Fred Spilhaus announced his plans to step down as Executive Director of the American Geophysical Union in June 2009. Fred's been with AGU since 1967 and director since 1970.
I bumped into Fred at the GSA meeting in Houston earlier this month and with his usual smile he sounded bemused that the coming fall meeting of AGU would have 13,000 abstracts and 16,000 attendees. Fred beamed when he told me membership was at 55,000 [right, from EOS Oct 28 issue].
There's a fascinating mini-history of AGU in the new issue of EOS. The first Fall meeting was held in San Francisco in 1968, the same year that dues increased from $16 to $20. They are still $20 today.
Great job, Fred!