New lectureship will spotlight natural resources and the environment

At an American Foresters Society meeting in San Francisco, Professor Emeritus John Hosner forgot his notes. Usually a meticulous planner, the honorary founding dean of the College of Natural Resources and Environment had to speak off the cuff about the field he had committed his life to serving.

The results were astonishing.

“The responses I heard that evening were incredible,” said Tenna Hosner, John Hosner’s wife of more than 40 years. “John’s passion and energy about the college came through, and it was contagious. Afterward, everyone came up asking me where this version of John Hosner had been hiding all these years.”

That passion – reflective of John Hosner’s deep commitment to the field of natural resources – is what Tenna Hosner would like to see echoed in a new lecture series that she has endowed in her husband’s name. Starting this academic year, the Dr. John F. Hosner Distinguished Lecture Endowment will bring leaders to the college who can connect natural resources science and research with challenges affecting communities both locally and globally.

“John was a person who wanted to make a difference in the world,” Tenna Hosner said. “When he invited speakers to the college each year, he selected them carefully. I remember being electrified by some of the speakers he invited, and I believe that this lectureship will honor his memory and legacy.”

A legacy of steady determination

John Hosner joined the Virginia Tech faculty as a forestry professor and head of the newly established Department of Forestry and Wildlife – then situated in what was then the College of Agriculture – in 1961.

“I can tell you that the No. 1 priority for John in building the department was to get the cream of the crop of professors,” said Tenna Hosner. “He’d call schools and ask them to name their best graduate students and he’d bring them to the department and hire the best ones as professors.”

His efforts saw student enrollment in the department grow from 72 to 750, while its faculty grew from four to 62 by the time the College of Forestry and Wildlife – now the College of Natural Resources and Environment - was founded in 1992. Since then, the college has routinely ranked as one of the best places to study natural resources in the country.

Donald Orth, who worked with John Hosner during those formative years, remembers him as a visionary.

“Hosner was instrumental in nurturing what is now a top college in natural resources and environment from the small department he led in 1961,” said Orth, who was recently honored with emeritus status. “His unfaltering vision was an inspiration to all who knew him.”

Tenna Hosner saw John Hosner’s determination firsthand.

“John was the love of my life, and every day I saw how hard he worked to create a college,” said Tenna Hosner, a special education teacher in area schools for more than 20 years. “I had never been around someone who was after something so significant in life, and I wanted to support that and help every way that I could.”

That drive led to numerous accomplishments for John Hosner, including a fellowship with the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Gifford Pinchot Medal, the highest honor awarded by the Society of American Foresters. The John F. Hosner Legacy Fund continues to support students and programming in the college, while honoring Hosner’s vision.

His drive was also reflected in his athletic ambitions. An accomplished runner who established numerous age-group records for 1500 meter and 1-mile races, his efforts were highlighted in a 1985 issue of Sports Illustrated.

“John would know the people he had to chase in any race, the people who he had to target for records,” said Tenna Hosner. “Sometimes that was a mistake. I remember one race where he and the record holder went back and forth the whole time, only to find out at the end that some unknown runner in their age group had passed both of them.”

Paul Winistorfer, dean of the college, celebrated John Hosner’s contributions to the college by putting a resolution forward to the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors recognizing Hosner as the honorary founding dean of the college, which was announced on the 25th anniversary of the college’s founding.

“We rejoice in John’s vision and commitment that laid the foundation of this college,” said Winistorfer. “He was a rare individual: driven in all things, a bit impatient of those around him, and committed in a way that left no room for second guessing.”

Tenna Hosner said that her husband, while driven, understood that the key to accomplishing something as significant as founding a college required adaptability, and a knowledge of when to push, and when to try a different route.

“An important piece to John was that he saw and understood the politics of the academic world, and he didn’t hold grudges,” said Tenna Hosner. “He wouldn’t take ‘no,’ but he’d back up for a moment and then approach the goal from a different direction. That proved to be incredibly valuable in allowing him to accomplish all he did.”

Carrying the natural resources connection forward

Winistorfer hopes that the lectureship will not only honor the legacy of a special and accomplished academic leader, but also elevate the work of the college and its importance to Virginia Tech, the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the global community.  

“Natural resources are critical to human survival on this planet, and this lectureship will bring focus to the challenges and opportunities ahead,” said Winistorfer. “I want to ensure that we bring global thought leaders to campus who can inspire us with a positive message, a message of hope for the future, a message of resiliency, and a message of success. Natural resources offer the planet hope for a better, healthier, and robust world ahead.”

For Tenna Hosner, an endowed lectureship is a valuable way to carry John Hosner’s vision forward to the next generation of natural resources professionals while also serving as a conduit between the campus and the Blacksburg community that she continues to call home.

“The camaraderie in the college is priceless, and it’s something that John would celebrate,” said Tenna Hosner, who still lives in Blacksburg. “I remember the pride he took in bringing to the campus speakers who could speak not only to the academic community, but to the citizens in Blacksburg as well. I look forward to hearing the first speaker.”