Robert N. Colwell, Forester Who Studied Land From the Air, Dies at 87 -- Rest in Peace

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Subject: Robert N. Colwell, Forester Who Studied Land From the Air, Dies at 87

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died April 14

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Date Posted: May 06, 2005 11:12:50 EDT

Dr. Robert N. Colwell, a forester and specialist in remote sensing who helped adapt the military's aerial image-reading techniques to forestry, mapmaking, land planning, agriculture and other fields, died on April 14 in a hospital in Walnut Creek, Calif. He was 87 and lived in Walnut Creek.

The cause was respiratory failure, his family said.

Dr. Colwell, who was trained in plant physiology, taught at the University of California, Berkeley, for five decades. His interest in aerial images began in World War II, when he interpreted photographs in the South Pacific and taught others to do the same for naval intelligence.

In the 1960's, using radar, infrared and other systems carried by satellites, he was able to accumulate vast amounts of biological data, detecting diseases in crops, moisture levels in soil and insect infestations in orchards and forests.

In the 1970's, Dr. Colwell was a technical adviser for Project Radar Amazon, or Radam, in which Brazilian scientists used satellite-directed radar to help map a large area of the Amazon basin, despite the nearly constant rain and clouds that hampered ordinary aerial surveys.

Dr. Dennis E. Teeguarden, an emeritus professor of forestry at Berkeley, said Dr. Colwell had been a "productive and visionary scientist" who had "correctly foreseen the space program would be an incredible platform to supply information, greatly extending the power of remote sensing."

In 1969, Dr. Colwell was appointed associate director of the Space Sciences Laboratory at Berkeley and coordinated a multicampus study of California's crops and natural resources using satellite images. In 1983, he edited the second edition of the "Manual of Remote Sensing," a standard work in the field.

Robert Neil Colwell was born in Star, Idaho. He earned his undergraduate degree and doctorate at Berkeley before joining the faculty there in 1947. He was appointed professor in 1957 and retired as an emeritus professor in 1983.

Dr. Colwell attained the rank of rear admiral in the Naval Reserve and received the Bronze Star and Navy Commendation Medal. He was a remote-sensing consultant to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. In 1977, President Jimmy Carter awarded him the Legion of Merit.

His wife, the former Betty Louise Larson, died in 2000.

Dr. Colwell is survived by a daughter, Nancy Colwell Coronado of Benicia, Calif.; three sons, Dr. Arthur, of Lakeport, Calif., Dr. John, of Ann Arbor, Mich., and Robert, of Vienna, Va.; a sister, Arlene Tallman of Turlock, Calif.; a brother, Delbert, of Boise, Idaho; and seven grandchildren.

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