DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES

SECRETARIES

FORMER SECRETARIES

[photo, James B. Coulter, Maryland Secretary of Natural Resources] JAMES B. COULTER (1920-2005)
Secretary of Natural Resources, 1971-83
Deputy Secretary of Natural Resources, 1969-71

Deputy Secretary of Natural Resources, 1969-71. Member, Legislative Council Committee to Study the Feasibility of Incentives for Construction of Waste Treatment Facilities, 1969; Commission on Nuclear Power Plants, 1969.

Secretary of Natural Resources, 1971 to January 1983. Member, Governor's Executive Council, 1971-83. Member, Assateague Island Study Committee, 1971; State Aviation System Plan Policy Committee, 1971-72. Alternate member, Susquehanna River Basin Commission, 1971-72. Member, Chesapeake Bay Interagency Planning Committee, 1971-73 (vice-chair, 1971-73); Scenic Rivers Review Board, 1971-75; Maryland Council on Environment, 1971-77; Maryland Potomac Water Authority, 1971-83; Regional Planning Council, 1971-83; State Soil Conservation Committee, 1971-83; Program Open Space Committee, 1972-79; Chesapeake and Ohio National Historical Park Commission, 1976-83. Chair, Scenic and Wild Rivers Review Board, 1975-83; Task Force to Study Legislation involving Mandatory Deposits on Beverage Containers, 1976-77; State Manpower Services Council, 1976-77; Ohio River Basin Commission, 1977-79; Maryland Council on the Economy, Environment, and Energy Production, 1978-83; Task Force on Permits Simplification, 1979-80; Chesapeake Bay Commission, 1980-83; State Development Council, 1980-83.

Member, Advisory Board for Department of Natural Resources, 1985-94; Governor-elect's Transition Team, 1986-87.

Research engineer, Robert A. Taft Sanitary Engineering Center, Cincinnati, U.S. Public Health Service in 1950s. Chief, Water Projects Section, Technical Services Branch, U.S. Public Health Service, 1960-66.

Assistant Commissioner for Environmental Health Services, State Department of Health, 1966-69. Member, Board of Natural Resources, 1966-69.

Bom in Vinita, Oklahoma, August 2, 1920; raised in Kansas City, Missouri. Served in U.S. Army, 1940-45 (combat engineer, Aleutian Islands, the Philippines, & Okinawa; bronze star). University of Kansas, B.S. (civil engineering), 1950; Harvard University, M.S. (sanitary engineering), 1954. Board of Directors, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Maryland, 1972-87. Advisory Board, School of Engineering, University of Kansas. Member, American Water Works Association (honorary member; past director): American Academy of Environmental Engineers (past president); National Academy of Engineers; Water Pollution Control Federation (past director); American Public Health Association. Member, Committee to Visit the School of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University. Author, "The Septic Tank System in Suburbia," Public Health Reports 73 (1958). Contributor, "Metropolitanism and Sewage Handling Technology," Sewage and Industrial Wastes (1959). Co-Author, "Statewide Management: What Does the Future Hold?", Journal of the Sanitary Engineering Division, American Society of Civil Engineers (1972). Gordon Maskew Fair Award, 1971, and Stanley E. Kappe Award, 1986, American Academy of Environmental Engineers. Member, Grace Lutheran Church, Bowie, Maryland. Married; two children, seven grandchildren, four great-grandchildren. Died in Annapolis, Maryland, September 9, 2005.

Created in 2005, the James B. Coulter Government Employee Award, which recognizes the environmental contributions of government employees, was named in honor of Mr. Coulter. It is awarded annually by the Deaprtment of the Environment, the Department of Natural Resources, and the Maryland Petroleum Council.

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