Freed: Not now. These are new concepts from the laboratory. Our society hasn’t felt the need to make them feasible before now, but con tinued research may well accom plish this end. Question: Dr. Freed, you men tioned the Lord a while ago, and I happen to know that you teach Sunday school at the First Baptist Church here in Corvallis. What has been your own Christian experi ence? Freed: Yes, I love teaching Sun day school; right now I'm teaching the Book of Ezekiel to an adult class. As to my own experience, very briefly, although I was raised in a Christian home, Christ didn't mean a great deal to me, as a youngster. Then, at seventeen, I suffered the accident in which I almost lost my life. I was working on a remote island, cutting wood, when I fell against the buzz-saw. The saw severed my right arm at the shoulder and cut deeply into my body. Three hours later when I ar rived at the hospital, the doctor gave me only a slim chance to live. During the crisis that followed, it was as if Christ Himself were there speaking comfort and assurance to me. Later, in college, the challenge of unbelieving professors caused me to evaluate my faith and to assert it even more strongly than before. Still later, I made a full commit ment of my life to Christ, took Him as my Senior Partner, and dedicat ed my career to Him. Question: You seem to be a man who is excited about his work. You like research, don’t you? Freed: It’s fun, even exciting. You never know what unexpected benefits may result. Its real appeal, though, is in the feeling that at least in some small way, you have really helped mankind. Question: Do you feel like sort of a “speckled bird” by being a be lieving professor on a secular aca demic campus? Freed: Not really. We probably have as large a group of evangeli cal Christians on our staff as at any University in the country — cer- THE KING’S BUSINESS
Some Answers to
Pollution
by Stanley € . Baldwin
(An interview with Dr. Virgil H. Freed, Head of the Department of Agricultural Chemistry and Director of the Environmental Health Sci ences Center, Oregon State Uni versity.) Question: “Dr. Freed, there has been a great deal of talk in recent years about the problems of air and water pollution and, more re cently, about the disposal of solid wastes. From the newspapers, I un derstand you are conducting re search in this field.” Freed: “Yes, I have been inter ested in problems of environment ever since I began in agricultural chem istry over twenty-five-years ago. By 1961 when I became de partment head, I felt even more concern. We have had several fed eral grants to research the problem, and more recently, one of the na tion’s six Environmental Health Sci ences Centers has been established here.” Question: And you have a whole staff engaged in research? Freed: Yes, we have about eighty- five people involved, in c lu d in g twenty-five graduate students. Question: I understand your work is mostly in the field of solid wastes. Freed: That’s right— garbage! My
wife calls me a garbologist. Question: I believe it was former Interior Secretary Udall who said that we might be remembered as the generation that sent a man to the moon while standing knee deep in garbage. It is, apparently, a really serious problem. Freed: Yes, and my own concern is two-fold. We must not only solve the problem of what to do with our wastes, but I believe we must do it in a way that will conserve our resources. If the Lord tarries, we may run out of some of our min eral resources in this country be fore the end of the century. Question: Your desire to both conserve resources and solve the waste disposal problem must have something to do with this “ recy cling” concept I’m beginning to hear about. Freed: Right. Here in our labora tories we are experimenting in mak ing useful products from wastes. Take waste paper for example. This is a basic plant product. We can convert it into sheet plastics for construction. We can make a liquid fuel from it. We can make fertiliz ers, oil, feed for livestock, even food for human consumption. Question: That’s amazing. But are those ideas economically feasi ble?
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