The late Melville H. Cohee

A longtime friend of the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, Melville ‘Mel’ Cohee is one of the early conservationists in Wisconsin and the United States. Mel assisted the University of Wisconsin-Platteville in developing its Soil and Water Conservation Society student chapter in 1966, now the oldest chapter in the Midwest and the second oldest in the United States.

Mel attended Purdue University where he obtained his B.S.A. and M.S.A degreed from the Purdue School of Agriculture in 1931 and 1932 respectively. While at Purdue, he was active in three honorary societies: Alpha Zeta, Purdue Ceres and Kappi Delta Pi. While doing his Ph.D. studies in economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1932 and 1933, he was research assistant in the UW Agriculture Economics Department, carrying out the first ever land use, water and wind, and soil erosion economic field studies. In 1933, he helped develop the first ever watershed soil erosion and flood control program for the Coon Creek Watershed, Coon Valley, Wisconsin. In 1936, he moved into the Soil Conservation Service, Washington, D.C. office in its Erosion Control Practices Division. In mid-1938, he traveled and researched past conservation laws, procedures and operations in seven central European countries to gain experiences about their governmental and land owners cooperative conservation endeavors for potential application in the U.S. He as chief of the Program Procedures and Project Plans Division of the USDA Soil Conservation Service from 1939 until 1945, heading its planning for the entire U.S. During his remaining professional career, he was the SCS as an agriculture economist, serving nine Midwestern states in planning for flood protection, including river basin planning. He was one of the four men assigned by USDA to plan for a new program to make proper and full use of natural resources in the Northern Great Lake Region. He did consultant economics work with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. He was a senior economist consultant with FAO of United Nations. Mel is the author of about 50 technical publications and articles. He was active in professional and civic organization as a charter, lifetime, and fellow award status membership in the Soil and Water Conservation Society. He was a member of the Issak Walton League of America. Mel passed away in 2001.

Roger H. Cohee, Mel’s son, is a 1963 graduate of the University of Wisconsin School of Agriculture. In light of his historical connection to the university and in honor of the Cohee family’s relations with the university and with natural resources conservation, Mr. Melville Cohee established the Roger M. and Melville H. Cohee Student Leader Conservation Scholarship to support students who care about conservation.