Solomons Lab And Volunteer Are Honored

Facility, Docent Lauded For Years of Service

The Chesapeake Biological Laboratory in Solomons received an award this week for its decades-long partnership with the National Weather Service. At the same time, the lab recognized one of its own.

Ronald Elwell, 78, of Solomons received a lifetime achievement award Monday from the lab and several distinguished volunteer awards from local politicians for his work and leadership as a docent.

Margaret Palmer, director of the lab, told Elwell that she and her staff have "tremendous appreciation for the spirit you have brought CBL, teaching the issues of the Chesapeake Bay and the natural resources of the area."

Elwell was one of 22 docents who helped start the volunteer program at the lab, which is part of the University of Maryland's Center for Environmental Science, in 1998. He has logged more than 3,000 volunteer hours at the visitors center, recruiting and training docents and performing other duties.

"We've had over 100 docents now," said Elwell, who lives in the Asbury-Solomons retirement community. "A lot of volunteers thought what they were doing was worthwhile."

Elwell and his wife, Mary Ellen, said they always had an interest in education and volunteering. The two married in 1952 and lived in Baltimore. For the next two years, Elwell walked to the edge of Baltimore and hitchhiked to get to the University of Maryland's College Park campus to complete his undergraduate degree.

"You do things, and then you look back on them when you are 70 and say, 'How did I do that?' " said Elwell, who wears a neck brace and uses a cane because of a fall in October.

After two years in the Air Force, Elwell received a master's degree from John's Hopkins University. He was a teacher and administrator for 35 years.

Elwell taught in Baltimore schools and worked in the city's human development program. He was the supervisor of health education for the Maryland State Department of Education and later for Howard County schools. ("Sex education, in the olden days, when it was controversial," his wife said.)

In retirement, Elwell oversaw student teachers at Western Maryland College until 1996, when he and his wife moved to Solomons.

"Both my wife and I grew up and felt you should contribute to the general society," said Elwell, who is battling a recurrence of lung cancer.

"We've always believed in volunteer work," his wife said. "If you want to be busy and don't care about the money, you can do worthwhile things," she said.

Elwell said he looked into volunteering at the Calvert Marine Museum but chose to work at the lab. "I could be more help here," he said.

The docent-led public program at the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory has had increases in visitors every year and has led to similar programs at other U-Md. labs, Elwell said.

The marine lab in Solomons, founded in 1925 and the oldest state-sponsored lab on the East Coast, received a 75-Year Honored Institution Award on Monday from the National Weather Service for its partnership with the agency.

The lab has shared data with the weather service and has the longest record of temperature changes and other climate-related data in the Chesapeake Bay, Palmer said.

David Secor, a fisheries biologist at the lab, has used the data, which span about 78 years, to prove that the bay's temperature has increased by more than 3 degrees Fahrenheit over the years. That change suggests a larger warming trend to come, he said.