This profile was first published on the PA Conservation Heritage website--
Paul O. Swartz was born in Hershey, Pennsylvania on December 10, 1948. He graduated from the M. S. Hershey Jr./Sr. High School in 1966 and from Gettysburg College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology in 1970.
He also did graduate work in Public Administration at Penn State University beginning in 1982.
A highlight of his college years was studying in Vienna, Austria during his junior year at the Vienna Center of the Institute of European Studies (IES), where he broadened his liberal arts education with courses in history, philosophy, and art history.
Living and learning in a foreign culture was the experience of a lifetime, an exciting and enriching one for this eighteen-year-old student.
During this academic year (1968/1969) Paul had the good fortune of traveling in England, France & Austria.
Especially memorable was a trip he took during semester break in February 1969 with several fellow students on the Orient Express to Istanbul, Turkey, and then to Greece & Sicily before returning to Vienna via Italy.
Paul returned to Vienna five years later to work as the Assistant to the Director at the IES Vienna Center.
From 1970 to 1972, Paul worked in the Geriatrics Unit at the Harrisburg State Hospital. His job there was to lead an experimental project to allow better functioning geriatric patients on locked wards who had been institutionalized on average for as long as Paul was alive a measure of independence by living in their own rooms in a former nurse’s dormitory on the hospital grounds.
Then, camera in hand, he backpacked across the U.S. and to Mexico. He has fond memories of seeing the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone National Park, and the Pacific Ocean for the first time on that journey.
Paul next worked as a photojournalist at a local weekly newspaper, the Middletown Press and Journal, in 1973.
In the late 1970s, he worked as a partner in a small business (Conservation Concepts, Inc.) specializing in passive solar design and conservation products such as water-saving shower heads and insulating window curtains, as well as efficient wood stoves.
In this capacity he conducted workshops teaching people how to build their own passive solar water heaters.
Career In Conservation Begins
Paul’s conservation career included working at the local, state and regional levels.
From 1974-1981 his long career of public service in the conservation field began as the first full-time Manager of the Dauphin County Conservation District (DCCD).
His work experience there laid the foundation for his conservation career in the Commonwealth.
Although he had no academic background, technical expertise or specialty in the fields of soil and water conservation or water management, he always had the good fortune of learning from multi-disciplinary team members and others with talents and experiences in areas such as soil science, water management, engineering, geology, hydrogeology, and biology.
From these technical experts he gained an appreciation for science-based decision making in the management of environmental resources.
He considers his job strengths to be in the areas of administration and management, public policy, leadership, teambuilding, and communications and acknowledges that he benefited immensely from the opportunities for personal growth throughout his career.
Responsible for implementing the authorities of the PA Conservation District Law of May 15,1945, Paul credits the vision and foresight of the individuals responsible for the enactment of this statue and with enabling and guiding him throughout his soil and water conservation career.
In his roles as the DCCD Manager, Director of the PA Department of Environmental Resources (DER) Bureau of Soil and Water Conservation and Executive Secretary of the PA State Conservation Commission (1982-1992), he strove to ensure that the Commonwealth’s soil and water conservation laws, regulations, policies, and procedures were reasonable, in plain language and implementable.
Since these rules and guidelines had widespread effects on all land use and development in the Commonwealth, he knew that effective communications among the regulators and the regulated community were essential.
In 2010 the Pennsylvania Conservation Commission awarded Paul with the Leadership Excellence Award for his “outstanding leadership in water resource management spanning back to 1974.”
Paul is grateful for the mentoring provided to him for his professional development, including by Bobby Rakestraw, District Conservationist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture Soil Conservation Service in Dauphin County, PA in the beginning of his conservation career.
During his tenure at the PA DER and the PA State Conservation Commission, Paul’s mentors included Public Affairs Consultant George Wolff, DER Secretaries Nicholas “Nick” DeBenedictus and Art Davis and DER Deputy Secretaries Dr. James Grace and Patrick J. Solano. These and other individuals provided Paul with invaluable guidance.
During his tenure with the Commonwealth Paul played a key role in the development and implementation of Pennsylvania’s Chesapeake Bay Program and represented Pennsylvania on several committees of the Chesapeake Bay Restoration Program.
In recognition of this work, he received an “Unsung Hero” award from the Chesapeake Bay Executive Council in 1992 that was presented to him by then Pennsylvania Governor Robert P. Casey.
At his retirement Paul also received from the State of Maryland the coveted “Admiral of the Chesapeake Bay” award.
Paul also represented Pennsylvania on the Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin for several years and served as the first president of the National Association of Conservation Administrators.
Following his service with DER, Paul worked as a Field Representative for the Joint Air & Water Pollution Control Conservation Committee (JLCC) for the Pennsylvania General Assembly in 1981/1982.
(In 1969 Ralph W. Abele was named as the first Executive Secretary of the JLCC; Abele became Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Fish Commission in 1972.)
Susquehanna River Basin Commission
It was Caren Glotfelty, former PA DER Deputy Secretary for Water Management, who in 1991 encouraged Paul to apply for the position of Executive Director of the Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC).
He went on to serve as the SRBC’s Executive Director from 1992-2013.
In this capacity, he provided leadership in carrying out the mandates of Public Law 91-71, the Susquehanna River Basin Compact (Compact).
Paul always marveled at the vision and foresight of individuals such as Dr. Maurice K. Goddard, Secretary of the PA Departments of Forests and Waters and PA DER; Frederick Zimmerman, a New York State academician and legislator and Maryland Senator William S. James, men who were responsible for the enactment of the Compact and the creation in 1971 of the SRBC, a federal-interstate compact commission.
These visionaries overcame a decade of major challenges during the multi-state deliberations in the 1960’s preceding the enactment of the Compact, which was authorized for a duration of 100 years.
(The book The Susquehanna Compact: Guardian of the River’s Future describes the ordeal of enacting the enabling legislation in New York, Maryland, Pennsylvania and the federal government.)
Paul believes that these were the right men at the right place and time and doubts that such a legislative accomplishment would be possible today.
To this day, he acknowledges the benefits he reaped “standing on the shoulders of those who came before him.”
Likening himself to a bird such as a house sparrow or European starling that inhabits nests built by other birds, Paul utilized the groundwork and structure built by others before him, since 1971, to guide SRBC and its team of dedicated professionals in carrying out the agency’s vision, mission, and goals.
Among his accomplishments at SRBC were strengthening the working relationships with agencies and legislative offices in SRBC’s four member jurisdictions and making known to the public the importance of SRBC’s work.
Shortly after joining SRBC, Paul invited several individuals responsible for the establishment of SRBC to share with him their thoughts about how well the agency had done over the past twenty years.
The words of Dr. Maurice Goddard resonated with him and are still fresh in his mind: “You’ve got the power, now use it!”
Paul not only remembered Goddard’s admonition; he took it to heart.
During his tenure SRBC’s regulations governing major water withdrawals and consumptive water uses were significantly strengthened.
Consequently, consistent with the Compact principle of “equal and uniform treatment of all users of water and water-related facilities without regard to political boundaries,” the City of Baltimore was required to adhere to SRBC’s regulations.
Paul also utilized SRBC’s enforcement powers more aggressively, especially with respect to water use for natural gas development that began in the basin in 2008.
In 1998, during his tenure at SRBC, Paul was the recipient of the Karl Mason Award for creativity in environmental management.
Since he prided himself on taking creative approaches, to borrow a phrase from Art Davis, Paul is “pardonably proud” of this award.
Innovations At SRBC
Examples of such innovative approaches while Paul led SRBC include: 1) developing and deploying several innovative information technology applications in SRBC’s Regulatory Program to better accommodate the onslaught of natural gas development water use applications; and 2) the development of the Remote Water Quality Monitoring Network to allow the public 24/7 access to water quality data at remote locations throughout the basin.
Other examples are 1) the Whitney Point Lake Section 1135 Project Modification that added low flow augmentation during times of low flow as a project purpose to compensate for agricultural consumptive water use in the New York portion of the basin; and 2) the use of mine pools to compensate for consumptive water use in the Pennsylvania portion of the basin.
In 1974, Paul and his wife Patsy designed and built a passive solar house on a parcel of land he calls his “Ancestral Acres” previously owned by his grandfather in Derry Township, Dauphin County, PA.
They lived in the house for 41 years and raised their three sons there: Nathanael Martin Swartz; Zachery Christian Swartz; and Aaron Oliver Swartz.
They now live at the Masonic Village in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania.
Paul and Patsy are blessed with seven beautiful grandchildren: Elliott Swartz; Louisa Swartz; Issaac Swartz; Lillian Swartz; Henry Swartz; Magdelena Swartz and Lyra Swartz.
Paul’s keen interest in and love of genealogy has undoubtedly given his family an awareness and appreciation for their Swiss Mennonite ancestry and heritage.
Paul and Patsy have traveled extensively in the U.S., including participation in several Road Scholar trips for learning and adventure.
Currently, Paul is a member of the PA Parks and Forests Foundation, the Manada Conservancy, the Lancaster County Conservancy and the Central PA Conservancy.
In addition to genealogy and travel, his hobbies and interests include gardening, history, writing and reading; he also kept bees for over forty years.
In summary, Paul considers his most important contributions in the field of conservation to be advancing the missions of the agencies he served to assist them in achieving their full potential and to serve the public interest.
Visit the Pennsylvania Conservation Heritage website to see more profiles of conservation leaders, educator resources for teaching Pennsylvania’s conservation history, video documentaries and much more.
By Wayne W. Kober from Paul Swartz’s Written Responses to the List of 15 Questions Provided to Him in December 2024 and a telephone interview on December 22, 2024.
Resource Links:
-- PA Conservation Heritage Project Profile: William C. Forrey - A Career In State Parks, Recreation Doing It Right, And Protecting The Environment - By Wayne W. Kober [PaEN]
-- PA Conservation Heritage Project Profile: Jack Winieski Dedicated His Professional Career To Improving Trees Through Genetics - By Wayne W. Kober [PaEN]
[Posted: December 31, 2024] PA Environment Digest
