Honorary Member Awards
An ASFPM honorary member is granted lifetime rights and privileges of membership in the association. It shall be someone who has attained eminence in the field of flood hazard mitigation in government, research, education, law or any other facet of the field.
We haven’t given out an honorary member award since 2017, so this is an exciting year because we’re actually honoring three individuals.
Merrie Inderfurth
Merrie has been with ASFPM since 1992, serving as our legislative liaison in Washington, DC. She’s retiring this summer after dedicating a lifetime to flood risk management policy and, in many ways, ASFPM.
Merrie worked for Congress for 17 years for Rep. Lindy Boggs from Louisiana, who took over the seat of her late husband Hale Boggs, the primary author the NFIP. As such, Merrie was heavily involved in flood risk management and the NFIP. We at ASFPM visited often with Rep Boggs and Merrie in their DC office. After spending three years in Russia where her husband Rick was an ABC correspondent, Merrie and Rick returned to the United States. At that same time, ASFPM was seeking a Washington liaison and we hired Merrie—one of the smartest moves we ever made.
Merrie is one of those rare creatures on Capitol Hill who never disrespects any member or Hill or agency staffer. She holds information in confidence, if asked to do so, and everyone on the Hill knows they can call on her for a reality check of proposed legislation to better understand how the legislation would actually work on the ground at the local and state level. In 2007, ASFPM awarded Merrie the Goddard-White Award. As Merrie retires, we will miss her terribly, but wish her and Rick all the best in the years ahead.
Rebecca Quinn, CFM
Rebecca Quinn has been involved with ASFPM since the early days and served on the board of directors in the 1980’s as a regional director. She also served as a legislative officer for the association from 1989-2010; where she was instrumental in tracking federal legislation and helping draft expert testimony.
But most of you probably know Rebecca as the author of the Floodplain Manager’s Notebook in ASFPM’s Insider newsletter. For decades this must-read column has provided expert guidance to local floodplain managers – distilling complex Federal rules and regulations into easy-to-understand language for meeting the necessary NFIP standards.
Rebecca was awarded an ASFPM Pioneer Award in 2008 and the prestigious Goddard-White Award in 2000. The Goddard-white Award goes to individuals who have had a national impact carrying forward the goals and objectives of floodplain management in the nation and is ASFPM highest award.
French Wetmore, CFM
Next, as one of the original “Fab Five” co-founders of ASFPM in 1976, French Wetmore has been at the forefront of floodplain management for his entire adult life.
French served as chief of local floodplain programs for the Illinois Division of Water Resources and State Flood Insurance Coordinator, 1976 – 1988. It was for during this time that Illinois was named the first recipient of ASFPM’s Tom Lee State Award, which recognizes an outstanding floodplain management program or activity at the state level. He’s been collecting ASFPM Awards ever since, having received the Goddard-White Award in 1991, the John Ivey Award in 2007, and the John Shaeffer Award in 2021.
Before his state work, he was a city administrator. He served ASFPM in a number of capacities, including chair of the Board of Directors, chair of the Flood Mitigation Committee and president of CBOR.
French now owns his own floodplain management consulting firm where he is actively assisting communities with their floodplain management ordinances and administration, preparing pre- and post-disaster mitigation plans and programs, and more. He is the author of many guides for local officials, floodproofing handbooks, and planning references.
