Article from American Institute of Fishery Research Biologists.
http://www.aifrb.org/in-memoriam-dan-bowman-odenweller/
BY SARAH.GF
DECEMBER 2015
Dan Bowman Odenweller – a Delta defender who promoted the original peripheral canal but later grew skeptical – has passed away peacefully and in accordance with his wishes, surrounded by his family, on the evening of October 6th, 2015. He was 70.
He was born in Caracas, Venezuela. U.S. Citizen (with a dual United States and Venezuelan citizenship). Fluent in English and Spanish.
Odenweller, a fish biologist from Stockton, Ca. worked for the state Department of Fish and Game in the 1970s and helped to design the screens that would have protected Sacramento River fish from getting sucked into the controversial canal. He told The Record in 2013 that he also spent about six months touring the state speaking with civic groups and other organizations about the benefits of the proposed canal. But he later grew to question whether the canal — or its latter-day manifestation, the twin tunnels — would be operated in a way that protects the Delta. He said he watched over the years as water quality standards in the Delta were routinely violated even as water continued to be exported south.
“I felt then, and I feel now, that the project itself is a good project,” Odenweller said in 2013. “… But if you can’t trust them (the state), then don’t give them the tools that allow them to do these things.” Odenweller was active in local environmental groups, including the Stockton-based California Sportfishing Protection Alliance and Restore the Delta.
“He was a friend, a passionate defender of fisheries and water quality but above all simply one of the finest and most principled human beings I’ve known,” said Bill Jennings, head of the sportfishing alliance. After leaving Fish and Game, Odenweller was appointed to two terms on the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board. He was one of a shrinking number of experts locally who are intimately familiar with the complex functioning of the Delta. He was also a diver and a pilot.
Dan also spent September 1966 to August 1967 at the Naval Supply Activity in Danang., running supplies south to Chu Lai and north to Hue and Dong Ha. “Notice the tin can mounted as a feed roller which kept the linked rounds from snagging on the issue feed roller,” he wrote on his Facebook page.
His concern for the legacy of others can be found online, where he compiled a comprehensive list of “Known Losses of B24 Aircraft and Personnel Compiled by Dan B. Odenweller. (Draft 02/19/2008),” and wrote: “The credits go to many, the mistakes are all mine.”
Dan is survived by his wife Kim, and daughters Erin and Amy.
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