A forester by training and a committed environmentalist (Chris served as conservation director and acting executive director of American Rivers during the mid-1980s), Chris first engaged with ASFPM at a multi-objective management workshop in Colorado Springs in 1989.  Connections there led to active participation in ASFPM discussions on how to broaden the constituency for floodplain management.  Leaders in the Philadelphia office of RTCA had been working for several years on the concept of “multi-objective management” of river corridors, emphasizing greenway planning for floodplains and bringing in diverse partner.  There was a natural fit with ASFPM’s goals at the time.

At the invitation of the association, Chris was a plenary speaker at the ASFPM’ Annual Conference in Denver in 1991 and his message about the importance of broadening the constituency for floodplains to include recreationists, natural history organizations, and historic preservation interests   was well received.  Chris continued to participate in subsequent conferences as a presenter and moderator.

When the historic floods of 1993 hit the Midwest, RTCA was called on to assist the states and communities with post-flood recovery and planning.  With ASFPM and others, RTCA hosted a large post-flood recovery workshop in Davenport, IA.  Chris brought about a dozen RTCA staff members who helped counsel several hundred community members on how to access the myriad of federal programs which could help with their recovery, using as a model a “patchwork quilt”.  [Note:  Davenport was also the scene of Chris’s sole successful gambling experience where, on a riverboat one evening, Larry Larson coached Chris through a game of Blackjack and Chris came away with $50 in winnings].  After the Iowa workshop, Chris was instrumental in getting a sizable contract with FEMA to bring RTCA staff to Iowa on a long-term basis to assist individual communities in greenway planning for their recently flooded areas. Cherokee, IA was the largest of these pilot projects.

RTCA under Chris’s leadership continued over the ensuing years to support communities both pre- and post-flood in their efforts to use multi-objective management techniques to reduce costs of future flood damage while creating community amenities like parks, trails, and non-structural recreational facilities.  Chris personally worked with communities in Louisiana, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and California, and his staff formed a nationwide cadre of planners working to advance innovative, low-cost flood mitigation approaches.  Chris also brought the National Park Service imprimatur and perspectives to the Interagency Task Force on Floodplain Management, on which he served for a number of years.

In 1995, Chris was very honored to be named a Lifetime Honorary Member of ASFPM.  Over time, however, his career moved on to different responsibilities. and, after serving with the US Forest Service as its Director of Wilderness and Wild and Scenic Rivers, he retired in 2011.  He has devoted much of his retirement to the preservation of the historic Washington Canoe Club on the banks of the Potomac River, a boathouse which, ironically, floods almost every year.  His pictorial history of the 120-year-old club, Washington Canoe Club, was published by Arcadia Press in 2020.

ASFPM is grateful for the energy and enthusiasm Chris brought in helping broaden the field of floodplain management to incorporate more non-structural approaches and diverse partnerships as well as the incorporation of natural and beneficial values into all planning for floodplains.