Type
Sound
Image
Identifier
14-030
Coverage
Upstate New York
1951-2014
Cooperstown, New York
Interviewer
Matthew Wagner
Interviewee
Paul Lord
Location
Cooperstown Graduate Program Building
Ideas Lab
5838 State Route 80
Cooperstown, New York
Transcription
Will be done at a later time
Duration
30:00-Track 1
30:00-Track 2
0:44-Track 3
Bit Rate/Frequency
128kBps
Time Summary
Time
Start of Track 1
0:00 Introduction
0:14 Paul Henry Lord
0:21 Born in Queens
0:38 Orchards being ripped apart
0:58 SUNY Oneonta in 1968
1:18 Mourn the loss of the orchards
1:35 Spent quite a bit of time running through the woods
2:10 Campuses across the country having discussions about avoiding the draft
2:25 Blessed with a draft number, unlikely to be draft
2:44 All the discussions on beating the draft caused me to evaluate
3:06 Signed enlistment papers with the Marine Corp
3:28 Marine Corps career was very unusual
3:42 Data processing van
4:17 As a youngster, I learned how to code
4:48 Scored highly on data processing text
5:04 Spent my entire two years stateside
5:21 Stationed in Quantico
5:35 First experience with data communication
5:46 Fought hard for modems to communicate
5:59 Learned how to take 3rd generation computers to emulate second generation software
6:27 After the two years, went to New York
6:45 Worked with ATT on data communication
7:09 Part time work with agency
7:31 Worked for number of different companies
7:40 Always looked for data communication skills
8:14 Asked to train people but those people were moved ahead
8:33 Came back to SUNY Oneonta
8:56 No idea on data communication
9:10 1974 graduating with BA in Biology and Philosophy
9:33 Did a lot of work at the Biological Field Station in Cooperstown
9:55 Worked on variety of lakes in Madison County
10:18 Ran outdoors club
10:52 Did mollusk survey around New York watershed
11:04 Wasn’t happy with result and thought students had missed
11:28 Found missing species
11:42 He was able to published about mollusk
12:18 All sorts of records documenting [Ostego] lake
13:07 Sleep in storage shed in upper site
13:42 Biological Field Station had 3 stations back then
14:10 Water affected by siltation
14:19 7 mollusk species back then
14:30 Monitoring the last species the last 3 years
14:49 2 mollusk species still alive
15:08 Silt has come in
15:14 What has been sand and gravel
15:25 Mussels gone now
15:47 Surveying mussel is tedious work
16:27 Dig out sand and sediments to find mussels
17:18 Heavy mussel found in moving water
17:31 Lighter mussels found in lake and ponds
18:00 Find heavy and thinner mussels
18:14 Tend to mature at the same rate
18:39 Scuba diving is a tool I have been accused to exclusion
19:05 Man is securely visual animal
19:34 Look forward for opportunities to dive
20:05 Very busy during the 12 months of the year
20:34 Folks don’t want to put their faces in the water
21: 05 My favorite dive had nothing with science
21:52 Spotted a humpback whale
22:03 Humpback whale accompanied by a calf
22:27 Calf was curious about the boat
23:11 Gave him a lesson on vocalization on humpback whale sounds
23:52 to swim with an intelligent animal
24:27 Do [scuba dive] wherever you can
25:04 Residential hearing in right ear 30% and left ear had 15%
25:30 Right ear was military training accident
25:50 Denied a seat in OCS due to hearing loss
26:23 Everyone hated Congressman checking in
26:52 Missed my seat in OCS
27:07 Make use of my computer science and biology
27:22 Wanted make a population density of barn cats
27:46 Observe the barn cats
28:03 Cats were cannibalistic
28:29 Cows would roll over and crush [barn cats]
28:58 Decided to think about graduate school
29:09 Marine Corps considered my waiver
29:16 Put off grad work in biology until 1997 when I retired
29:57 Suffered an ear infection that was treated improperly
End of Track 1
Start of Track 2
0:09 Lost tension in cochlea
0:30 Total shift every couple of months
1:03 Digital hearing aides is better analog
1:15 Doesn’t help overlaying frequency
1:30 hearing aides are problematic
1:59 No hearing aides for the last 5 years
2:09 Navy sent me to graduate school for Operations Research
2:25 Computer program and modeling solutions
3:10 Develop non-linear optimal solution for air forces
3:57 Was pointless
4:04 Second graduate degree at SUNY Oneonta
4:37 Great joy as a service
4:55 Great programs for technology
5:14 Freeing up young men and woman replacing them with technology
5:34 Best known as advocate for computer into battlefield
6:04 Losses to move computer into battlefield
6:21 Pushing the technology hard
6:50 Trying to introduce technologies that would facilitated efficiency
7:10 Short term in corporate American left me with no affection
7:33 Did a lot of work with biological field station
8:03 Early adopter and user of GIS
8:17 Trying to get students to adopt
8:49 Mussel work we used Velcro.
9:12 My quest for finding for good technology most consistent
10:01 Heck a lot to be said for objects that cost thousands of dollars
10:36 Applications will emerge
10:52 Not interested in myself but would be using aerial drones
11:27 Silt tremendous problem for all lakes
12:01 Credibility, always an issue for emerging technology
12:24 Impression that it is a toy
12:50 Wanted good pictures of insects
13:15 Plastic microscope that fed into the desktop computer
13:38 Probably targeted for six year old
13:50 Got a lot of resistance but after the pictures
14:06 Have to embrace the technology you have
14:16 Waiting for mature, you will be behind on opportunity
14:38 Not an environmentalist but an environmental scientist
14:50 While I may cry, my focus is on accumulation on data
15:12 Environmentalist tries to capture the public
15:29 If environmentalist, your data is suspected since your objectivity is suspected as well.
16:07 Some changes in environment are sudden
16:39 Use of rock salt is so clearly poisoning our ground water
17:23 How could we have not noticed rock salt?
17:37 Issues of siltation
17:48 Haphazard construction technique
18:25 Pesticide
18:40 Despite scientific evidence proves it’s bad
19:00 Almost all of Europe, pesticide has been outlawed
19:36 Clearly, New York was all about acid rain
19:55 Folks with environment on one side while folks with economic on another
20:27 Find a way to work with corporate America
20:40 Avert climate change
21:11 Instead of pointing fingers, got to fight the entrepreneurial giants
21:44 Do something with CM2
21:57 Technology practically affordable
22:13 Hell a lot of finger pointing at both side
22:30 Hydro fracking big thing
22:34 Managed to alienated everyone by saying to look at the science
23:00 Need to make sure folks knew
23:28 Local community should have more say
24:14 Lot of folks here have long focus on water
24:35 Radon problem become worse
25:03 Some folks won’t wish to participates but will.
25:29 Taking care of folk is important
25:49 All the time about lake
25:59 Stonewater issues
26:07 Executing laws of town and estates
26:22 Concerned about young people, 70% glued to a screen
27:00 2 or 3 gone to beach
27:18 Less than a quarter have not been a lake
27:33 Many learned from computer
27:42 very little observation
28:11 Technologically dominated
28:25 Do best to my grandsons out to the world
29:02 Use of multipurpose devices
29:20 Physical status
29:50 Technology fundamentally changed
End of Track 2
Start of Track 3
0:13 Probe and monitoring
0:26 Thanks
End of Track 3
Start of Track 1
0:00 Introduction
0:14 Paul Henry Lord
0:21 Born in Queens
0:38 Orchards being ripped apart
0:58 SUNY Oneonta in 1968
1:18 Mourn the loss of the orchards
1:35 Spent quite a bit of time running through the woods
2:10 Campuses across the country having discussions about avoiding the draft
2:25 Blessed with a draft number, unlikely to be draft
2:44 All the discussions on beating the draft caused me to evaluate
3:06 Signed enlistment papers with the Marine Corp
3:28 Marine Corps career was very unusual
3:42 Data processing van
4:17 As a youngster, I learned how to code
4:48 Scored highly on data processing text
5:04 Spent my entire two years stateside
5:21 Stationed in Quantico
5:35 First experience with data communication
5:46 Fought hard for modems to communicate
5:59 Learned how to take 3rd generation computers to emulate second generation software
6:27 After the two years, went to New York
6:45 Worked with ATT on data communication
7:09 Part time work with agency
7:31 Worked for number of different companies
7:40 Always looked for data communication skills
8:14 Asked to train people but those people were moved ahead
8:33 Came back to SUNY Oneonta
8:56 No idea on data communication
9:10 1974 graduating with BA in Biology and Philosophy
9:33 Did a lot of work at the Biological Field Station in Cooperstown
9:55 Worked on variety of lakes in Madison County
10:18 Ran outdoors club
10:52 Did mollusk survey around New York watershed
11:04 Wasn’t happy with result and thought students had missed
11:28 Found missing species
11:42 He was able to published about mollusk
12:18 All sorts of records documenting [Ostego] lake
13:07 Sleep in storage shed in upper site
13:42 Biological Field Station had 3 stations back then
14:10 Water affected by siltation
14:19 7 mollusk species back then
14:30 Monitoring the last species the last 3 years
14:49 2 mollusk species still alive
15:08 Silt has come in
15:14 What has been sand and gravel
15:25 Mussels gone now
15:47 Surveying mussel is tedious work
16:27 Dig out sand and sediments to find mussels
17:18 Heavy mussel found in moving water
17:31 Lighter mussels found in lake and ponds
18:00 Find heavy and thinner mussels
18:14 Tend to mature at the same rate
18:39 Scuba diving is a tool I have been accused to exclusion
19:05 Man is securely visual animal
19:34 Look forward for opportunities to dive
20:05 Very busy during the 12 months of the year
20:34 Folks don’t want to put their faces in the water
21: 05 My favorite dive had nothing with science
21:52 Spotted a humpback whale
22:03 Humpback whale accompanied by a calf
22:27 Calf was curious about the boat
23:11 Gave him a lesson on vocalization on humpback whale sounds
23:52 to swim with an intelligent animal
24:27 Do [scuba dive] wherever you can
25:04 Residential hearing in right ear 30% and left ear had 15%
25:30 Right ear was military training accident
25:50 Denied a seat in OCS due to hearing loss
26:23 Everyone hated Congressman checking in
26:52 Missed my seat in OCS
27:07 Make use of my computer science and biology
27:22 Wanted make a population density of barn cats
27:46 Observe the barn cats
28:03 Cats were cannibalistic
28:29 Cows would roll over and crush [barn cats]
28:58 Decided to think about graduate school
29:09 Marine Corps considered my waiver
29:16 Put off grad work in biology until 1997 when I retired
29:57 Suffered an ear infection that was treated improperly
End of Track 1
Start of Track 2
0:09 Lost tension in cochlea
0:30 Total shift every couple of months
1:03 Digital hearing aides is better analog
1:15 Doesn’t help overlaying frequency
1:30 hearing aides are problematic
1:59 No hearing aides for the last 5 years
2:09 Navy sent me to graduate school for Operations Research
2:25 Computer program and modeling solutions
3:10 Develop non-linear optimal solution for air forces
3:57 Was pointless
4:04 Second graduate degree at SUNY Oneonta
4:37 Great joy as a service
4:55 Great programs for technology
5:14 Freeing up young men and woman replacing them with technology
5:34 Best known as advocate for computer into battlefield
6:04 Losses to move computer into battlefield
6:21 Pushing the technology hard
6:50 Trying to introduce technologies that would facilitated efficiency
7:10 Short term in corporate American left me with no affection
7:33 Did a lot of work with biological field station
8:03 Early adopter and user of GIS
8:17 Trying to get students to adopt
8:49 Mussel work we used Velcro.
9:12 My quest for finding for good technology most consistent
10:01 Heck a lot to be said for objects that cost thousands of dollars
10:36 Applications will emerge
10:52 Not interested in myself but would be using aerial drones
11:27 Silt tremendous problem for all lakes
12:01 Credibility, always an issue for emerging technology
12:24 Impression that it is a toy
12:50 Wanted good pictures of insects
13:15 Plastic microscope that fed into the desktop computer
13:38 Probably targeted for six year old
13:50 Got a lot of resistance but after the pictures
14:06 Have to embrace the technology you have
14:16 Waiting for mature, you will be behind on opportunity
14:38 Not an environmentalist but an environmental scientist
14:50 While I may cry, my focus is on accumulation on data
15:12 Environmentalist tries to capture the public
15:29 If environmentalist, your data is suspected since your objectivity is suspected as well.
16:07 Some changes in environment are sudden
16:39 Use of rock salt is so clearly poisoning our ground water
17:23 How could we have not noticed rock salt?
17:37 Issues of siltation
17:48 Haphazard construction technique
18:25 Pesticide
18:40 Despite scientific evidence proves it’s bad
19:00 Almost all of Europe, pesticide has been outlawed
19:36 Clearly, New York was all about acid rain
19:55 Folks with environment on one side while folks with economic on another
20:27 Find a way to work with corporate America
20:40 Avert climate change
21:11 Instead of pointing fingers, got to fight the entrepreneurial giants
21:44 Do something with CM2
21:57 Technology practically affordable
22:13 Hell a lot of finger pointing at both side
22:30 Hydro fracking big thing
22:34 Managed to alienated everyone by saying to look at the science
23:00 Need to make sure folks knew
23:28 Local community should have more say
24:14 Lot of folks here have long focus on water
24:35 Radon problem become worse
25:03 Some folks won’t wish to participates but will.
25:29 Taking care of folk is important
25:49 All the time about lake
25:59 Stonewater issues
26:07 Executing laws of town and estates
26:22 Concerned about young people, 70% glued to a screen
27:00 2 or 3 gone to beach
27:18 Less than a quarter have not been a lake
27:33 Many learned from computer
27:42 very little observation
28:11 Technologically dominated
28:25 Do best to my grandsons out to the world
29:02 Use of multipurpose devices
29:20 Physical status
29:50 Technology fundamentally changed
End of Track 2
Start of Track 3
0:13 Probe and monitoring
0:26 Thanks
End of Track 3
Files
Collection
Citation
Matthew Wagner, “Paul Lord, November 14, 2014,” CGP Community Stories, accessed September 29, 2022, http://cgpcommunitystories.org/items/show/177.