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Paul L. Busch of DeForest road, president and chief executive officer
of international environmental consultants Malcolm Pirnie Inc., recognized
worldwide in the environmental engineering profession, died Tuesday, July
27, in Boston of complications from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Throughout his 33 years in Wilton, Dr. Busch was co-president with his wife of the first PTA at Driscoll School. He also served as treasurer of the Wilton community Nursery School and was chairman of past Democratic town Committee nominating committees. Dr. Busch, a leading authority on the management and treatment of industrial and toxic wastes and consultant to governments around the world, was personally involved in developing environmental cleanup solutions and providing clean drinking water for some of the nation’s major cities and locations overseas – San Francisco, Boston, New York City, Detroit, Cleveland, Cincinnati, the kingdom of Jordan and Egypt. "The profession has lost a great leader," said Dr. Dan Okun, professor emeritus at the University of North Carolina. He received many prestigious professional honors. His election in 1996 to the national Academy of Engineering, one of the highest professional distinctions awarded to and engineer, acknowledged his "important contribution to engineering theory and practice." He was past president of the American Academy of Engineers, chairman of the board of the Water environment Research Foundation, served on the National Research Council’s Water Science and Technology Board, and was a member of the U.S. EPA’s National Advisory Council for Environmental Policy and Technology. Dr. Busch spent his entire 38-year consulting engineering career at Malcolm Pirnie, after earning undergraduate and master’s degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a doctorate from |
Harvard University. He helped guide the company to become one of the
world’s largest environmental consulting firms with a staff of more
than 1,100 headquartered in White Plains, N.Y., with 40 offices
worldwide. He was named a vice president in 1970, elected president in
1988 and chief executive officer in 1990. Dr. Busch was involved in
critical research and design projects in municipal and industrial
wastewater treatment processes, drinking water and toxic waste
technologies and his extensive work helped establish Pirnie’s
leadership in these fields.
A visionary and a dreamer who viewed the future with excitement and endless curiosity, Dr. Busch stressed a holistic, sustainable view of the planet, and challenged engineers to seek "quantum jumps" to meet future environmental needs. Passionate about the education of tomorrow’s engineers, he served as visiting professor, adviser and mentor at more than two dozen universities. To increase the participation of African Americans in the environmental profession, he was instrumental in creating the Malcolm Pirnie/United Negro College fund Scholars Program, now in its third year. Dr. Busch is survived by his three children and their families, Jordan and Sue Busch of Wayland, Mass., Jeffrey Busch and Stephen Davis of new York; Lisa Busch and Davey Lubin of Sitka, Alaska, and three grandchildren, Molly and Alex Busch and Celia Lubin. Dr. Busch is also survived by his sister Hope Goodheart of New Rochelle, N.Y. Memorial service for family and friends will be Sunday, Aug. 1, at 10:30 a.m., at Temple B’nai Chaim in Georgetown. Contributions may be made in his memory to the Nature Conservancy, Connecticut Chapter, 55 High Street, Middletown 06457 or AmeriCares Free Clinic, 161 Cherry Street, New Canaan 06840. |