Awards & Scholarships

Elmore C. Grim retired in 1983 as Commissioner With the Commonwealth of Kentucky, Department of Resources and Environmental Protection, Division of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement. He began his career in 1939 as a forester and manager in the wood and lumber industry. after receiving a B.S. in Forestry from The Pennsylvania State University. From 1958, when he joined Kentucky's Department for Natural Resources and Environmental Protection, until his retirement, he held highly visible and influential positions in that agency and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Between 1968 and 1976 Mr. Grim assisted several states on matters relating to reclamation of surface mines. water quality problems, sedimentation and erosion control, and environmental legislation. As the Surface Mining Specialist for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from 1971 to 1976, his expertise-was tapped by agencies such as the Tennessee Valley Authority and the U.S. Bureau of Mines, and by task forces in the federal government, particularly during the drafting of the 1977 Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act.

Mr. Grim has participated actively as an instructor on strip mine reclamation for public and private agencies and has published extensively on the subject of surface mine environmental planning and management. His Environmental Protection in Surface Mining of Coal, published in 197 4, is one of the most widely referenced sources of environmental conservation in surface mining.