Jerry Grant

Jerry Grant was born in Keams Canyon, Arizona, in August of 1940. His family moved to rural Iola, Kansas in 1945, where he attended Gas City Grade School and Iola High School. He graduated in 1957 and went on to attend Iola Junior College and three semesters at Kansas State University with indifferent results. After his career as a “scholar” he had a variety of short term jobs including several with engineering companies on survey crews, a swamper on an oil field pulling rig, a laborer with a construction company, and a year with the Kansas Department of Transportation. He was in the US Army from 1962 to 1965, marrying his wife Carol right after basic. Two children, daughters Jill and Julie, were born during the Army years. After his military service came more short term jobs: a pipeline company in Wisconsin and Michigan and a year with the photogrammetry section in Topeka with the Kansas Department of Transportation. His son, Alan was born. In 1968, he began work as an engineering aide with the Kansas Department of Health. He was assigned to the Hays district office in northwest Kansas with the responsibility of inspecting water supply and wastewater systems. With entry into this great field of water and wastewater, the job-hopping was over. During his twenty nine year career with KDHE he earned a degree in chemistry, obtained a Professional Engineer license in Kansas and served as follows: • District Engineer in the Hays and Wichita district offices • Unit Chief in the Technical Services Section, Bureau of Water, Topeka • Chief if the Technical Services Section, Bureau of Water After retirement in 1997 Jerry worked as an adjunct instructor for Fort Scott Community College teaching a variety of water and wastewater workshops and long-term courses. He also worked for several years providing technical assistance to operators of small wastewater systems under the 104 (g) program. For the past few years he has provided technical assistance to the operators of mechanical plants in reducing effluent nutrients. He remains active in the Kansas Water Environment Association and is a member of the Select Society of Sanitary Sludge Shovelers, the Crystal Crucible Society and is an Arthur Sidney Bedell awardee. Working with operators was always his favorite part of the job. Without great operators the NPDES system won’t work. Lumpy Water Math was written to help these operators, many of whom struggle with math. It was written to be more accessible and not presented in a professorial manner.