University of Nevada Honors James Church

When James Church arrived here in 1892, he was ready to leave. He had just watched a man who was shot in a saloon gunfight fall dead at his feet.

Fortunately for farmers and other water users worldwide, Church decided to stay _ he later developed the science of snow surveying to predict stream runoff and his techniques continue to benefit millions worldwide.

His contributions were honored this week at the University of Nevada, Reno, where he spent nearly 50 years as a Latin language and literature professor.

''James Church is one of the most renowned figures in the history of water supply management,'' Deputy Agriculture Undersecretary Merlyn Carlson said at a campus ceremony and presented to the university a plaque recognizing Church's contributions.

Church died in 1959 at the age of 90.

Church was initially unimpressed with the tiny campus when he arrived in Reno, said Tim Gorelangton, a Church scholar and Reno public librarian. On his walk back to the train station, Church happened to gaze up at 10,776-foot Mount Rose.

''He was so captivated by its beauty that he changed his mind and stayed,'' he said. ''The first snow survey courses on the planet were on Mount Rose because of him. It all started up there.''

Water experts always knew there was a correlation between snowpack and runoff, but before Church they were unable to accurately predict runoff because the water content of snow varies within the snowpack, said Jeffrey Underwood, Nevada state climatologist.

Church's technique of using a tube to pull out columns of snow along fixed, straight lines was the breakthrough that allowed water content to be factored into the equation, he said.

''After he published his runoff forecasts the science exploded,'' Underwood said.

Known as the ''father of snow surveying,'' Church helped Russia, China, Canada, Greenland and other counties set up similar systems, said Lawrence Clark, a deputy chief at the U.S. Natural Resource Conservation Service.

''It's a world-class innovation,'' Clark said, adding snow surveying is vitally important to any country that depends on snowpack as a water source.

Church was a Renaissanace man who had wide interests, Gorelangton said.

Church founded a high-elevation weather observatory above Reno as well as the Nevada Art Gallery. He traveled to Greece to study the ancients and to Greenland to study the snow. He was a longtime Sierra Club member and avid outdoorsman.

The north summit of Mount Rose was named Church Peak in his honor in 1980. The Church Fine Arts Complex on the UNR campus was named after him, and the ashes of both Church and his wife were placed in its cornerstone.

''He had this insight about how to accurately project runoff, which is interesting because by training he wasn't a scientist,'' Gorelangton said.

''He brought a different approach to the problem that maybe a technical person wouldn't,'' Gorelangton said. ''It shows people can do different things and be multitalented.''